3 Jun 2013

Australia's New South Wales to legally recognise "non-specific" gender

The New South Wales Court of Appeal last Friday overturned a previous ruling that only legally recognised male and female as a valid gender status; now a third option — "non-specific" — can now be listed.

The BBC reported last Friday:

Norrie, a genderless activist in Australia, won the case after seeking in 2010 to reflect a non-sex status in the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Australian judges have ruled that people do not have to be registered as a man or a woman on the register of births, deaths and marriages.

The New South Wales Court of Appeal overturned an earlier decision that a person's sex could not be listed as "non-specific" under Australian law.

The appeal was brought by a 50-year-old activist from Sydney called Norrie, who identifies as being gender neutral.

The court ruled that sex does not bear a binary meaning of "male" or "female".

The Sydney Morning Herald further noted:

Though strictly the decision only applies to those such as Norrie who have had sex affirmation surgery (previously known as sex change surgery), it has potential implications for many others, including babies who are born with ambiguous genetalia, and people who do not identify as male or female despite having physical characteristics of a man or a woman.

Australia