[transgendernews] [News] [Australia] Passport Snub 'Unjust'
Stephanie Stevens
Sydney Star Observer, Australia
Issue 885 - Published 20/09/2007
Passport Snub 'Unjust'
by Cara Davis
[PHOTO: <http://www.ssonet.com.au/content/885/marriage.jpg> Fiona
Power and Grace Abrams]
The Federal Government has refused to issue a post-operative trans
woman a female passport on the basis that she is married to a woman.
Grace Abrams last week appealed the decision by Foreign Affairs
Minister Alexander Downer at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Abrams, who married her long-term partner Fiona Power using her male
birth certificate, will have a legally recognised same-sex marriage if
she wins the case.
Abrams, born Gregory Anthony Abrams, began a relationship with Power
in 2000. Between 2001 and 2005, Abrams underwent the transition to
female, officially changing her name to Grace in 2002.
Abrams married Power in 2005, before obtaining an interim passport in
her intended sex to undergo gender reassignment surgery in Thailand.
On returning to Australia as a female, Abrams applied to the NSW
Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages to register the change of sex.
A female birth certificate was refused on the basis she was married.
Shortly after, Abrams armed herself with documentation that proved she
was a woman, including medical certificates and statutory
declarations, and lodged an application for an amended passport
through the Australian Passport Office.
Not only was her valid interim female passport destroyed, Abrams was
told she could be issued with a passport in the male gender only. She
was later informed she could not be issued with a valid passport in
the female gender because she could not provide a birth certificate
showing the gender of reassignment.
All Australian citizens, including Abrams, are entitled to a passport
if they can prove their identity and citizenship.
Abrams's lawyer David Shoebridge said if a trans person is not
married, the Department of Births Deaths and Marriages would issue a
birth certificate in the new gender.
"The Minister relied upon the failure of Grace Abrams to provide an
amended birth certificate as the reason for refusing her application,"
he said.
"That is purely a policy position taken by the Passport Office and is
not founded in any legal requirements."
Lawyers acting on behalf of the government told the Tribunal that
Abrams could not be issued with a female passport because she did not
have an amended birth certificate. They said the Minister was not
satisfied Abrams was a woman.
However, it was acknowledged in the government's Statement of Facts
that the Minister was not bound to the policy.
Abrams said it was not fair to force trans people to choose between
having their marriage or post-operative gender recognised.
"It is inhuman and unjust," she said.
The verdict will be handed down in about two weeks.
http://www.ssonet.com.au/display.asp?ArticleID=7029
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