My Story

Arriving In Australia With Two Sexes

by Dr. Tracie O'Keefe D.C.H.

(The Gender Centre advise that this article may not be current and as such certain content, including but not limited to persons, contact details and dates may not apply. Where legal authority or medical related matters are cited, responsibility lies with the reader to obtain the most current relevant legal authority and/or medical publication.)

As the new girl on the block I have been Australia for just a few weeks now, as a greener than green immigrate. Although I was born officially male, and due to an obstinate and ignorant British government, that still remains on my birth certificate, even though I have lived as, and have a passport as a female for 30 years.

So to get a tax number here in Australia, as a middle aged woman I had to show my birth certificate that said male on it.

"Oh we don't bother about that sort of thing here", the man at the tax office told me. "Why the hell should you", I thought to myself, but said nothing, remembering that people are simply not educated at school about the sheer physical and psychological diversities of sex, gender and sexuality.

Katrina, my lesbian life partner, was spared explaining to the tax office that she is legally my wife and I am her husband. To the counter staff she seemed just another immigrant with a visa who they wished to deal with as quickly as possible.

As she walked away from the counter she sensed amusement among the staff that I was transsexual. If I had been black, Jewish, Hispanic, or Catholic, would they have reacted quite the same? I wondered. But I was the immigrant, so it was not the time to object.

Some of you who have read my books or heard about me on the internet will know by now about the large sex discrimination case I won in England last year.

As a doctor in my own field I had been refused entry into a professional organisation that gave me access to National Health (equivalent to Medicare) patients.

Some people in that organisation had purposefully falsified documents to stop me becoming a member. Fortunately they had been silly enough to leave a paper trail and the Industrial Tribunal Board were able to see the way they had purposefully discriminated against me after it became public knowledge in March 1997 when my first book came out, that I was a transsexual woman.

It was the first case of its kind in the United Kingdom where sex discrimination in preventing a person from joining a professional organisation was proved, and resulted in the highest recorded award for damages to a transsexual person so far.

It took four years to fight through the courts and thousands of hours between me, my lawyer and other supporting people to uncover evidence that had been purposefully concealed. Well it was worth it, because we eventually won.

For me as a therapist it was a fight I had to fight. I had to ask myself: How could I sit in my office telling people to stick up for themselves if I allowed myself to be discriminated against?

But I think when a person fights against discrimination, the time and the place must be right for them. Not every time or place is the right one.

For me the tax office when I had just come into the country was not the right time - I was new to the country and my position was precarious. Also some people need more help than others to cope with such situations.

What I can tell you is that I and my beloved Katrina are here in Australia for good. We believe in freedom of speech, a right to privacy, and the way forward in dissolving prejudice depends on three things - education, education, and education.

We believe in equal rights for all and next year we are going to be in that fabulous Mardi Gras Parade. In fact we will see you in the sex and gender variant section. Hope you will join us.

What do you mean there is not such a section? There is now!

Polare is published in Australia by The Gender Centre Inc. which is funded by the Department of Community Services under the S.A.A.P. Program and supported by the N.S.W. Health Department through the AIDS and Infectious Diseases Branch. Polare provides a forum for discussion and debate on gender issues. Advertisers are advised that all advertising is their responsibility under the Trade Practices Act. Unsolicited contributions are welcome, though no guarantee is made by the Editor that they will be published, nor any discussion entered into. The editor reserves the right to edit such contributions without notification. Any submission which appears in Polare may be published on our internet site. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, The Gender Centre Inc.I, the Department of Community Services or the N.S.W. Department of Health.