Page 1011 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 2013
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conforms with their perception of their gender. Self-perception is not the only difficulty with which transsexual persons must contend. They encounter legal and social difficulties, due in part to the official record of their gender at birth being at variance with the gender identity which they have assumed.
In 2003, the government in the ACT undertook a review of “all ACT legislation to identify provisions that discriminate against same-sex couples or against transgender or intersex people”. The government’s report on the audit stated that the review identified legislation that potentially discriminates against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and which may need amending.
Following this review, in February 2004 the then Assembly passed the Sexuality Discrimination Legislation Amendment Act 2004. The purpose of that act was to remove discrimination relating to sexuality and marital status in 26 separate statutes.
Recognising that further work was necessary to address discrimination against the sex and gender diverse community, in early 2011 I referred the issue of legal recognition of transgender and intersex people in the ACT to the Law Reform Advisory Council for its consideration and report. In particular, I asked the council to inquire into steps necessary to provide for legal recognition with regard to the existing operation of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1997.
Following extensive research and public consultation with the community, the council presented its final report to me in June last year. The significance of the legal recognition for sex and gender diverse people is clearly set out in that report, which states at page 13:
The import of legal recognition is that a person’s stated sex and gender identity is formally recognised by the Territory, and can be relied on by the person as a definitive statement of their sex and gender identity in all circumstances, entitling the person to access services, benefits and treatment in accordance with that sex and gender identity.
The council went on to make 35 recommendations aimed at improving recognition of sex and gender diverse members of our community. In summary, the council recommended that the existing legal framework for the recognition of sex and gender diverse people be updated, the requirement of sexual reassignment surgery to change sex on a birth certificate be removed, data collection systems be reviewed to reflect the existence of intersex people, and information and support services for sex and gender diverse people and their families be improved.
I am pleased to advise the Assembly today that the government is supporting, either in full or in part, 16 of these recommendations. The government is supporting in principle nine recommendations and noting eight, largely due to the need for further policy consideration or assessment as to resource allocation.
The government does not support recommendation 5, which relates to a further audit of ACT laws and practices with the intention of removing whenever possible a requirement that a person identify their sex and gender. In the government’s view, such an audit would be expensive and time consuming. The government believes that
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