On Tuesday night, the Victorian government passed a reform to make it way easier for transgender and gender diverse people to change the gender listed on their birth certificate.
The reform passed the upper house 26-14, and now has to go to the Governor to be signed into law. Once the Governor signs that bit of paper, transgender and gender diverse people in Victoria will have much better access to accurate documentation.
The law comes with three major reforms. The big one is removing the need for expensive and invasive gender reassignment surgery before you can change your gender on your birth certificate. Up until now, you couldn’t get any officials to even think about changing your birth certificate until you had gone under the knife.
The second is that when you do get your birth certificate changed, you can nominate yourself as male, female, or any number of other non-binary descriptions. You can choose any term you identify with as long as it isn’t offensive or can’t be practically used. For gender non-conforming people, this is huge.
The third is that people under 18 will now be able to change the gender on their birth certificate as well, as long as they have the support of their parents and a doctor.
Victoria has become the fifth state to introduce laws like this, joining Tasmania, Northern Territory, South Australia and the ACT. Victoria had actually tried to pass these reforms back in 2016, but was shot down by a single vote. This time around, only three crossbenchers voted with the Coalition against the bill – two Justice Party members and the Shooters and Fishers MP.
New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland are the states remaining who don’t have birth certificate reform, and campaigners are now setting their sights on their governments. In particular, New South Wales is likely to be the next state where the reforms are pushed for.
Back in Victoria, these reforms are a massive cause for celebration. They will work to remove a number of obstacles that people would probably never think of if they didn’t have to worry about the gender on their birth certificate.
Attorney General Jill Hennessy was the woman who introduced the bill, and put it best:
“The inability for trans and gender diverse people to have an accurate birth registration, which truly reflects their identity, means that high barriers continue to be thrown up against them in their daily lives.
“As a result, organisations and institutions may query the person’s sex by asking inappropriate and intrusive questions, for example when providing a service or amending documentation such as bank accounts, insurance details, credit cards, and university records.”
This is by no means the end of the road for transgender rights in Australia. We know that trans and non-binary people are more likely to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, have more difficulty finding housing and employment, and receive poorer health care when they don’t feel comfortable telling a doctor that they’re gender diverse. The mental health impacts this has on a person as they deal with these situations over and over again are serious.
The reforms are a great start at removing some of the systematic barriers, and Victoria deserves to take the time to celebrate this victory. What we can’t do however, is forget to look at the bigger picture.