Grace Abrams is a post-operative trans* woman. She is also legally married to Fiona Powers, another woman. As a result Grace faced a dilemma familiar to many legally married trans* individuals: divorce her partner to obtain government documents, such as a passport and birth certificate, recognizing her correct gender identity or remain married to her partner and be denied correct documentation.
Following her transition, Grace Abrams had her name legally changed and went about her day-to-day life as a woman. However, when she applied for a passport reflecting her gender identity, the government refused to grant a passport stating she was female on the basis that her birth certificate listed her sex as male. Because the Marriage Act bars the government from recognizing same-sex unions, Grace Abrams was unable to change her birth certificate without first divorcing her partner.
Grace Abrams appealed the decision on the grounds that she had enough documentation without a birth certificate identifying her as female to be entitled to a passport stating she was female. Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer upheld the decision refusing to grant a female passport to Grace.
‘As a matter of principle I don’t have any objection to issuing a new passport to a person who has changed their gender. In this case the difficulty arose from technical issues,’ Minister Downer told OUTinPerth.
The case was further appealed before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), where Grace’s lawyer and Greens Councillor David Shoebridge argued that Grace was entitled to a passport, as she could prove the two things she needed to in order to obtain a passport – her citizenship and her identity.
‘Grace having provided the birth certificate she had, which showed her name as Grace Abrams, but didn’t show her gender as female, together with a full explanation of that and unchallenged medical evidence that her gender was female, there was no issue as to her identity or her being of the female gender. In those circumstances, she was simply entitled to a passport. They offered her a passport as a man, even though it was not contested that her gender was female. They were willing to do that because they had some ideological problem with issuing her a passport recognizing her as female,’ said Mr Shoebridge.
In a landmark decision, the AAT sided with Grace and awarded her a passport identifying her as female without requiring a matching birth certificate. The decision is the first time a married transgendered person has obtained government documents recognizing their gender without having to first divorce their partner. According to Grace Abrams, the case opens the door for other trans* individuals to obtain proper documentation.
‘It is a win for logic and sensibility. The next win for sense and logic is going to be the recognition that the Marriage Act doesn’t suit all Australian couples. We are all permutations and computations. You can’t just legislate what human sexuality is going to be. It doesn’t work that way. People are not binary. We live in all sorts of presentations and lifestyles, what it comes down to is equal rights before the law for everybody. It is a pretty simple concept. One that everybody in the country espouses, to coin a phrase, and it really should be honoured, rather than just paid lip service to,’ Ms Abrams said.
In WA, the Western Australia Gender Project (WAGP) welcomed the decision. Spokesman Aram Hosie said, ‘It is hoped that this ruling can help form a precedent so that other married trans* people are able to obtain correct documentation without having to apply for divorce first. In respect to WA, in particular, it would be good if the Gender Reassignment Act (2000) could be amended so that a trans* person is able to legally change their sex without the requirement for divorce first that currently exists.’
Foreign Affairs Minister Downer told OUTinPerth that the Government accepts the AAT decision and will not be appealing it.
