Govt fixes trans passport rules

Govt fixes trans passport rules

The federal Government has made it easier for sex and gender diverse Australians to get passports that reflect their identity.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Attorney-General Robert McClelland today announced new guidelines which make it easier for sex and gender diverse people to get a passport in their preferred gender.

Under the guidelines, sex reassignment surgery will no longer be a prerequisite to issue a passport in a person’s preferred gender.

“Sex and gender diverse people now have the option of presenting a statement from a medical practitioner supporting their preferred gender,” Rudd said.

“This amendment makes life easier and significantly reduces the administrative burden for sex and gender diverse people who want a passport that reflects their gender and physical appearance.”

The Government said the initiative was in line with its commitment to remove discrimination on the grounds of gender identity and sexual orientation.

“Most people take for granted the ability to travel freely and without fear of discrimination,” McClelland said.

“This measure will extend the same freedoms to sex and gender diverse Australians. While it’s expected this change will only affect a handful of Australians, it’s an important step in removing discrimination for sex and gender diverse people.

“Importantly, this policy addresses a number of the recommendations contained in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Sex Files report.”

A Gender Agenda spokesperson Peter Hyndal said the move was a step forward to remove discrimination for trans and intersex people.

“Previously, many sex and gender diverse people have been forced to travel on a passport which shows their sex as different from the way they identify and present,” Hyndal said.

“This predicament has raised very real safety issues for transgender and intersex people when travelling overseas.

“We are aware of specific cases where individuals have been detained in international airports or denied visas because the sex on their passport did not match their presentation and identity.”

TransGender Victoria spokesperson Sally Goldner said the changes are “hugely welcome and a great combination of common sense and humanity”.

“The practical effects for a person travelling overseas of the previous situation have resulted in circumstances ranging from humiliation to incarceration,” Goldner said.

“The practical effects for a person travelling overseas of the previous situation have resulted in circumstances ranging from humiliation to incarceration. This change will make travel much happier for people previously affected” noted Martine Delaney from the Australian Coalition for Equality.

WA Gender Project president Aram Hosie, Organisation Intersex International (OII) Australia president Gina Wilson and Australian Coalition for Equality’s Martine Delaney also spoke out in favour of the changes.


UPDATED Sep 15

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18 responses to “Govt fixes trans passport rules”

  1. Why do we boxes for genders on forms anyway? They are pointless! How about just your name, address, phone, where you were born and a photo! Why do we need pointless things on forms such as religion, race, aboriginal or torris straight islander and gender!? These things are irrelevant!

  2. So if Im a male and I feel like putting down *female* on my passport application form it’ll be accepted? That just sounds silly.

  3. I find it really sad that ther only degoratory comments I have seen re the passport change have both taken place in a gay and lesbian news site.

    I am saddened to hear a remark like “handful of people.” Isn’t that what fundamentalists said about gays and lesbians for years – and ironicallly what some critics of the equal marriage campaign have said too?

    I think the consequences – both negative under the old regime and positive under the new approach – mean this is more than a procedural matter. People have been unfairly incarcerated and humiliated; this now changes so people can enjoy basic freedom of movement and and some cases, be re-united with their families for the first time in years. I think that change is good reason to celebrate.

    Finally, certainly let’s campaign for Federal EO laws on the basis of sexual orientation – and federal laws that cover sex/gender and intersex status too. A win-win solution for all.

  4. Surely there are far more important matters to deal with than a procedural matter that will only affect a handful of people.

    Let me remind people that we have no federal EO laws covering sexual orientation or Equal marriage for Gay/Lesbian citizens of this country.

    Those laws affect tens of thousands of people and our MP’s should focus on that.

  5. Further to comments from Jillybeans & Missy, I was interviewed about the passport changes on a Melbourne commercial station. They asked if the passport changes affected equal marriage (the direct answer being no). The question did give me the opportunity to talk about how the current marriage inequality leads to situations of “forced trans divorce (which clearly left the interviewer thinking). So a win for one part of the community can help others. If all of us under the rainbow work together, communicate and believe in abundance (and leave behind ideas like trans being “controversial”) we can achieve all our goals more effectively, maybe even more quickly.

  6. I keep hearing different things from different places. Can someone please give a certain clarification on whether non-binary gender identity people who are not anatomically intersex are properly covered in this?

    It’s brilliant that Intersex is properly covered when they are so often left out and that surgery is no longer a requirement as thats not for everyone. But i do hope that the significant number of non-intersex people who have non-binary identity and expression and who thusly suffer significant discrimination because of that have not been left in the lurch.

  7. JillyBeans, that’s a bit how I felt a while back when I discovered the big gay marriage win in New York didn’t actually include trans people as such (we can get married under it, but only as our previous genders). Not only that, but the same day that bill was passed another one in the New York senate, which would have given trans people there basic rights, was defeated. Ultimately though it shouldn’t be like a queue, where one group has to wait for the needs of others to be met before they meet their own.

    Different problems often require different solutions. And while this is a great win for sex and gender diverse people, it should be remembered that this is a policy change, not a change in a law or act. Policy could be be changed back sometime in the future by a different government. That’s why it was easy to do. Can you imagine doing the same with marriage equality? How many would be happy knowing their marriages might be invalidated by a change in policy? And that’s why marriage equality is a harder battle, because you don’t want a situation like that, do you?

    Still this is a good victory, and it’s nice when one’s own government finally does something right, on whatever level it takes.

  8. Oh FFS Jillybeans. It is possible for rights for some part of our wonderful diverse community to have been lobbied for without taking away from energy, time and probably dollars, spent of fighting for other community rights.
    It could be likely that these ‘small’ changes to the law can help make the ‘bigger’ ones more possible.
    And amazingly, (and I know this might be a leap for some people) it is actually possible to delight and celebrate this without bringing everything back to fucking gay marriage. Just for a moment. Just saying.

  9. This to me is a real leap forward for DSG people, but I was actually feeling a little gypped and quite a bit more frustrated whilst reading it. I understand the struggles that trans and diverse gender people go through and I really am glad that travel is now easier and their passports can start to reflect their true gender, but how can something so purportedly controversial as transgenderism be taken under the wing of policy changes when gay and lesbian (or transgendered couples, for that matter!) are not yet extended the right to marry??

    I was very surprised that Kevin Rudd would make such a progressive leap forward and yet still have helped block the way for equal marriage rights.

    Grr, this country makes me angry, I will move to Canada one day, damn it..

  10. Kiera/n – x is possible for people who have a letter from a GP saying that they are intersex and live and identify as an ‘indeterminate’ gender.

    Policy should go up on DFAT website soon.

  11. The Dutch government announced similar measures on 14 September after the Human Right Watch report ‘Controlling Bodies, Denying Identities: Human Rights Violations Against Trans People in the Netherlands’ came out on September 13th. Good stuff.

  12. where can we read up on what has actually changed are there options for X for people who don’t identify as M or F?