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Preamble
There are
many legal issues of concern to men living with
the physical condition of transsexualism,
transgendered people, and their partners and
families.
In Australia,
men who experience transsexualism are afforded
many of the same legal rights and
responsibilities as other Australian men,
however much legislation remains inadequate or
inconsistent.
In relation to
legal issues, education remains the primary
objective for FTM Australia. Education
includes informing our own community, mainstream
society, government and non-government service
providers, politicians, and medical and legal
professionals - as to the biological nature and
social reality of transsexualism.
FTM Australia
focuses upon males living with the physical
condition of transsexualism. Transgender-focused
groups, are more knowledgeable about transgender
issues and better represent the concerns of
transgender people.
The shaping or
reshaping of legislation and government policy
relevant to males who experience transsexualism
(including that which pertains to all Australian
men) should consider and adopt appropriate
recommendations from FTM Australia
(MTRA).
Rachael
Wallbank's paper Difference
on Trial: Transsexualism in Family Law and
Property Relationships
Litigation
delivered to the 11th National Family Law
Conference; Beyond the Horison; 26th -30th
September 2004 has informed much of this
position statement.
FTM
Australia Position
- Language used
to describe men who have experienced variation
in human sexual formation (such as people,
adults and children (minors) living with
transsexualism) be affirmative;
- Men affected by
transsexualism, to be diagnosed as experiencing
transsexualism without being diagnosed as
suffering a mental illness or disorder such as
Gender Dysphoria and Gender Identity
Disorder;
- Men affected by
transsexualism able to produce medical evidence
that they experience transsexualism and are
medically prohibited from undergoing sex
affirmation (re-assignment) treatment to be able
to apply for and obtain a
‘compassionate’ re-assignment of their
legal sex;
- Men with
transsexualism to be accorded equality of legal
rights and medical treatment with others who
experience intersexual conditions; such as in
respect of the re-assignment or correction of an
individual’s legal sex;
- Men affected by
transsexualism, who have legally affirmed their
male sex, must be accorded the same rights and
responsibilities, equally and unconditionally,
as those of other Australian men;
- Men affected by
transsexualism to receive medical treatment for
the condition funded by Medicare;
- Minors with
transsexualism (and their parents) to receive
personal, medical and legal support for the
affirmation of their innate sex so as to be able
upon diagnosis to promptly (without court
approval) undergo various non-surgical aspects
of sex affirmation treatment so as to forestall
the development of inappropriate and harmful
secondary sexual characteristics and to enable
such children to acquire physical
characteristics appropriate to their affirmed
sex;
- Additionally,
minors (through their parents, if necessary)
living in their affirmed sex be able to apply
for and obtain ‘Provisional’
re-assignment of their legal sex irrespective of
their surgical status;
- Birth
certificate legislation to enable people who
live with the physical condition of
transsexualism (who have undergone sex
affirmation surgery) to correct their legal sex
must be uniform across Australia.The Standing
Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) should
introduce uniform State and Territory
Birth’s Deaths and Marriages
legislation dealing with the reassignment of the
legal sex of individuals who have experienced
transsexualism and all other intersex
conditions;
- Birth
certificate legislation for men who live with
the physical condition of transsexualism (who by
definition wish to under sex affirmation surgery
for its own sake), not legally compel men to
undergo experimental, life-threatening and
incapacitating imitative genital
reconstruction to achieve legal affirmation
of legal-sex;
- Men of
transsexual background be permitted to
participate in competitive sport in their
affirmed sex;
- Men of
transsexual background to otherwise live a full
and fulfilling life in their physically affirmed
sex on the same terms as others of that sex in
respect of such issues as superannuation and
other forms of insurance without
discrimination;
- Men of
transsexual background (one who has undergone
irreversible sex affirmation treatment so
as to physically affirm his sex) to have their
birth certificate (or legal sex) altered
so as to accurately reflect their physically
affirmed sex and sexual identity without the
precondition of having to end an existing
marriage or be judged by a panel of
‘experts’, and so as to provide for
full and unconditionally equal rights in their
affirmed sex; and
- Legislation be
compassionate and not impose unnecessary
hardship on men who have experienced variations
in their sexual formation.
Related
Reading
—
Gurney, K.
(2004). Twisting
the Knife: Discrimination in the
Law.
Deakin Law Review 9(2) 339.
—
Wallbank, R.
(2004). Re
Kevin in
Perspective.
Deakin Law Review 9(2) 461
—
Wallbank, R.
(2004). Difference
on Trial: Transsexualism in Family Law and Property
Relationships
Litigation.
Delivered to the 11th National Family Law
Conference; Beyond the Horison; 26th -30th
September 2004.
—
Wallbanks
Legal
Position
Statement Written January 2004
Position Statement Revised 14 April
2007
Citation
— Legals - FTMA Position Statement.
(2004).
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