Robin Banks, Equal Opportunity Commissioner for Tasmania, has recommended to the state government that it change the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act.
A feminist group is taking on Tasmania’s anti-discrimination commissioner, accusing her of undermining women’s rights by advocating that men who self-identify as women can legally register their sex as female.
Commissioner Robin Banks has recommended to the state government that it change the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act to remove the requirement people must have a sex change operation before they can legally change their sex.
The reforms, being considered by Attorney-General Vanessa Goodwin, would make changing sex as easy as changing names for anyone older than 16, and allow people to change sex as frequently as once a year.
Feminist group Women’s Liberation Front (WOLF) Tasmania believes the reforms “legally erase the existence of female people” and undermines protections for women under anti-discrimination law.
WOLF spokeswoman Tessa Anne told The Australian Ms Banks’s proposed changes conflated “sex” with “gender identification”, creating far-reaching legal implications for the rights of women and girls.
“By allowing any person to self-identify their sex, it effectively redefines what ‘sex’ means under law,” Ms Anne said. “It stops being a reflection of a physical biological reality and becomes a social construct and a reflection of how a person subjectively feels about themselves.”
On a practical level, the group believed Ms Banks’s amendments would undermine protections under the Sex Discrimination Act that allow for women-only services such as domestic violence shelters and support groups, gyms, sports, events and clubs.
It feared the changes would allow men who self-identify as women to legally demand access to such services, as well as roles currently reserved for women.
This could mean organisations employing carers to provide intimate care for aged or disabled women, such as help with toileting and showering, being forced to employ men in such roles.
“The idea of being placed in that position and not having the legal grounding to say ‘no’, and without being called transphobic, is really frightening,” Ms Anne said.
The group was also lobbying Victorian MPs against similar changes now before that state’s parliament.
by Matthew Denholm
Source: The Australian