Court ruling on intersex birth certs

Have been getting more aware of late of the plight faced by intersex people. Think is because with the marriage equality debate raging, intersex people have given their stories about how it affects them as well. One of them is Norrie, somebody who is neither sex and wanted her birth certificate to say so.



Now in the New South Wales court of appeal a decision has been made on this issue, well I guess as far as it goes with the state registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages. After what sounds like much debate within the courtroom on the exact meaning of legislation, the court has decided the following.

Importantly, the Court recognised that language is constantly evolving as a result of our understanding about the world and ourselves. In particular it recognised the “increasing medical, psychological and social recognition that ‘sex’ or ‘gender’ is not a straightforward notion reflecting only a ‘male’ and ‘female’ sex.” 

The Court went on to say, “the recognition of gender identity extending beyond the binary form of ‘male’ and ‘female’ is relatively recent and legislative recognition of that has occurred in the context of increasing medical, scientific and social awareness.” 

The decision confirms as a matter of law that the Registry “is not confined to registration of sex as only male or female,” and refers the matter back to the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal to determine Norrie’s application on this basis. more