The formal recognition of sex identity

View/ Open
Author(s)
Keyes, Mary
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2014
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Until March 2014, it was widely assumed that a person's sex could only be recorded in the Australian state and territory Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages as either female or male. This assumption is no longer accurate, following two significant developments. In March 2014, the Australian Capital Territory amended its Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act to allow the registration of a person's sex as unspecified, indeterminate or intersex. In April 2014, the High Court handed down its much anticipated decision in NSW Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages v Norrie, which interpreted the New South Wales ...
View more >Until March 2014, it was widely assumed that a person's sex could only be recorded in the Australian state and territory Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages as either female or male. This assumption is no longer accurate, following two significant developments. In March 2014, the Australian Capital Territory amended its Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act to allow the registration of a person's sex as unspecified, indeterminate or intersex. In April 2014, the High Court handed down its much anticipated decision in NSW Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages v Norrie, which interpreted the New South Wales Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act to allow the registration of a person's sex following sex affirmation surgery as 'non-specific'. This article describes the Australian legislation relating to registration of sex, and considers the implications of these developments, including the consequences for Australian marriage law, which continues to define marriage narrowly as the union of a man and a woman.
View less >
View more >Until March 2014, it was widely assumed that a person's sex could only be recorded in the Australian state and territory Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages as either female or male. This assumption is no longer accurate, following two significant developments. In March 2014, the Australian Capital Territory amended its Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act to allow the registration of a person's sex as unspecified, indeterminate or intersex. In April 2014, the High Court handed down its much anticipated decision in NSW Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages v Norrie, which interpreted the New South Wales Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act to allow the registration of a person's sex following sex affirmation surgery as 'non-specific'. This article describes the Australian legislation relating to registration of sex, and considers the implications of these developments, including the consequences for Australian marriage law, which continues to define marriage narrowly as the union of a man and a woman.
View less >
Journal Title
Australian Journal of Family Law
Volume
28
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2014 Lexis Nexis. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Family Law
Policy and Administration
Social Work
Law