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Government human rights arm pushes for third gender
By Joe Hildebrand
The Daily Telegraph, 6/12/2008
THE Federal Government's human rights arm plans to invent a new official status called "intersex" adding it to male and female as a legally recognised gender.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission wants people to be able to change their gender on their passports and driving licences even if they do not undergo surgery.
And transgender lobby groups say that even this does not go far enough and are demanding a fourth legal gender called "other" for people who feel like their gender is indefinable or changes from day to day.
The extraordinary proposals are contained in a discussion paper quietly issued to transgender and transexual advocates by the commission, a statutory body that advises the Government on such matters.
The paper, entitled Sex Files - The legal recognition of sex: Proposed reform, says the introduction of the new "intersex" gender is a "key feature of the reform proposal being developed by the commission".
"Recognition of intersex: Persons who cannot or do not identify as either male or female would be able to choose to be identified on their birth certificate and passport as intersex," it says.
"A person who cannot or chooses not to undergo surgery would not be automatically ineligible to request a change in their legal sex."
A response to the report by Sex and Gender Education Australia says there needs to be a fourth legal gender for people who are not even "intersex".
SAGE spokeswoman Tracie O'Keefe, a sexologist whose doctorate comes from a Californian hypnotherapy institute, is the co-author of the book Transpeople in Love, wrote: "The AHRC proposal does not go far enough in providing legal status and social spaces by only allowing people to be male, female and intersex."
Dr O'Keefe, who runs the Australian Health and Education Centre and the International Sex, Gender and Sexuality Clinic in Glebe, said cultures such as Native Americans had more than two genders.
Government human rights arm pushes for third gender
By Joe Hildebrand
The Daily Telegraph, 6/12/2008
THE Federal Government's human rights arm plans to invent a new official status called "intersex" adding it to male and female as a legally recognised gender.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission wants people to be able to change their gender on their passports and driving licences even if they do not undergo surgery.
And transgender lobby groups say that even this does not go far enough and are demanding a fourth legal gender called "other" for people who feel like their gender is indefinable or changes from day to day.
The extraordinary proposals are contained in a discussion paper quietly issued to transgender and transexual advocates by the commission, a statutory body that advises the Government on such matters.
The paper, entitled Sex Files - The legal recognition of sex: Proposed reform, says the introduction of the new "intersex" gender is a "key feature of the reform proposal being developed by the commission".
"Recognition of intersex: Persons who cannot or do not identify as either male or female would be able to choose to be identified on their birth certificate and passport as intersex," it says.
"A person who cannot or chooses not to undergo surgery would not be automatically ineligible to request a change in their legal sex."
A response to the report by Sex and Gender Education Australia says there needs to be a fourth legal gender for people who are not even "intersex".
SAGE spokeswoman Tracie O'Keefe, a sexologist whose doctorate comes from a Californian hypnotherapy institute, is the co-author of the book Transpeople in Love, wrote: "The AHRC proposal does not go far enough in providing legal status and social spaces by only allowing people to be male, female and intersex."
Dr O'Keefe, who runs the Australian Health and Education Centre and the International Sex, Gender and Sexuality Clinic in Glebe, said cultures such as Native Americans had more than two genders.
Για τα θέματα αυτά έχει μιλήσει η βιολογία και δε μπορεί να έρχεται η κάθε κυβέρνηση να αχρηστεύει τις επιστήμες. Τα φύλα είναι δύο και πάνω σ'αυτό οι γκέη εχουνε δώσει μάχες για να τους αναγνωριστεί το δικαίωμα να μην τους θεωρούνε για τρίτο φύλο. Αν το κάνει αυτό η κυβέρνηση της Αυστραλίας θα είναι μια μεγάλη νίκη των ομοφοβικών.
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