SAGE Australian Passports

By signing the recent passport amendment legislation you have stopped many of the Australiaвs trans community from obtaining a passport in the gender in which they live, unless they have had genital surgery, placing them in danger if they travel abroad.

This means that transsexual people in transition would have to travel aboard with a passport of the opposite gender to which they are presenting or with a Document of Identity which draws attention to them. This even applies to someone travelling overseas for the express purpose of completing their transsexual surgery. Some intersex, transsexual or transsexed people cannot have any surgery for medical reasons including heart condition, liver and kidney problems, cancer or AIDS or simply not being able to afford treatment.

Transgender people who do not want to have genital surgery will also now have to travel on a passport which will read the opposite sex and gender to which they present. These people will now not be able to travel outside Australia safely and anonymously, making them susceptible to abuse, violence, and discrimination abroad.

We call upon the Australian Government and Minister for Foreign Affairs to review the policies of the passport office bringing them in line with humane principles for treating all Australian citizens with equal validity. Some people identify as male and some of female but there are many people who are neither physically of socially part of the polarity separatism. Many transpeople are part of the interrex spectrum but also many transgender people live as one gender but have genitals that may be different from how they present. Policies should be changed to:

1. Give passports to preoperative or non operative transsexuals or transexed people, who have not had genital surgery, in the gender in which they live, for unrestricted travel.
2. Allow people who were married before transition to remain married and get a passport in their new gender presentation.
3. Give passports to transgender people in the gender in which they live for unrestricted travel.
4 Allow an individual, who requires it, to have no sex or gender stated on their passport.