Family Court,
Australia — An Australian court has allowed a
13-year-old girl to begin treatment to become a boy.
<http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/family_ct/2004/297.html>
In a landmark judgment,
Family Court Chief Justice Nicholson described testimony
that painted the picture of a child that had lived as a
boy from a young age, shunning dresses and dolls for
tanks and swords.
The child's primary
school principal told Chief Justice Nicholson that the
child had worn nappies because he refused to use the
girls' toilets.
"When he went on
camp, for the grade six camp, (he) did Indian arm
wrestles with all the boys and, of course, beat
everybody," the principal told the family
court.
He joined the cricket
team and refused to line up with girls at school
assemblies.
The judge has agreed to
allow a girl, known to the court as "Alex", to take
oestrogen and progestogen and, at 16 years, testosterone.
The testosterone will allow Alex to have irreversible
effects on his voice, facial and body hair, muscular
development and an enlarged clitoris.
Since the beginning of
this year, Alex, who was diagnosed as having gender
identity dysphoria, has been on a daily contraceptive
pill that stops menstruation.
Normally, a person under
18 cannot have medical intervention that may reduce their
capacity to reproduce without court
involvement.
Alex cannot be
identified, but he is estranged from his mother and lives
with his aunt. His father is dead. He is under the
guardianship of a government department and it brought
the case to the family court with the support of his aunt
and his school. The matter was brought to the court after
Alex began to develop suicidal and self-harm
tendencies.
"The evidence
speaks with one voice as to the distress that Alex is
genuinely suffering in a body which feels alien to him
and disgusts him, particularly due to menstruation,"
Chief Justice Nicholson said in his finding.
"It is also consistent
as to his unwavering and profound wish to present as
the male he feels himself to be."
Chief Justice Nicholson
heard the case in an inquisitorial rather than
adversarial format because it would be in the best
interests of the child. He heard evidence in a closed
conference room. He also allowed that Alex could change
his name on his birth certificate to a boy's name. He
said Alex would not be eligible for surgery until he was
18 years old.
Consultant ethicist
Nicholas Tonti-Filippini questioned the family court's
right to hear the case and called on Federal and State
attorneys-general to review the case and take it to a
higher court.
TransGender Victoria
co-convener Lauren Christopher applauded the decision
saying that adolescence was the worst time for many
transgender people committing suicide.
