Western Australia to Allow People to Legally Change Their Gender Without Medical Surgery

Western Australians will also be able to identify themselves as non-binary, indeterminate, and intersex.

A sign designating male or female is seen in Albany, Western Australia, on April 4, 2024. Susan Mortimer/The Epoch Times

A letter from a medical practitioner will be all it takes for a person to legally change their gender in Western Australia (WA) as the state moves to introduce a new bill for gender recognition.

The current law requires a person to undergo surgical reassignment and provide proof to the Gender Reassignment Board before being able to register a change of gender.

However, the centre-left Labor government said it would scrap the Gender Reassignment Board and introduce through the Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages a “new streamlined administrative process for sex and gender recognition.”

Under the proposed changes, individuals will only need a statement from a medical practitioner and psychologist certifying that they have “received appropriate clinical treatment in relation to the person’s sex or gender,” the government said.

People under 18 will face stricter rules including parental consent or permission from the Family Court of Western Australia in certain circumstances.

WA Premier Roger Cook hailed the progressive bill as a “significant legislative agenda,” demonstrating the government’s “commitment to developing WA’s first LGBTIQ+ inclusion strategy.”

“These important reforms will mean that trans and gender-diverse members of our community will no longer be required to undergo gender-affirming surgery to change their gender on their birth certificate, removing the outdated barriers that deny people identity documents that accurately reflect their gender,” he said in a statement on April 16.

“Everyone deserves the respect and dignity of being recognised as themselves, to have their legal identity align with their lived identity.”

Attorney General John Quigley said the legislation would bring WA in line with other states in gender recognition. Currently, WA and New South Wales (NSW) are the only Australian jurisdictions that require people to undergo medical reassignment to change their sex on birth certificates.

“The State Government remains 100 percent committed to new equal opportunity legislation and we will continue to engage with stakeholders in relation to this important reform,” Mr. Quigley said.

Additionally, the government said it was developing a new Equal Opportunity Act and “ban conversion practices—consisting of both a criminal prohibition and a civil response scheme.”

Labor added that it was also committed to the development of new legislation for assisted reproductive technology (ART) and surrogacy, intending to introduce these measures to parliament as  “soon as possible.”

‘Anti-Women’ Reform

However, a similar bill that will introduce self-ID in NSW has faced pushback from a women’s rights group, which criticised it as an “anti-women,” “anti-children reform.”

Think tank Women’s Forum Australia described the state’s ban on conversion practice as “the criminalisation or restriction of care for people struggling with gender dysphoria.”

“These regressive reforms endanger, discriminate against, and/or commodify and exploit women and children, and in some cases, put at risk the rights and freedoms of NSW citizens, and subvert best medical practice,” the women’s forum said.

“They are out of step with evolving research and developments taking place overseas.”

A petition titled “Protect Women and Children in NSW” by Women’s Forum Australia has garnered over 21,000 signatures.