Australia Grants Genderless Person Legal Recognition ... and then Takes it Back

by Juliet Blalack · 2010-03-25 11:07:00 UTC
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The following post substitutes pronouns 'her/his' and 's/he' with 'hir' and 'zie' to complement the preference of Norrie May-Welby.

It seemed like everything was going so well for Norrie May-Welby. Hir, and the rest of us who would like to chip away at the gender binary, too. After all, it's no small thing to make government bureaucracies acknowledge that there is more to the human race than M/F.

May-Welby was male at birth, and later opted for sex reassignment surgery. However, zie still found this wasn't who zie was. Then this month, the New South Wales (NSW) registrar made the bold decision to issue May-Welby legal documents declaring the 48-year-old's desired gender -- none.

"The concepts of man or woman don't fit me," May-Welby said. "The simplest solution is not to have any sex identification."

May-Welby's story went global quickly as zie (hir prefered pronoun) became the first legally recognized genderless person. Then, the NSW Office of Births, Deaths and Marriages called hir and informed hir that they would rescind the documents zie already received. You know, the ones that read 'sex not specified.'

“I am devastated by the news. It is a hideous, humiliating position to find myself in and makes a mockery of my human rights,” said May-Welby.

 Tell the New South Wales Registrar to make good on their promise!

While validation of gender identity is important, May-Welby had practical concerns as well -- zie said that if zie traveled with a passport that declared hir gender as male or female, zie might be detained or harassed for not fitting the bill.

Currently SAGE (Sex and Gender Education) and the Australian Commission on Human Rights are helping Norrie to get hir certificate back.

Tell the New South Wales Registrar to give Norrie hir gender-free documents!

Photo credit: Flinga

Juliet Blalack writes about LGBT rights, with a focus on international issues. She previously lived in Cairo, Egypt.
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