For 78-year-old Latrobe woman Francene Jacques, the morning of September 5 last year was life-changing.
It was the day her birth certificate was changed to register her as female, amended under Tasmania’s nation-leading transgender reforms passed earlier in the year.
“It’s just made such a difference to my life. I’ve never been so happy and self-confident,” she said.
“I never realised it was such an important piece of paper until I actually had it.
“I always wanted to be buried as an old woman and I always had the fear I’d be buried as an old man, but once I had that bit of paper I knew I could get my wish.”
The controversial laws — which make gender optional on birth certificates and end the requirement for transgender people to have sex reassignment surgery for their gender to be recognised — passed Tasmania’s Parliament in April 2019, with Labor, the Greens and House of Assembly Speaker Sue Hickey teaming up to push them through, despite the Government’s opposition.
The Government warned the changes were sloppily drafted and may have unintended consequences, hinting they may try to repeal them.
The Tasmania Law Reform Institute was tasked with examining the changes, and after a lengthy process has determined they did not create any significant unintended consequences.
Research officer Dylan Richards said the changes had made the lives of transgender and non-binary Tasmanians easier.
“While there are some pretty significant changes, which will affect some members of our community in positive ways, for most people in Tasmania it won’t affect their daily lives,” he said.
Tasmania’s Justice Department says that between September 5, 2019 when the laws came into effect, and May 31 this year, 63 Tasmanians applied to change their gender on an existing birth certificate, and 743 people applied for a certificate without gender details.
Mr Richards said he hoped other states would look at Tasmania’s experience and adopt similar laws.
“We’re hoping that other jurisdictions might look at what’s happened in Tasmania and our report and see that these kinds of changes aren’t necessarily all that scary, and that they can be confident they can take similar changes themselves,” he said.
Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-22/tas-transgender-laws-review-finds-no-unintended-consequences/12377666
For more from ABC News, click here: https://ab.co/2kxYCZY
You can watch more ABC News content on iview: https://ab.co/2OB7Mk1
Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://ab.co/1svxLVE
Go deeper on our ABC News In-depth channel: https://ab.co/2lNeBn2
You can also like us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/abcnews.au
Or follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/abcnews_au
Or even on Twitter: http://twitter.com/abcnews
