Allow transgender people to self-ID their legal gender
Petitioner:
Ms Monica Harrison
| Member:
Leong, Jenny
| No. of Signatories:
7,216
| Date closed:
17/08/2023
To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly,
The New South Wales Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages requires that transgender people must have "undergone a sex affirmation procedure" and be reviewed by experts to change their birth certificate. The current Act unnecessarily medicalises the recognition of a person’s lived identity. In addition, surgery is not always appropriate for trans people and can be inaccessible and unaffordable as Medicare does not cover it.
Transgender people in NSW are forced to pay to prove their identity to a Gender Recognition Panel. This process is humiliating, outdated and unnecessary. Having your gender recognised by a Gender Recognition Panel requires pointless expenses - whether requiring trans people to pay administration fees and having to go through the lengthy sex affirmation procedure application, wait times & medical system or paying to attend a private clinic to receive the required evidence as well as paying to be seen by the panel.
We seek to allow transgender and non-binary people to be free to self-nominate their sex as male, female or many other non-binary descriptors of their choice. This petition asks the Legislative Assembly to call on the Government to introduce an Act and/or amendment equivalent to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Amendment of 2019 to remove the current requirement for transgender people to undergo sex reassignment surgery before updating their birth certificate.
