Gender Not Specified: NSW Registrar Births, Deaths and Marriages v Norrie in the High Court
Friday 7 March 2014 @ 1.41 p.m. | Legal Research
On Tuesday March 4, the High Court heard an appeal from the NSW Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages against a 2013 judgement from NSW that the ABC called ‘the first case of its kind in Australia’. Last year’s case, NSW Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages v. Norrie [2013] NSWCA 145, found that it was open to the Registrar to register a person’s sex as neither male or female, but non-specific. This was contrary to an earlier decision by the Administrative Decisions Tribunal Appeals Panel.
Facts
The case began when Norrie, who identifies as neither male nor female, applied to be registered as being of non-specific sex in 2010. The NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages initially agreed and provided Norrie with a certificate showing Norrie’s sex as ‘not specified’. This made Norrie the first person ever recognised in NSW as neither man nor woman. But the certificate was revoked as invalid four months later, after the Registry received legal advice. Norrie challenged that decision, and the ensuing legal battle has now arrived in the High Court.
Gender elsewhere
The case not only has ramifications for the way NSW laws are determined, but also for other jurisdictions that have similar rules. It also demonstrates a greater trend for various governmental bodies to reflect on how they deal with transgender, intersex and gender diverse people. For example, in 2011 the Federal Government allowed individuals to be issued a passport with an ‘X’ marker. In Victoria, people identifying as intersex can select their gender on their birth certificates as “indeterminate” or leave the field blank.
In NSW, other changes to legislation are also on the horizon. On the same day that Norrie’s case was being heard in the High Court, the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Amendment (Change of Sex) Bill 2014 was introduced in the NSW Legislative Council. The Bill is intended to abolish laws that currently mean a married person who has a gender transition must separate from their partner before they can be issued with any updated identification, only furthering the acknowledgment across all the states in Australia of people who identify as other than male or female.
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