Gender and Name Changes Need to be Accessible

Words by Ollie Patterson (they/them)

Currently there are two significant barriers when it comes to the physical needs of trans people being met; cost and requirement of clinical treatment.

Legally, updating one’s gender and name change is necessary in order to keep the government records and paperwork accurate. It is SO important for a lot of people to be able to say “This is my name according to the government. It is on my ID and all of my documents.”

Everyone should be able to have their paperwork correctly up to date. Additionally, government documents uphold and use the correct name / gender, it makes it more likely that people in professional, legal, and medical environments will respect and use the real name and gender of the person. Before I changed my name and gender, I was called the wrong name on all of my ID and paperwork, which made it difficult to: - Use ID (especially after my voice broke — I had people laugh in my face) - Hand in assignments (saying they were authored by someone I was not) - Being disrespected by doctors and medical practitioners (which was the most awful experience to go through)

I made the change to my name and gender marker after spending time in a hospital where my name and pronouns were not respected. I was referred to with the wrong name and as a woman by the very people who were supposed to be caring for me and my health. My life was in the hands by people who wouldn’t even call me by my own name. It was incredibly painful and made me not care if I got out of the hospital alive. There are no words for how awful it felt that I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But I knew it was not a once off — in fact, most trans people I’ve discussed it with have had similar experiences. That is an absolute atrocity and should be an extreme embarrassment to anyone working with or in health sector.

After a few months of my recovery, I finally got my name legally changed. The next time I was in hospital, they used my real name and it encouraged me to keep persisting in life.

The reasons I did not and could not legally change my name sooner were because of the two very unnecessary barriers.

Firstly, there is a fee just to apply for a change of name and/or gender identity. It might not sound like a big number, but to anybody on Centrelink (possibly because getting a job with a mismatching legal name can be very difficult, for example) it’s actually a lot of money. Especially given that there are already many unthought of costs for being transgender in a CIS normative society.

As a student, that amount was impossible! This fee should be waived, especially for anyone experiencing financial hardship and/or unable to find a job or study without updated paperwork. Having up to date paperwork is a necessity in our society. Allowing this process to be free is an easy solution in making it accessible, especially for a demographic relying on financial support from the Government. The second barrier is a recurring issue for many trans people — cis normativity expect/demand trans people to go through counselling/psychiatry/therapy just to prove their transness to the world in order to access and have rights to their basic necessities.

The Births, Deaths and Marriages Registrations Act (1996) and its associated regulations require a statement from a medical practitioner to summarise treatment, which has to include at very least 135 minutes of counselling equating to 3 counselling sessions and for the counselling sessions to be spread over a period of 6 months. In this day and age, that’s ridiculous. Counselling is not at all necessary for a person to know their name and gender. Counselling is financially and emotionally expensive. Being trans is not a negative problem which requires a solution. There are needs — which differ from person to person — which can include legal transition, HRT, surgery, and/or other things. These are not “solutions” so much as necessities for living in our society. Having accurate government records is a necessity for living in this society.

I strongly believe that changing a gender marker should not need the approval of a medical practitioner, nor the current required clinical treatment. Keeping government records and paperwork up to date should not come at such a high cost and with so many barriers.