TWISTING THE KNIFE- DISCRIMINATION IN THE LAW

[Of the many different variations that can occur in human sexual formation, trans-
sexualism no doubt remains the least understood by the wider Australian commu-
nity. As a consequence, the process of attaining human rights to legal status,
privacy, dignity and freedom from discrimination for those who experience this
unusual condition has been a slow and sometimes frustrating one. The article seeks
to introduce the reader to some of the more recent developments in the interna-
tional jurisprudence of transsexualism and the underlying medical evidence that
has supported them. It also offers criticism of the belated attempt by the State of
Victoria, with the Births, Deaths & Marriages Registration (Amendment) Act 2004,
to establish certain statutory rights in this regard. While the legislation was en-
acted with the stated and very laudable purpose of providing for the correction of
birth records on the Register of Births of those people with transsexualism who
have altered their phenotypic sex by hormonal medication and surgery, the article
argues it has also served to remove other equally important rights already won and
proposes that a final remedy will only be found, as on previous occasions, in the
courts.] *
LLB Candidate, School of Law, Deakin University.

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

- T S Elliot, The Hollow Men (1925)

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