Birth certificate laws ‘discriminatory’, says mum

THE mum of a transgender teenager says her daughter has stopped applying for casual work because of laws that require sex and birth names to be displayed on birth certificates.

A Tasmanian mum says her daughter has stopped applying for casual work at a fast-food outlet because of ‘discriminatory’ birth certificate laws.

THE mum of a transgender teenager says her daughter has stopped applying for casual work because of laws that require sex and birth names to be displayed on birth certificates.

The woman has spoken out in support of proposed changes to Tasmanian laws that would allow transgender people to change their birth certificates without having reproductive surgery.

The Greens’ proposal, backed by Labor, would also remove gender markers from birth certificates.

The Tasmanian woman said the existing requirement left her daughter open to “discrimination, bullying, and unnecessary invasion of her privacy”.

“Despite having gone through the process of legally changing her name, and paying the required $196.18 fee, the first few lines of her reissued birth certificate refer to her former name and a gender that is not correct,” the woman, who asked not to be named, said.

“And there strikes the bureaucratic barrier to her first burger-flipping job — a piece of paper, her birth certificate, which would immediately ‘out’ her by disclosing a name long left behind and a gender that is not correct.”

Tasmanian transgender rights campaigner Martine Delaney in Hobart. Picture: CHRIS CRERAR

Transforming Tasmania’s Martine Delaney said the case was “a perfect example as to why the government need not delay any further” in reforming existing laws.

“They’ve had years to deal with this and they’ve chosen not to and we still have young people faced with this dilemma,” Ms Delaney said.

“These changes would not affect the lives of people who aren’t transgender or gender diverse, but they could make a massive difference to those who are.”

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said: “There are multiple jurisdictions around the world who have moved away from gender markers on birth certificates.

“On passports we have an ‘M’, ‘F’ or ‘X’. There’s a growing understanding that this is an area of the law that needs reform.”

The Government has signalled opposition to the proposed changes, which will be debated next month when it puts forward its Bill aimed at preventing forced divorce for transgender and gender diverse Tasmanians who change their birth certificates.

Attorney-General Elise Archer on Friday noted no other jurisdiction had removed sex from birth certificates “and doing so exposes Tasmania to a range of potentially serious unintended consequences”.

“It should not be moved on the floor of the Parliament to an unrelated Bill without proper consideration of the consequences to other state law,” she said.