Response to Katrina Fox's "same-sex marriage" claims

sent to SX News 7 October 2007]

The report by Katrina Fox, “Australia’ first legally married lesbians” (SX- 6 October 2007) does no-one a great favour.

Katrina unduly raises the hopes of those who are gay or lesbian and who earnestly seek the right to marry their loved ones, but are still denied that by the proscription against same-sex marriage that has always been enshrined in the Marriage Act. Howard’s recent amendment did nothing to alter the law in that regard, but it certainly reinforced the inherent discrimination.

And she adds to the confusion over the legal status as to sex of men and women who have completed the treatment for transsexualism, including sex affirmation surgery.

It has been quite clear since the Family Court settled the question in 2001, in the case of Re Kevin, that the sex of a person for the purpose of marriage is their sex at the time the marriage was entered into. Grace was legally a male when she married her partner even though she is now a female for all other purposes except her birth certificate. It is this issue of her birth certificate which is most deserving of further discussion.

All the states have similar provisions in their Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Acts allowing persons who have completed sex affirmation to obtain a birth certificate that reflects their contemporaneous circumstances. That is, except those who are under 18 years or are “not unmarried”.

A woman of transsexual background known only as “AB” was recently unsuccessful on a technicality in her application to the Federal Court to have the “unmarried” requirement declared invalid. Yet the Full Court found her to be a woman for all other purposes including for an action in sex discrimination under the Commonwealth Act.

The AAT pointed to the ludicrousness of having documents of identification that do not reflect the reality and made the Commonwealth Minister issue a corrected pasport. It’s time state Attorneys-Generals did the same with birth certificates.

Kaz,

St Andrews, VICTORIA