Brought forward by Australia, Chile, South Africa and Finland, the resolution was adopted with 24 nations in favour, 23 abstaining and none opposed.

Intersex people have innate variations of sex characteristics that are more diverse than stereotypical definitions of male or female bodies. Up to 1.7% of the global population is born with these traits, and the fact that someone is intersex can become apparent at different stages of life.

Dr Morgan Carpenter, Executive Director of Intersex Human Rights Australia, says this is a great moment for the intersex community, “but we still have a long way to go.”

“Because of the way our bodies are perceived as different, we can experience stigmatisation, discrimination and harmful practices, including medical interventions to make our bodies appear or function in ways that are more typically female or male,” Dr Carpenter said.

“We are calling for the same rights as everybody else. It’s about the universality of human rights, including the rights to bodily integrity and bodily autonomy, and freedom from harmful practices.”

ACT stands alone on intersex protections

In June 2023, the ACT became the first jurisdiction in Australia to protect people with variations in sex characteristics from harmful and unnecessary medical interventions as children by placing restrictions on altering sex characteristics without personal consent.

Ghassan Kassisieh, Legal Director of national advocacy group Equality Australia, says the resolution sends a clear message to other governments across Australia.

“Unnecessary medical procedures continue to be performed on infants and children born with intersex variations in Australia, leaving them with the physical and psychological scars of medical decisions they had no say in,” Kassisieh said. 

“This resolution shows there is growing global consensus on intersex rights, and with Australia showing leadership on the international stage at the UN, now is the time for all our state and territories to follow suit and put an end to unnecessary medical procedures on intersex people without their consent.”  

“We call on all states and territories to pass laws protecting intersex people from unnecessary medical procedures so they can decide for themselves what surgeries they want when they are old enough.”

Intersex advocate and spokesperson for support service A Gender Agenda, Mimi Hall, says the UN resolution is “profoundly impactful.”

“Human rights abuses experienced by people with intersex variations have long been hidden or misunderstood,” she said. 

“Despite a number of calls for action by the UN for states to increase the protection of intersex rights, there has been little advancement toward legal safeguards in Australia. 

“This was until last year, when the ACT passed a ground-breaking bill prohibiting unnecessary and deferrable medical interventions on intersex children. It’s now crucial for other Australian states and territories to recognise the UN’s persistent calls to action and implement protective laws similar to the ACT’s.

“This UN Resolution makes it very hard for them to continue to ignore this issue.” 

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Tasmanian advocates have called on the state to follow the Australian Capital Territory’s lead by banning unnecessary, non-consenting medical interventions on children with innate variations of sex characteristics.

Last week, the ACT passed Australia’s first laws protecting intersex people from unconsented medical procedures.

Simone-lisa Anderson, the Tasmanian representative on Intersex Peer Support Australia, said it was “a monumental day for human rights protections.”

“The ACT government has passed legislation to protect people with innate variations of sex characteristics. This legislation is accompanied by funding for necessary psychosocial supports for both families and children.”

“This was a commitment made to Intersex Human Rights Australia and Intersex Peer Support Australia in 2018 and implements recommendations from the 2021 report from the Australian Human Rights Commission.”

“In 2019 the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute made similar recommendations to the Tasmanian Government, yet there is still no action from our state government. There are still no protections for a community that is too-rarely acknowledged or supported in Tasmania.”

“As the Tasmanian representative on IPSA, I congratulate the ACT and urge the Tasmanian Government to act as soon as possible.”

“This reform is needed to support health and wellbeing in our community.”

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The legislation will protect people with variations in sex characteristics from harmful and unnecessary medical interventions as children by placing restrictions on treatment to alter sex characteristics without personal consent.

These restrictions will exclude emergencies or authorisation by an independent assessment board. The board will be created with committed comprised of intersex people with lived experience alongside medical, ethical and psychosocial experts. The laws will also introduce offences and other regulatory provisions to enforce these changes.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr fought back tears when speaking on the legislation in parliament to commend the bill.

“It’s incumbent [on] all members in this parliament, who care about the autonomy, consent and safety of people with variations in sex characteristics and I thank them for their support of this bill today,” Chief Minister Barr said of the bill he himself introduced.

“We look forward to the detailed debate, where I will hold it together better than I have just done.”

The action follows long-term advocacy from intersex individuals and groups, as well as broader LGBTIQA+ advocacy groups, who have all welcomed today’s action.

Long-time advocate and Executive Director of Intersex Human Rights Australia (IHRA) called this a “wonderful and transformative moment.”

“This legislation promises to ensure this, implementing effective oversight and appropriate penalties. And it is accompanied by much needed investment in psychosocial support,” Carpenter said.

“Thank you so much for the leadership of the ACT Government and their engagement with all stakeholders. We look forward to deepening our collaboration with government and community organisations to ensure its success.

“This is a model for other jurisdictions, and we call on other states and territories to adopt similar reforms.”

Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown adds that it is time for other states and territories to follow the ACT’s lead.

“Every intersex person in Australia should be able to grow up to live a full and dignified life in which they decide what happens to their own bodies,” Brown said.

“It’s now time for the rest of the country to commit to protecting future generations of intersex Australians from medical procedures that can be deferred until they are old enough to decide for themselves.

“The fact not a single MP from any party in the ACT voted against this bill shows how important these protections are and that the time is right for reform in all other states and territories.”

One of the most high-profile intersex Australians, the world’s first openly intersex mayor Tony Briffa, has also commented the ACT Government.

“Infants and children born with intersex variations in Australia continue to have unnecessary, irreversible hormonal and surgical interventions performed them, like surgeries to reduce the size of a baby girl’s clitoris or to remove healthy gonads.

“I call on all other states and territories to follow the ACT’s lead and protect the rights of all intersex people in medical settings.”

Currently, Victoria is the only state or territory besides the ACT who have made commitments in this space. In October 2021, the Australian Human Rights Commission urged all Australian governments to implement measures that prevent harmful medical interventions on intersex people without personal consent.

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Today, October 26, is Intersex Awareness Day.

“All human bodies are different, and intersex variations are a natural part of human diversity,” Tony Briffa, IHRA Vice-Chair and IPSA President commented on the importance of the day of recognition.

Intersex Human Rights Australia (IHRA), Intersex Peer Support Australia (IPSA) are two of leading organisations supporting and advocating for intersex people.

Intersex people have innate variations of sex characteristics that differ from medical and social norms for female or male bodies.

Intersex is an umbrella term for a diverse range of different traits that can be determined prenatally, at birth, during puberty and at other times. People with intersex variations grow up to express diverse identities, including LGBT and non-LGBT identities.

Last year a landmark report was released by the Australian Human Rights Commission that highlighted the need for intersex people to be given autonomy over their medical decisions.

Often doctors and parents make decisions about intersex people’s medical treatment when their are infants, which robs people of choices.

Launching the report Dr Rosalind Croucher, Chair of the Australian Human Rights Commission said increased research and input from people who are intersex and their families had highlighted that approaches and attitudes were changing.

“Many of the most controversial and contested interventions have occurred when individuals were infants, or as children too young to be able to provide their own consent.

“Decisions about these procedures have often been made based on prevailing social attitudes and the available research base – both of which have changed in important ways over recent years.” Dr Croucher said.

Among the key findings of the report was a recommendation that  medical interventions to modify the sex characteristics of people born with variations in sex characteristics should be guided by a human rights framework.

It proposes that medical interventions should be deferred where possible should be delayed until a time when the child is able to make their own decisions about what happens to their body.

It also calls for new resources to increase awareness of variations of sex characteristics in the community, educational, service and employment settings, and to reduce the associated stigma.

The report recommends that the most effective way to achieve this would be for the Australian Government and state and territory governments should fund community organisations led by people born with variations in sex characteristics.

Lifelong support and care services should also be created and supported, alongside more research and clinical oversight process.

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A tribunal in South Australia has heard that authorities put an intersex woman in a male prison, despite a judge asking that she be housed in the women’s facility.

The woman has lodged a discrimination complaint against the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) and the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) saying that they broke the state’s Equal Opportunity Act in the services they provided to her.

The complainant was born as an intersex person and assigned female at birth. As a child she was given a male name and transitioned to living as a male. In 2014 she transitioned to female and took hormone replacement therapy. Her documentation shows that she is female.

In 2019 the woman was arrested and the court ordered that she be remanded in custody. The magistrate made orders noting that she identifies as female, and recommended that she be sent to a women’s prison.

The woman claims that while in custody she was exposed to cruel and degrading treatment. She was then transferred to several hospitals before being transferred to home detention. The charges in the case were later withdrawn.

In 2020 the woman was charged with further offences and was again remanded in custody. She was initially taken to the women’s prison but was then transferred to Yatala, a male facility.

The woman claims that here she was subjected to further ridicule, denied access to medication, and was subjected to invasive medical examinations without consent. She has also alleged that guards at the facility asked inappropriate questions about her genitalia and refused to address her by the correct female pronouns.

Both services had asked for the Tribunal to throw out the complaint, citing a lack of detail in when individual incidents occurred. However, the tribunal disagreed and ordered that the case be heard.

The tribunal noted that department’s policy on Transgender and Intersex Offenders had clear guidelines for staff on how cases should be managed including specific rules around strip searches, privacy, and a process to determine if a prisoner is housed in a male or female facility.

In a statement the Department of Correctional Services said it was committed to meeting the needs of transgender and intersex prisoners.

“DCS is committed to meeting the needs of transgender and intersex offenders and prisoners, while seeking to ensure their safety and the safety of others is not compromised,” the spokesperson said.

“The department’s relevant policies ensure transgender and intersex offenders and prisoners are treated with equivalent respect and dignity that is accorded to all offenders.

“Given this matter is still before the court, no further comment can be made.”

The matter will return to the tribunal at a later date.

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Intersex advocates have highlighted issues with new regulations passed by the peak body for elite swimming, FINA, warning of discrimination against people with intersex variations.

Intersex Human Rights Australia (IHRA) have called attention to regulations pertaining to ‘XY DSDs’, which categorises women with certain intersex traits as men.

The new policy would also only allow women with certain intersex characteristics to compete in the women’s category if “they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later”.

IHRA warn that these regulations serve to reinforce stigma and shame associated with intersex traits, and that the changes will have little immediate impact beyond compounding such stigma.

“These regulations only add to the harm experienced by people with intersex variations in Australia,” IHRA Executive Director and bioethicist Morgan Carpenter says.

“The women with XY traits primarily impacted by these regulations have not transitioned gender, they are not gender diverse, and they have often not had opportunities to participate in decision making about how they are medically treated. They were observed or assigned female at birth. They have been raised as women. Treating them as males strips them of their lifelong status and disregards their biological and social realities. Their status should not depend on the convenience of others.”

“The new FINA regulations require women in this situation to prove and certify practices that have violated their rights. Given the ongoing history of unnecessary medicalisation of children with intersex traits, these regulations reinforce and require harmful practices, or exclusion.”

IHRA Chair Agli Zavros-Orr adds that the ‘XY DSD’ rules are uneducated and discriminatory.

“Understanding of bodies and their biological variations from such a narrow perspective reinforces psycho-social gender-based stereotypes about female bodies and their diversity,” Zavros-Orr said.

“With many young people and young adults not learning about their intersex variation until they are older – to also find out that they are discriminated against in society (in this case participation in elite sport) can add to the experience of trauma because of pathologizing and discriminating practices beyond the doctor’s office.”

“From an education perspective this reinforces that society and social systems are discriminatory. Such systems perpetuate systemic violence that subject bodies to further scrutinization about what it means to be female – that leads to biased policing (with potential for bullying and harassment by those given the authority to implement this policy).”

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The ACT Government has released a draft bill outlining plans to end non-consenting medical interventions on intersex children.

The legislation was developed after consultations with experts and lived experience participants, and ongoing advocacy from intersex and LGBTQIA+ organisations.

The Variations in Sex Characteristics (Restricted Medical Treatment) Bill 2022 sets out new processes to be applied when medical treatment for people with variations in sex characteristics is being considered.

The Bill would only allow for medical treatment for emergency procedures to protect an individuals health, treatments that do not affect sex characteristics, easily reversible treatments or if the individual is seeking treatment with informed consent.

Intersex Human Rights Australia executive director Morgan Carpenter says this draft legislation marks a historic moment.

“For more than twenty years, the intersex movement in Australia has sought legal reforms to protect people with innate variations of sex characteristics in medical settings,” Carpenter says.

“The persistence of so-called ‘normalising’ interventions, intending to make the bodies of children with intersex variations fit gender stereotypes, has been our most intractable issue.”

“Working with ourselves and other intersex advocates, the ACT government made a formal commitment to reform in 2019, and this thoughtful, carefully considered draft legislation is the product of years of productive engagement.”

“To the maximum extent possible, it aims to ensure that all of us can make our own decisions about our own bodies. Alongside it, we anticipate increased resourcing for peer and family support.”

Just.Equal Australia has also welcomed the release of the draft law, and has called on other states and territories to follow the ACT’s lead.

“Too often intersex people are forced to live with decisions made for them,” Intersex Human Rights Australia senior project officer and Just.Equal board member, Cody Smith said.

“To be treated as a medical curiosity and subjected to unconsented medical procedures produces lifelong consequences and scars. This is an injustice that has been too easily ignored for too long.”

“With legislation like this, comes the promise that the harm can end here. We just need more jurisdictions ready to protect the bodily autonomy of intersex people.”

Just.Equal President and ACT resident, Ivan Hinton-Teoh, congratulated intersex advocates for their tireless work and the ACT Government for its initiative.

“It’s great to see the ACT leading the way on protecting people with innate variations of sex characteristics,” Hinton-Teoh said.

“All state and territory governments should follow the ACT’s lead.”

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Madeleine Ogilvie, Tasmania’s Minister for Women, has taken a stand against Senator Claire Chandler’s attempt to exclude trans women and intersex people from sport at a federal level.

Responding to a parliamentary question from independent Member for Clark Kristie Johnston, Minister Ogilvie described the bill as “divisive, hurtful and utterly unnecessary.”

Ogilvie’s response echoes the stance of the Gutwein Liberal Government, whose Premier Peter Gutwein and Sports Minister Nic Street have also opposed the bill in Senator Chandler’s home state.

Equality Tasmania spokesperson Charlie Burton has welcomed the comments from Minister Ogilvie, thanking her for supporting the state government in opposing the bill.

“We will seek a meeting with Ms Ogilvie and Mr Street to outline our detailed concerns about the bill,” Dr Burton said.

“Including the way it undermines the aspiration and hard work of many Tasmanian grassroots sports clubs towards being more inclusive of trans players.”

Minister Ogilvie also committed to fostering transgender inclusion in sport, citing an increase to the Tasmanian LGBTIQ+ Community Fund as well as research into the needs of the LGBTIQ+ community by the state government and the University of Tasmania.

Ogilvie and the Tasmanian Government join a chorus of voices opposing the discriminatory legislation, including Equality Australia, Just.Equal Australia, Intersex Human Rights Australia, TransFolk of WA, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights and Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer.

In a recent appearance on ABC Radio in Tasmania, Senator Chandler also struggled to name a single sporting club who supported her mission.

OIP Staff

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DISCHARGED: info@discharged.org.au / discharged.org.au
Discharged is a trans-led support service with peer support groups for trans and gender diverse folks.

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Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) has condemned Tasmanian Senator Claire Chandler’s ‘Save Women’s Sports Bill’, as “divisive, completely lacking in any evidence-base and inconsistent with international human rights principles.”

“The Bill is unnecessary because section 42(1) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 already allows people to be excluded from competing in sport, based on their sex, gender identity or intersex status, where the strength, stamina or physique of competitors is relevant,” ALHR LGBTI Co-Chair, Georgia Burke, said of the bill.

ALHR LGBT Co-Chair, Nicholas Stewart, adds that the bill is “against the spirit of sport.”

“It is cruel and divisive. The Bill proposes to repeal section 42 to allow discrimination against children under the age of 12, for the first time. It means that a trans woman, who transitioned before puberty and has the physical characteristics of a cis woman, can be legally discriminated against by a sporting club and excluded irrespective of any connection between her trans identity and sporting ability,” Stewart says.

“Trans and gender diverse young people are among the most vulnerable groups in terms of violence, discrimination and mental health outcomes.,, If anything, the Australian Parliament should be considering laws that promote their physical and mental safety through protection from discrimination.”

“Senator Chandler is legally qualified, but the Bill is legally deficient. Linking sex discrimination protections to biological attributes is inconsistent with science, medical practice and even the international professional standards that govern competitive sporting participation. The legislation could have unintended legal consequences for women born with chromosomal variations or other intersex characteristics.

“ALHR stands with Intersex Human Rights Australia, who rightly identify the Bill as profoundly regresssive, including because it denies the biological realities that people with intersex variations live with, exacerbates social exclusion of persons with variations of intersex characteristics, and furthers incomprehension of the intersex community.”

“ALHR is concerned that the Bill is inconsistent with international human rights law standards,” ALHR President Kerry Weste adds.

“Its application to children under the age of 12 may violate Australia’s obligations to act in the best interests of the child and protect children’s rights to non-discrimination, health and development under the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. We also condier the Bill inconsitent with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (“CEDAW”) and the Universal Decelarion of Human Rights UDHR).”

“In justifying that her Bill is compatible with human rights, Senator Chandler cites Article 10(g) of CEDAW”. which requires States to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men in the field of education, with particular refernce to a number of requirements on States, including to ensure, “The same opportunities to participate actively in sports and physical education”.

“CEDAW does not exclude trans women,” Weste notes.

Protections afforded to transgender people in Australia were introduced in the 2013 amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth). These protections accord with Australia’s obligations as a signatory to the UDHR, pursuant to which all people, irrespective of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, are entitled to enjoy the protections including the right to be free from discrimination.

When quoting Article 10 in the Bill’s Explanatory Memorandum, Senator Chandler omits the words “in the field of education”, falsely giving Article 10 the appearance of having broader application. ALHR says that for Senator Chandler to cherry pick provisions of the CEDAW while ignoring other key international human rights principles is misleading.

ALHR urges all members of parliament and the Senate to reject this Bill in its entirety. We call on Prime Minister Morrison to retract his description of a Bill that legalises discrimination against vulnerable children as “terrific.”

OIP Staff

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If you are struggling with anxiety or depression, support and counselling are available from:

QLife: 1800 184 527 / qlife.org.au (Webchat 3pm – midnight)
QLife are a counselling and referral service for LGBTQIA+ people.

DISCHARGED: info@discharged.org.au / discharged.org.au
Discharged is a trans-led support service with peer support groups for trans and gender diverse folks.

Lifeline: 13 11 14 / lifeline.org.au

Beyondblue: 1300 22 4636 / www.beyondblue.org.au

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The ABC’s Backroads program shared the story this week of Tasmanian Rob Wilson who is a world famous chicken breeder. The chicken obsessed farmer also shared his experiences of being intersex.

Wilson explained that he was born with both male and female genitals, and while doctors performed surgery just a few days after his birth, he was left with a lifetime of medical challenges as well as facing bullying and stigma.

“Basically, I went to the toilet like a male, so they decided alright I was going to be male, so they stitched the female up.”

The medical challenges began when puberty hit, because unbeknownst to him, he began mensurating, and his body was reabsorbing the blood, leaving him with high iron levels, that lead to other medical challenges.

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