Power With Grace

A Winning Combination

by Katherine Cummings

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When Grace Abrams married Fiona Power they were both aware that Grace would one day be taking the step which allows transgenders to claim the opposite gender role in all facets of their lives, provided they fulfil certain bureaucratic prerequisites. One such condition is that the person who is to be legally (as opposed to innately or medically) reassigned, must be single. The alternative, too shocking to contemplate, would be a same-sex marriage, a terrible no-no in the eyes of unthinking politicians who are seldom clear on the differences between sex, sexuality, innate gender and gender role.

Grace and Fiona went into their married relationship with open eyes. If they had been like most other couples faced with one party to the marriage transitioning F.T.M. or M.T.F. they might have divorced or continued in their marriage without the benefit of legislative documentary blessings in the form of revised birth certificate or access to a passport with the new gender shown.

Fiona and Grace were made of sterner stuff. After Grace went to Thailand for reassignment surgery she was refused a passport showing her as female, on the grounds that she remained married to Fiona.

Grace appealed this decision to Alexander Downer, the Foreign Minister in September 2007, citing the Australian Passports Act, which says that every Australian citizen is entitled to a passport and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which says that everybody has the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose their residence.

This position was resisted by the Department of Foreign Affairs, on the grounds that same-sex marriages are not legal in Australia, but on appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal the decision was made in favour of Abrams and Power, by the Deputy President of the Tribunal, the Hon. R.N.J. Purvis, A.M., Q.C. and the Minister for Foreign Affairs was instructed to issue a passport to Grace showing her female gender. "It is totally wrong," said Grace in a phone interview with Polare, "for a person to be required to choose between their marriage and having appropriate documentation."

"I advise everyone in similar circumstances to apply for their passports now, before the politicians pass new legislation forbidding the newly-won advantage. There are a lot of couples like us, who have to choose between their family and having their gender recognised. We are the first officially recognised same-sex couple and if enough people follow our example we may be able leverage it into a change in the law."

David Shoebridge, the lawyer who acted for Abrams, said the decision was a victory for common sense over prejudice.

It has been apparent for some time that the Department of Immigration is out of sympathy with transgenders who wish to have passports reflecting their innate gender. Recent decisions to force transgenders travelling overseas to have reassignment surgery travel on passports showing their birth gender, or on travel documents with the gender space left blank have shown how out of touch with reality some politicians can be.

The measure, which led to a strong legal challenge from Stephanie Imbruglia, purports to be an anti-terrorist measure and is about as stupid as the theory that says asylum seekers arriving in unseaworthy boats are probably terrorists bent on Australia's destruction. Just as it is far more likely that a terrorist will arrive flying first class with forged documents and a suitcase full of money that risking the high seas in a leaky fishing boat, so it obvious that a terrorist trying to infiltrate our borders will have access to any kind of travel documents needed.

To insist that a person who has been living in the new gender role for more than a year, often more than two, and no longer looks in any way like their predecessor person, should carry a travel document which draws unwanted attention to them from Immigration, Customs and anti-Terrorism bodies is a form of bureaucratic bullying, not unusual in our current society, but certainly to be resisted wherever possible.

The gender variant community owes gratitude to activists like Grace Abrams and Stephanie Imbruglia and their brave supporters like Fiona Power. And we also owe them support wherever and whenever the need arises!

Anyone interested in the judgement and proceedings should refer to: http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/AATA/2007/1816.html

This piece was written by Katherine Cummings, from telephone and email material from Grace and Fiona, and with added detail from a Sydney Star Observer story by Cara Davis

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