And, on a separate occasion: “I had a fucking horrible experience at the DMV. Had the manager ask me about my genitals.” (In response): “SAME! I took it straight up to management and local MP they did apologise but never explained how they handled the staff component i.e. diversity training.” And it still doesn’t stop trans people from facing discrimination anyway. As a direct after effect of marriage equality, governments nation-wide are being forced to reevaluate their legislation regarding trans people. At the moment, trans people are forced to divorce if we want our gender to be recognised on our birth certificate. This law was put in place across all states to avoid marriages between people of the same gender, and it’s now redundant with the advent of marriage equality. “I personally find it abhorrent that laws have ever existed compelling loving couples to get divorced because one partner wishes to have a different gender recognised,” said WA parliamentarian Alison Xamon (Greens WA). “These laws need to go as a matter of urgency.” The Law Reform Commission of Western Australia is currently investigating (through Project 108) whether to review legislation “in relation to the recognition
of a person’s sex, change of sex or intersex status”. This means they will discuss whether to keep the Gender Recognition Board, whether to introduce another “classification of sex” in birth certificates— like the “X” gender marking currently available on most government records, as a recommendation of the Australian Government Guidelines on the Recognition of Sex and Gender (2013)—and whether people need to prove if they’re trans or not before being allowed to change gender markings. “Trans people in many regards strike me as the last bastion within the community to continue to be systemically denied their basic human rights,” said Alison. “There are clearly urgent institutional reforms that need to take place, such as abolishing the Gender Reassignment Board, as well as adopting a human rights-based approach to acknowledging gender diversity and recognising individual gender identity. “This is a big piece of work that will require solid dismantling of existing bureaucratic barriers.” The Commission always encourages submissions to their enquiries, and they have contact details available on their website. “Immediately on the agenda is the need to overhaul outdated provisions that enable religious entities to continue to discriminate against LGBTIQ people, most notably in areas of schooling and health services,” said Alison.
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