Queensland transgender identity laws pass

Transgender Queenslanders will no longer be forced to choose between their marriage and legal identity under new laws passed in state parliament.

Queensland has passed laws that recognise the existing marriages of transgender people.

Queensland has passed laws that recognise the existing marriages of transgender people. Source: AAP

Transgender Queenslanders will no longer have to get a divorce before their gender is legally recognised.

Laws recognising the existing marriages of people who undergo gender reassignment passed the state's parliament on Wednesday, allowing birth certificates to be changed without an annulment.
Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, Anna Brown welcomes the law but acknowledges more needs to be done.
Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, Anna Brown welcomes the law but acknowledges more needs to be done. Source: AAP
Queensland is the third state to introduce the amendment after same-sex marriage was legalised last year.

Anna Brown, Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, said it was a small, but significant, change that will allow transgender people to live as themselves without losing the person they love.

A separate state government review of existing limitations on changes to birth certificates, including the requirement that applicants undergo surgery, is also underway.

"Transgender people face problems every day accessing services and facilities most Australians use without thinking twice, because their identity documents do not match their gender," Mr Brown added.

"We need a complete overhaul of these outdated laws to ensure, for example, that trans people do not have to undergo invasive and unnecessary surgeries simply to be recognised as the gender they live as."


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