Make birth certificates meaningless again
Trans and gender-diverse Queenslanders will be able to change the gender on their birth certificates without having to undergo surgery, in a development that advocates have called “life-changing”.
Previously, people could only apply to change the sex on their birth certificates where they’d undergone sexual reassignment surgery – an invasive, costly procedure that isn’t readily available.
The new laws remove that provision and instead require people to supply a supporting statement from someone they’ve known for 12 months or longer.
Well let’s not stop with gender. Let’s have laws saying people can change their species on their birth certificates. First you’d have to make species a category on birth certificates, because as of now it’s just assumed that people are this one narrow species. So let’s do all that – add the category, and make it that you’re whatever species you say you are, no need for pesky intrusive snoopy questions about why anyone should believe you.
They’ll also allow people to formally change their name at the same time as an alteration of sex.
Ymania Brown — a trans woman and a spokesperson for Equality Australia, who campaigned for the changes — said the passing of the laws was a “life-changing” development.
It’ll be “life-changing” for women, too.
“Queensland was one of the last places in Australia to have cruel and outdated legal barriers that deny many trans people ID that accurately reflects their gender,” Ms Brown said.
Or, to put it another way, the legal requirement to have accurate ID.
Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said in a statement that the law change brings Queensland more into line with other Australian jurisdictions.
“This historic bill belongs to those in the LGBTIQA+ community who despite facing the brunt of vitriol, discrimination and hate have chosen to stand up and fight for legal recognition,” she said.
“I want Queensland’s rainbow community to know: your lives matter, your stories matter, and your struggles matter.”
Women’s lives, on the other hand, women’s stories, women’s struggles, do not matter. Women are by definition privileged cis Karens and they must learn to take a step back when there’s a trans woman in the room.
The passing of the laws has been met with praise from advocacy groups including Rainbow Families Queensland and Transcend Australia.
Somehow the article neglects to mention the opposition from feminist women.
It’s interesting that they say “change your gender” in the first paragraph, then change to “sex” later. I don’t know about Australia, but I do know my birth certificate says nothing about gender. It says sex, which is marked F. (I know, I know, sad to make an F in sex…old joke).
If they start doing that here, I should just change my sex to “Yes, please” or “No, thank you”.
From OB’s threadstarter:
At last, light at the end of the tunnel for us TS (ie trans-species) giraffes of all sexual varieties: cis, trans, and all-inclusive LGBTQRSTUVW+ gender identifiers. Moreover, this massive breakthrough has taken place in Queensland, whose former premier, that memorable gerrymandering Joh Bjelke-Petersen used to justify his world-class gerrymandering by saying words to the effect: “It is not just people who should be represented in the State Parliament. Wealth has to be represented too.”
See: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/joh-bjelkepetersen-clive-palmer-play-politics-by-different-rules-20141003-10pooi.html
So is Australia a right-wing hellhole or not? I’ve certainly been given that impression over the years (though I’ve always thought the US was worse)…
BKiSA: There are a few Trump admirers and Trump wannabees on the political scene here in Oz, but they get nowhere much. The Federal Government and 7 out of 8 state and territory governments have the Australian Labor Party (ALP) either in a majority position outright, or governing as a minority with the support of the Greens; though I would qualify that with the observation that both ALP and Greens have more than their share of politicians who have yet to pass Principles 101, while presently enjoying standout careers as opportunists.
As in the US, most of the time it is Tweedledum vs Tweedledee. Only on the rather important issue of climate change is there much difference.