Submission on the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status) Bill 2013

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Our submission to the Senate Inquiry on the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status) Bill 2013 has just been published.

While not as comprehensive as the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill, which seemingly could not generate sufficient support this side of an election, we welcome the tabled Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status) Bill. We thank the government for bringing this bill forward. While we make a number of recommendations regarding the preamble and exemptions, we hope that the bill, amended, will receive multi-partisan support.

In particular, we present evidence on the history of IAAF and IOC sex testing, and call for the ability for all people to compete in their legal gender.

We also seek to link proposed government guidelines on recognition of gender identity and intersex status to the legislation.

Download submission

Download our submission from the Senate website, here (PDF)

Recommendations

  • Preamble: We would welcome reference to the innate nature of intersex in the preamble and explanatory memorandum.
  • Sport: We recommend that people are permitted to compete according to their legal sex. An exemption on grounds of intersex status or gender identity is not necessary to achieve this.
  • Marriage: We believe that the government should explicitly state and justify its position on intersex people and marriage.
  • Identity records: Any exemption to the Sex Discrimination Act relating to ‘X’ gender documentation should be temporary, to match proposed guidelines for federal departments and agencies.
  • Identity records: The Sex Discrimination Amendment Bill should put the proposed guidelines on gender recognition by government departments and agencies onto a regulatory footing.
  • Religion: We seek the full application of recommendations on religious exemptions from the Senate Inquiry report on the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill. Failing that, we ask that there will be no exemptions applicable to aged care provision.

Please note that endorsements of other submissions are omitted from our submission to enable publication before receipt of other documents.

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