Qld passes laws to change gender on birth certificate without surgery
Laws have been passed enabling transgender and gender-diverse Queenslanders to change the sex on their birth certificate without reassignment surgery.
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Transgender and gender-diverse Queenslanders will be able to change their sex on their birth certificate without undergoing sexual reassignment surgery, under new laws passed during a raucous parliamentary sitting which included a protester being ejected by security.
Under the laws, sexual reassignment surgery will no longer be required for someone to change the sex listed on their birth certificate.
The laws will also allow children aged 12 to 16 to apply to the courts to change the sex on the certificate when they do not have the support of their parents.
But a child must also first undertake an assessment by a developmentally informed practitioner who has an established professional relationship with them prior to any change.
The passing of the landmark laws was witnessed by a packed public gallery filled mainly with LGBTQIA+ activists.
But on Wednesday evening a protester had to be ejected after yelling in the gallery.
Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the historic bill meant every Queensland could have their legal identity align with their lived identity.
“These laws also recognise same-sex and gender-diverse parents by acknowledging the undeniable reality that a child can have more than one mother and more than one father,” she said.
The Opposition, Katter’s Australian Party and Independent Member for Noosa Sandy Bolton voted against the laws.
Ms Bolton took issue with short consultation periods and a lack of community education, arguing also the state government didn’t explore other options such as phasing out the inclusion of sex or gender on birth certificates entirely.
Equality Australia and trans woman Ymania Brown said the laws were a life-changing moment, and while most people took for granted birth certificates the “simple piece of paper” was a right to exist for those in the transgender and gender-diverse community.
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