New South Wales has become the final Australian state to allow people to change the gender on their birth certificates by self-identification, and not require transgender people to undergo surgery.
The state’s parliament passed the controversial Equality Bill on Thursday (October 17) night when the Upper House voted 15-12 in favour of the substantially watered down final draft which is a shadow of the original version which sent shudders through the nation’s faith communities.
Executive Director of Freedom for Faith, Mike Southon, explained the significance of what has changed from a Christian viewpoint to Vision Radio’s 20Twenty program:
“What’s changed is about 80% to 90% of the bill has been deleted. A large number of the things that we Christians were really worried about have just been flat out removed.”
“What remains is being able to easily change the sex on your birth certificate and a couple of other tweaks around prostitution and commercial surrogacy. It’s nowhere near as bad as what was in the original bill.”
“That would have meant that everybody legally had to treat you as this new sex (on one’s birth certificate), and that would have included prisons, women’s gyms, and refuges — particularly places which are safe spaces for women. That has been watered down in this legislation.”
“There are exemptions for toilets and change rooms, prisons, sport, women’s refuges, and to quote — ‘any other place’ — whatever that means. So that’s a very positive change.”
“The other positive change is that in the original bill, the age at which you could change your sex was 16, which as we all know, is medically and biologically crazy.”
“That age has now been raised to 18, which is also very helpful for schools. By the time you turn 18 and try to change your sex and your birth certificate, you’re pretty close to final exams or you’re already out of school.”
“There was nothing in the original bill that most faith communities could find any redeeming value in. Now, all the things that were specific threats to religious freedom have been removed. Although the idea that you can very easily change your sex on your birth certificate is something that many faith communities are still quite concerned about.”
“One of the biggest things that was removed is changes to the Anti-Discrimination Act relating to exemptions allowing religious organisations and faith-based schools to treat people differently based on sex and gender and sexuality.”
“The original bill would have just removed a large number of those exemptions and watered down the others. It would have stripped the rights completely from schools and undermined churches and other faith-based organisations.”
“The NSW government is undergoing a review of the Anti-Discrimination Act, so starting next year, we’re going to have this conversation all over again.”
“The original Equality Bill would also have allowed a child to get medical treatment without their parent’s consent and help them to get puberty blockers and that sort of medical treatment, by-passing their parents. That has also been dropped.”
