Gabrielle de Vietri asks the Minister to take urgent action to protect travel rights for Trans Victorians.
Transcript: My adjournment is for the Minister for Equality. The action I seek is that the minister urgently write to the Minister for Women and Equalities in the United Kingdom, the Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch, asking her not to exclude Victoria from the list of jurisdictions whose gender recognition certificates are recognised in the United Kingdom. Earlier this year the UK minister announced that her government would review the list of approved overseas countries and territories whose gender recognition certificates are recognised in the United Kingdom, stating that it should not be possible for people to obtain legal gender recognition in the UK from jurisdictions whose processes are not as rigorous. Concerningly, they blocked the Scottish gender recognition reform bill from obtaining royal assent, which sought to give people the right to self-identification of their gender without also being required to undergo medical intervention.
The Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Amendment Act 2019 was, as we know, passed democratically by nearly a two-thirds majority of the Legislative Council,
removing the requirement for Victorians to undergo medical intervention in order to have their gender legally recognised.
This legislation gave Victorians the right to self-identification of gender and was widely celebrated across the state as a crucial step for trans rights. LGBTIQA+ advocates believe that there is a risk that the UK’s minister will exclude Victoria from the list of jurisdictions whose gender recognition certificates are recognised in the United Kingdom on the basis that the Victorian law, like the Scottish bill, does not require medical treatment for gender recognition, unlike the UK’s Gender Recognition Act 2004.
I urge the minister to reject any insinuation from the UK that Victoria’s system for gender recognition is not rigorous. The Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 requires that a person seeking to alter their record of sex lodge an application, including a statutory declaration and a supporting statement attesting that the application is made in good faith. Excluding Victoria from the list of jurisdictions whose gender recognition certificates are recognised in the UK could mean that trans and gender-diverse Victorians will no longer have their gender recognised in the UK. This could in effect create a trans travel ban for Victorians seeking to travel, live and work in the UK. I ask that the minister make representations to the Minister for Women and Equalities in order to both respect trans Victorians and respect the democratic process and decision of the Victorian Parliament.
