Victoria: proposed legislation to change birth certificate gender without undergoing surgery

[frazzled1]

Not Australian but came across this.

www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/feminist-divide-grows-over-gender-law-push/news-story/47fd21f2716cfb6a2b29a2e2f568eaaf

More than 1000 feminists, including dozens of Victorian academics, have signed an open letter in support of the Andrews government’s proposed legislation to allow people to change the gende­r on their birth certificate without undergoing surgery.

The bill passed Victoria’s lower house — where Labor has an overwhelming majority — last week, with passage in the upper house likely when state parliament returns next week after the necessary three of 11 crossbenchers publicly backed it.

However, radical feminist academics­ and the Victorian Women’s Guild have hit back, saying the notion that they are not real feminists is “offensive and farcical” and warning of unintended­ consequences from the legislation, such as access to women-only spaces by people who are biologically male.

Heartened by the comments, such as:

What nonsense! It is the legislation which has conflated sex and gender. The birth certificate shows birth sex with no reference to "gender" whatever that word may be construed to mean.

The legislation itself seeks to confuse by implying that birth sex, on one's birth certificate, is the same thing as (supposedly fluid) gender and hence should not be put on that certificate.

No description of identifiable physical characteristics - height, weight, sex, eye colour etc - is the least concerned with how one feels about it/gender.

BCs record the sex of a baby observed at birth. That’s all. Nothing to do with gender.

How often do people look at their BC - why is this being portrayed as a burning issue?

I don’t understand why we can ignore reality over sex, but not any other bodily characteristics such as age or race.
Why can’t I change my birth certificate to say that I’m 33? I don’t “feel” 63 in my head - why can’t I throw a narcissistic tantrum and demand society plays along with my delusions?
Why can’t black people identify out of their oppression by claiming they are white? Why do only TRAs have everyone pandering to their nonsense?

(By the way OP, my comments were aimed at this daft situation in general- not at your OP, which I agree with)

What is the point of recording ‘gender’, why do we need to know if people identify with low pay/caring responsibilities/emotional work/putting their needs secondary to other makeup/long hair? Sex is useful to know but gender?

The Australian newspaper have been running a series of gender critical articles. It’s a Murdoch paper, so hard to know how much is genuine conviction and how much is supporting a conservative Liberal viewpoint. The articles have been thoughtful and well-written though.

The complete article is behind a paywall, but if you visit the Victorian Women’s Guild page on FB you can read the whole thing.

"There’s an important debate occurring around the world about life-changing decisions affecting often vulnerable children and adolescents who are seeking gender transition. Legitimate questions have been raised by doctors about the poor evidence supporting medical treatment, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Such concerns about the dominant and orthodox “affirmation model” of treating gender dysphoria involve a small group of specialists arguably pushing the frontier further than the evidence or prudence warrants.

These views, expressed by a broad range of people and bodies, and the motivation for our reporting, have one thing in common: child wellbeing. We recognise this is a sensitive area for transgender children and parents. It’s why we have focused on the medical evidence, credibility of claims for therapeutic benefits, and a careful balance between those benefits and known risks.”