The Age: “Calls to change rights law bill”

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The Age, "Call to change human rights law"

Dan Harrison, Health and Indigenous Affairs Correspondent for Fairfax writes in The Age today on the proposed Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill, quoting our submission:

In its submission the Organisation Intersex International Australia said stronger protections were needed for intersex people. The bill introduces the first federal protections against discrimination on the grounds of sexuality and gender identity. But the organisation said this was not sufficient protection.

“Intersex people suffer stigmatisation and discrimination, and we need explicit protection,” it said.

We’re grateful for the mention in the national press. Our submission contains a detailed explanation of how and why sexuality and gender identity does not include intersex. In a nutshell, from our submission:

Intersex is a term which relates to a range of natural biological traits or variations that lie between “male” and “female”. An intersex person may have the biological attributes of both sexes, or lack some of the biological attributes considered necessary to be clearly defined as one or the other sex. Intersex is always congenital and can originate from genetic, chromosomal or hormonal variations. In many cases, intersex variations can be determined prenatally, via amniocentesis.

Intersex people suffer stigmatization and discrimination, and we need explicit protection in human rights and anti-discrimination legislation. This can only be achieved by explicitly recognizing intersex as a biological state, as in proposed Tasmanian anti-discrimination legislation, or by recognizing our diverse sex characteristics.

The article also appears in the Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times and other Fairfax news sites.

Links to the submission

The submission can be found on the Senate Committee webpage as submission number 12.

More information