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'Now it means that rather than having an arbitrary set of surgeries that people have to have, each case can be taken on its merits'
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Women legally change gender but keep female organs
Two Australian trans men have won the right to be legally considered male, while retaining their female reproductive organs, ABC News reports. The men had earlier been denied legal recognition and appealed against the decision, but the Attorney-General of Western Australia, Christian Porter, argued that under the Gender Reassignment Act they could not be considered male until they had undergone hysterectomies.
In November 2008 the men's lawyer, Steven Penglis, told the Gender Reassignment Board that they had undergone reassignment surgery by having double mastectomies and for a least two years had received regular testosterone injections, but that both individuals had been advised by their doctors against having hysterectomies because of the risk involved. However, the Board refused to acknowledge their change of gender because they still had female reproductive organs and could potentially bear children.
But in the latest development the State Administrative Tribunal said a female reproductive system was "a fundamental, although not essential, physical characteristic of being female" and that because the Act did not specify reproductive surgery as a requirement, the pair could be legally considered men even with female reproductive organs.
The Tribunal's findings said: "Both applicants had undergone bilateral mastectomies and testosterone treatment as a result of which each had undergone extensive physical changes consistent with being male...the tribunal accepted the evidence of each applicant that he intended to continue testosterone treatment for the rest of his life. It accepted the medical evidence that each was, and would remain, infertile for as long as he continued testosterone treatment."
One of the men, whose identity is legally suppressed, told ABC News that he was happy with the tribunal's decision. "It means that it opens up lots of opportunities for lots of other people who until now have never tried to get their sex legally changed because they didn't think they'd be able to," he said. "Now it means that rather than having an arbitrary set of surgeries that people have to have, each case can be taken on its merits. [It's] a result that will make life easier for both myself and the other applicant and for lots of other transpeople."
