1. Birth certificate reform and gender recognition
In December 2022, the McGowan Government announced they’ll be scrapping the Gender Reassignment Board (GRB) and creating a new, streamlined administrative process for sex and gender recognition in WA. Following this announcement, RFWA, TransFolk of WA and trans, gender diverse and non-binary community advocates worked on and circulated a survey to inform and embolden our proposal to government on what this should look like. Our main goals are to remove the requirement for trans people to undergo medical treatment before they can be approved for new documents, and establish options for non-binary and gender diverse folks where currently there are none. Thank you to the 294 trans, gender diverse and non-binary folks who responded to the survey. We will now work with government to ensure all of our asks are met.
2. Banning conversion practices
In December 2022 the McGowan Government also announced they’d outlaw conversion practices. It’s fantastic news and comes off the back of years of hard-fought activism and staunch victim survivors coming forth to expose the truth. The legislation is under development and expected to be ready by the end of 2023. Importantly, the government has agreed to work with our communities to get it right, and have not indicated any religious exemptions which would be unacceptable to us. We await the legislation and will work with the government to ensure it’s rock-solid, so that no Western Australian will ever be subjected to these practices again.
3. Expanding surrogacy access to all people
Last year, a Ministerial Expert Panel was convened to advise the Health Minister on changes to surrogacy laws. While the Panel’s final report hasn’t been made public, the Government has confirmed that the new legislation will ensure equity of access for altruistic surrogacy, including opportunities for single men, people in same-sex relationships, transgender people and intersex people to access surrogacy. This is great news, but there are currently no plans to legalise commercial surrogacy (i.e paying someone for their service of surrogacy). This means there are still huge barriers to surrogacy that we believe should be removed.
4. Stopping deferrable non consensual surgeries and other medical interventions on intersex kids and babies
Intersex people are still being harmed in medical settings in WA, which is known through intersex led direct consultation with senior medical staff. There remains stigma and arrogance in the medical field, and a lack of government leadership and initiative to take the medical field on through legislative change. But due to the work of incredible intersex people and advocates at IHRA and IPSA, the ACT has just become the first state/territory in Australia to introduce legislation to protect Intersex people from unnecessary medical interventions without their consent. We are now being led by Intersex advocates toward legislative protection in WA and the rest of the country.
5. Developing a whole of government approach
The aim of this ask is to address social, economic, and health inequalities that impact our communities. We want an Australia where we’re not over represented in poor mental health outcomes, where gender affirming surgeries are covered by Medicare, where deferrable medical interventions aren’t inflicted on intersex people, and where we have the power and the means to make families. There are so many parts of government decision making that don’t yet include us, and true equality can only be achieved by implementing a whole of government approach. Right now, we are working with the community to develop a proposal for what we want that approach to look like. There are several models in operation across the country, from special Advisory Bodies that are consulted on new laws to elected MPs who hold the role of Minister for Equality.
It’s a joy to be able to share these updates. The tide is turning on government appetite to truly serve our communities, and it’s because of all the wonderful LGBTIQA+ advocates who have worked hard for change over years and decades that we are here today. But there’s still lots more work to do. We need to make sure these announcements are made into laws. Until we see our communities involved and consulted at every level of government decision making, we’ll keep working hard to ensure equality.
