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.

OIP Staff

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Intersex Human Rights Australia (IHRA) have shared their perspective on Senator Claire Chandler’s private member’s bill, which seeks to restrict access to sport based on binary biological definitions of sex, effectively erasing Australians with intersex variations.

IHRA join a number of organisations speaking out against the bill, including Equality Tasmania, Equality Australia and TransFolk of WA, which has been dragged into the spotlight since Prime Minister Scott Morrison voiced his support for the amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act while campaigning in Tasmania this week.

IHRA’s Executive Director Morgan Carpenter says the bill and the PM’s support have a pervasive and profoundly harmful impact on most people with intersex variations.

“The bill proposes to insert a hard biological definition of sex, and of ‘man’ and ‘woman’, into the national legislation that has offered protections from discrimination on grounds of sex, intersex status, sexual orientation and gender identity since 2013. It proposes that ‘sex’ means ‘the chromosomal, gonadal and anatomical characteristics associated with biological sex’, where everyone’s characteristics line up neatly as man or woman,” Carpenter explains.

Carpenter draws attention to the 2016 Family Court case Re: Carla (Medical procedure), where the presiding judge supported the sterilisation of a pre-school child, described as having a ‘sexual development disorder’; ‘genetically male’ with ‘male’ gonads.

“The judge also stated that the child had already had ‘surgery that enhanced the appearance of her female genitalia’. The case was taken to sterilise the child, which occurred on the basis of misrepresented facts and gender stereotypes that included an appeal to the child wearing ‘Minnie Mouse underwear’ and having ‘her long blond hair tied in braids’. The pre-school child had little agency about any of these decisions.”

“The case is profoundly disturbing, and has contributed to analysis and recommendations for legislative reform, including by the Australian Human Rights Commission. We hope this will lead to reform to protect children with intersex variations from these so-called ‘normalising’ procedures in future. The ACT and Victoria have made tangible commitments to reform,” Carpenter continues.

“In the context of the proposals by Sen. Claire Chandler, supported by Scott Morrison, the case begs a question: is Carla a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’? Who decides?”

“Is Carla a ‘man’ within the terms of the bill? Should medicine and society treat her as a man? If so, then why did the Family Court refer to surgery as having ‘enhanced the appearance of her female genitalia’? Why was this considered even remotely acceptable, let alone characterised as an ‘enhancement’? Surgeries like this should wait until people can make their own informed decisions.”

“Is Carla a ‘woman’, within the terms of the bill? Should medicine and society treat her as a woman? Is this why gender stereotypes like having ‘long blond hair tied in braids’ were called upon to justify the removal of her testes? Why is this considered even remotely acceptable, as a justification for surgery? Unless there’s an urgent need to protect physical health, surgeries like this should wait until people can make their own decisions.”

“Is Carla to be considered not a ‘woman’ or a ‘man’ within the terms of this bill, because her body doesn’t fit the ideas about what it means to be a member of those categories? Why is it considered even remotely acceptable to exclude her from her lifelong legal and social category? Decisions about changing someone’s social and legal status should be made by individuals themselves, with their informed consent.”

“Intersex variations are variously termed ‘disorders of sex development’, innate variations of sex characteristics, or using a range of individual diagnostic names. Some of this language reinforces the idea that our bodies should be ‘fixed’ to fit ideas about how they should function or appear. By their very nature, people with intersex variations have sex characteristics that differ from normative ideas about what it means to be a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’ within the narrow terms proposed in this bill.”

“This does not mean that people with intersex variations should be treated as a third category, outside narrow stereotypes of what it means to be a man or woman. Like ‘Carla’, people with intersex variations are invariably observed or assigned female or male at birth.”

“In situations of doubt, New South Wales doctors state that ‘surgical options’ are an acceptable factor in classifying sex. The information we have available to us from a paediatric gynaecology service in Queensland, the state where the Family Court case on ‘Carla’ was adjudicated, show that all but one of a cohort of children with intersex variations seen by the service have experienced unnecessary medical interventions to make their bodies fit normative ideas about appearance and function.”

“It should be up to individuals to make their own decisions about their bodies and who they are.”

“The bill proposes to deny the biological realities that people with intersex variations live with, and exacerbate social exclusion and incomprehension. It is profoundly regressive and doesn’t deserve support.”

Local advocate and Intersex Peer Support Australia (IPSA) committee member Michelle McGrath also shared her thoughts on the legislation.

“As a director of IPSA I’m constantly see the struggles that people with innate variations of sex characteristics are forced to deal with on a daily basis,” McGrath said.

“The harm done to folks with these variations due to forced medically harmful practices causes life long pain and suffering, physically and mentally. To include this bill in legislation will tip many of our community over the edge, causing a greater number of suicides with children.”

Speaking directly to Senator Chandler in a statement, McGrath says the bill is both evil and hypocritical to the Christian faith.

“If you spent more time concentrating on things that matter, like protecting children with variations from medical harm without their consent then maybe I could respect you and your party.”

“Your bill is a disgrace to Australia.”

OIP Staff

Do you need some support?

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: 9364 6909 / waamh.org.au / wearedischarged@gmail.com
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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