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New medical guidelines for transgender youth
They may constitute only approximately 1.2 per cent of the population, but until recently, transgender individuals have been excluded from society. In a 2015 speech, former Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson said that of LGBTQI people, "...the lingering and most extensive discrimination is faced by transgender Australians". Only a year and a half ago, South Australia became the first state to remove the surgery requirement for a change of sex on birth certificates, while Queensland made this change just last week.
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I don’t think you should be able to choose/change your sex – are we not either male or female, primarily based on our genitalia and a number of other attributes?
Transgender people often experience profound distress about feeling ‘in a wrong body’. If surgery is needed to alleviate any kind of suffering, we should support it. And, if a little bureaucratic change means a lot to someone, without harming anyone else, on what grounds could we possibly want to prevent it?
Does anyone have the right to force people to experience the misery of feeling uncomfortable in their bodies, just because a gender change seems a bit odd to them? As a society, we need to ensure we do everything we can to help each other live fulfilling lives, and to empathise with people who need our understanding.
Thanks for replying Kirsten.
Someone may feel they are in the wrong body, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to reality. The biological reality is a man has a penis, and a woman has a vagina. I’m not saying I don’t care for the feelings of people.
The impact on others would be huge. If you can decide what sex you are, this leaves the door wide open for men to decide to be girls and use toilets. Boys can decide to be girls and use change rooms. There is a case (in the US, I think?) where a man believes he is a little girl. Should he be able to go to daycare with other children?