Transcript
— REBECCA CARMODY: Now to a dilemma that
affects many transsexual people: the case of a woman in
Western Australia has brought to light the shadowy legal
status endured by the thousands of Australians who feel
they are not the sex they were born to. The federal
Government has declared the woman who has not had sex
change surgery must be described as a man on official
records - that is in spite of Centrelink officially
calling her a woman for five years. All States have
legislation allowing individuals to change their sex on
birth certificates, but they can only apply if they have
had sex change surgery, and that is cost-preventive for
many. Mick O'Donnell reports on the legal limbo faced by
transsexual Australians.
ROBERTA MANSFIELD:
I'm a woman.
MICK O'DONNELL:
How do you know that?
ROBERTA MANSFIELD:
Because I have known since I was 15 that I was different.
When I realised that I was different, I changed my life
to try to be that woman.
MICK O'DONNELL:
Five years ago, Roberta Mansfield, though born male,
registered with Centrelink as a woman.
ROBERTA MANSFIELD:
This card says I'm a female; Centrelink files say
that I'm a female – their own letters.
MICK O'DONNELL:
For five years each fortnight she received her disability
pension with a slip acknowledging her sex with
“f” for female. Then out of the blue in March
this year, that changed.
ROBERTA MANSFIELD:
They decided, oops, as they’ve stated in a
letter of theirs, they’ve realised that somebody has
made a mistake -
PETER WARD:
“Incorrectly”.
ROBERTA MANSFIELD:
- “incorrectly” actually changed my sexuality
from male to female.
HANK JORGON
(Centrelink): As soon as we identified the mistake,
which was at our counter, our counter officer alerted Ms
Mansfield to the fact there was a problem.
ROBERTA MANSFIELD:
Now that they’ve realised with their investigations
that somebody did that against their own legislation, now
it is time that I have no choice but to be a
male.
MICK O'DONNELL: So
Centrelink this month sent a letter apologising to
Roberta Mansfield, but insisting on its clerical sex
change.
HANK JORGON:
It’s not a question of Centrelink changing its mind.
We are required by law to register an individual’s
gender as it appears on their birth certificate, unless
there’s proof of surgery.
MICK O'DONNELL: Do
you want to have gender reassignment surgery?
ROBERTA MANSFIELD:
I would do anything in my life to have that.
PETER WARD: I live
a life with my partner, Roberta Mansfield, Ms - not male.
She's a female in my eyes. Accept it
Australia.
MICK O'DONNELL:
The problem for Roberta Mansfield is that here in
Perth, as in every State and Territory in Australia, the
law insists that physical anatomy defines sex.
ROBERTA MANSFIELD:
I hardly have any money these days to live and they
expect me now to have my operation done with the snap of
a finger.
RACHEL WALLBANK
(Transsexualism Activist and Lawyer): I think it is
difficult for people to understand that when you
experience a condition like this, it is so uncomfortable
on a minute-by-minute basis that you will take your life
unless you receive the treatment.
MICK O'DONNELL:
Rachel Wallbank, herself a woman who has made the
transition from malehood, is the country's most prominent
specialist on transsexual law. <http://www.wallbanks.com/>
RACHEL WALLBANK:
If you are unmarried and if you are an adult, then
you can apply in the various States under the births,
death, and marriages legislation to have your legal sex
reassigned.
MICK O'DONNELL: In
January, Victoria joined the other States in allowing
transsexual people to change their birth certificates but
only after gender reassignment surgery.
RACHEL RAE: You
have that bit of paper to say “Rachel Wendy Rae,
born female,” with no reference whatsoever to ever
having been a male, is, as I said, the icing on the cake;
it is the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle in my life.
MICK O'DONNELL:
Rachel Rae was among the first to use the new Victorian
law to change her birth certificate.
RACHEL RAE: A lot
of people cannot understand it, but it got to the stage
that if I had not done what I did, I would not be sitting
here right now.
MICK O'DONNELL:
Rachel Rae said like many transsexuals, she had come
close to suicide because families and friends refused to
accept her.
RACHEL RAE: I had
my operation two and a half years ago when I was 56, and
it is the most wonderful two and a half years I’ve
had in my life - absolutely fabulous.
RACHEL WALLBANK:
It can cost up to $30 000 to $50 000 for the total
treatment in the case of females with transsexualism to
have their body hair removed by the electrolysis to have
hormone treatment, to have other ancillary treatments and
then to undergo sex affirmation surgery.
MICK O'DONNELL:
Activist and lawyer Rachel Wallbank believes that
somebody like Roberta Mansfield should have the cost of
transition surgery met by Medicare or state
hospitals.
RACHEL WALLBANK:
It’s a fundamental breach of these people's rights
to condemn them to a lack of treatment for a chronic
medical condition simply because they lack the money or
the fortunes of life that would enable them to find the
money.
MICK O'DONNELL:
Rachel Wallbank is now fighting the case of a young boy
in New South Wales whose parents believe he's really a
girl. They want her to have hormone treatment to delay
puberty before reaching the age at which to make the big
decision to change legal sex.
RACHEL WALLBANK:
These children should have some preliminary legal
documentation that allows them to sit their exams and be
identified at school in that affirmed sex in which they
are living.
MICK O'DONNELL:
For the estimated 5 000 Australians who have found
themselves born into the wrong sex, there’s a long
way to go before the complicated web of state and federal
bureaucracy fully accepts them.
RACHEL WALLBANK:
All this legislation enables people like me to do, people
with transsexualism, is to live a normal full and
fulfilling life to the extent that medical treatment and
the law will allow.
