The Marriage Amendment Act

by norrie mAy welby

(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.)

Well, we haff some good news and some bad news. [For the purpose of clarity, "sex" here means what the law says you are, and "gender" is what you see yourself as ...]

The bad news is that same sex partners will not be allowed to get married in Australia, or have their overseas marriages recognised here. The good news is that transsexuals can change sex, and for the purpose of marriage (according to questions asked and answered in Parliament on Friday 13th) are of the new sex if they've had a sex change.

The bad news is that a pre-operative transsexual cannot marry a person whose sex is the same as theirs (which, legally, is usually the old sex on the pre-operative tranys birth certificate), despite being of opposite gender.

The good news is that transsexuals can have a sex-change operation and then marry their now opposite sex partners.

The good news is that a pre-operative transsexual can marry her/his same-gender partner, as they are still legally of opposite sex.

The bad news is that a post-operative transsexual cannot marry his/her same-gender partner, as they are legally of the same sex.

The good news is that if a pre-operative transsexual (or pre-transsexual) marries someone of the opposite sex (and, for pre-ops, the same gender), there is no mechanism for dissolving the marriage on same-sex grounds. That is, presuming your partner is willing, there is no legal reason why you cannot stay married even after it becomes a same-sex marriage. The law makes it clear that marriage in Australia is between a man and a woman, and that same-sex marriages made overseas will not be recognised in Australia. There is no such non-recognition legislated however for couples who are a man and a woman when married but this changes.

So nyah, nyah, nyah, transsexuals can marry whomever they want, providing they are willing to have surgery if that's necessary to make them an "opposite sex" couple, or to get married while still pre-op, if that's what's necessary to make them an "opposite sex" couple.

And from the incoherent answer to the intersex question asked in Parliament, it seems that everyone, even intersexed people, are going to be considered to be a man or a woman for the purpose of marriage. People who wish to identify their sex as intersex may have to choose between getting married as a man or as a woman, or making a political point.

And some more good news: If you are a same sex partner of a terrorist or enemy combatant or any suspicious woggy character, you are exempt from being locked up for consorting with terrorists. The bad news is that if you are intersex, you may be held to be neither the heterosexual spouse, heterosexual defacto spouse, nor same-sex partner, and therefore may not be exempt, and may be locked up for giving a blow job too many times to someone Uncle Sam has classed as an evil terrorist. And the worse news is that if you're locked up for more than thirty six months, you can't even vote against the evil bastards that legislated against you.

And finally, a small address to non-voters: I know the system has been very disrespectful and dismissive of us, but remember, every one of us who doesn't vote is handing two votes to a fundamentalist fascist.

This government takes your money and kills people with it whether you vote against them or not, but if you vote against them, you may help stop them killing quite so many people. Please consider.

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