#BREAKING – After years of lobbying from the Greens and community advocates, the State Government has just announced their intention to abolish WA’s Gender Reassignment Board✊🎉 While this change is long overdue it’s excellent that the archaic and bureaucratic board will finally be done away with.
The State Government must work with the Gender Reassignment Board to urgently progress the applications of the nearly 30 trans and gender diverse Western Australians whose applications have been indefinitely on hold since September. Given that we are heading into a holiday shutdown period for many Government bodies, these folks should not be left waiting in limbo for any longer than absolutely necessary.
An announcement is a good first step, but given this State Government’s sometimes snail-like pace with which they actually legislate their social commitments, the State Government needs to establish a clear timeline for when the Gender Reassignment Board will be abolished.
There is SO much further to go to genuinely advance the rights and well-being of trans and gender diverse Western Australians. With the Equal Opportunity Act review due to come into WA Parliament in 2023, Dr Brad Pettitt MLC will be fighting for the creation of a non-binary or ‘X’ marker on identification, to ensure the new system will allow for self-identification of gender without the need for clinical evidence, modernization of birth certificate processes to help trans people more easily affirm their genders, and a slew of other reforms to protect trans and gender diverse people from discrimination.