New certificate stoush
Transexual man Conor Montgomery will lodge a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission over the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages’ refusal to amend his birth certificate.
He will lodge a further complaint with the federal Attorney-General’s office and present both departments with a petition of more than 500 signatures.
Montgomery, now 50, has been living as a man for more than two-and-a-half years. He has undergone hormone treatment and a double mastectomy, and has a passport that registers him as male. NSW Births and Deaths, however, will not change his cardinal document unless he undergoes life-threatening surgery.
Due to illness, Montgomery has been advised by doctors not to undergo genital surgery, for fear that it could put his life at risk. Yet Births and Deaths continues to insist upon it.
“It’s ridiculous,” Montgomery said. “I have some documents that say ‘male’ and my birth certificate says ‘female’. It’s caused me great unnecessary stress.
“They need to stop messing with people’s lives and give me the proper documents I need to live my life as the man that I am.”
“The Government has failed to implement changes to the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages’ policies and laws, recommended by the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Sex Files report,” Sex and Gender Education (SAGE) spokeswoman Tracie O’Keefe said.
“It was recommended that people like Conor should not have to undergo unnecessary surgery to have their documents changed.”
info: For more information on SAGE, visit www.sageaustralia.org
A birth certificate is not only a record of history. We all know that it can be used as proof of identity later in life. That’s why the sex status can be changed. To rule that someone’s sex cannot be changed just because they haven’t had enough surgery – by someone’s reckoning – is just spiteful. Conor says he’s a man. Why on Earth would anyone want to object to that?
I’ve read elsewhere that Mr. Montgomery would like to change his birth certificate so that he can get married (as gender must match his passport, which now states that he is male). I’d be inclined to say that Mr. Montgomery’s birth certificate should remain as it is because he was born female, no amount of surgery or hormone treatment is going to change history. He should challenge any laws that hinder his ability to get legally married not try to change a historical document to reflect his current gender status.
@denis mulheron
I do believe they have already found the cure for their ‘perversion’; but so far the cure for ignorance remains elusive.
all faggotts and box biters shuldt be made to under go acure for their perversion
Editor’s Note: Thanks Denis – we’ll be sure to do just that when you head back to school and learn how to spell.