Liberal Senator Alex Antic has shared he’s opposed to people being allowed to identify as neither male or female on their passport and he says he’s ready to fight attempts to change the rules in Australia.
There’s just one small problem – we already changed the rules more than a decade ago.
The South Australian senator was appearing on the Sky News program Bernardi where he was discussing a recent decision by the Biden administration to allow transgender people to correct their gender on their passport without having to undergo surgery, and for an ‘X’ option to be available to people who are intersex or identify as non -binary.
“This is systematic of the Biden administration I reckon Cory.” Senator Antic said. “It’s immediately gone into the Biden administration sort of turning the words male and female into hate speak. I think what we’re shown here is that when the US sneezes Australia catches the cold, so I’m expecting anytime now in the senate we’ll see some Greens senators tapping away on their keyboards pumping out a motion saying Australian parliament should do the same thing.”
Senator Antic then shared his desire to identify as a sports star.
“When they do I’ll be sure to seek an amendment such that I can identify as an AFL footballer because that’s what I always wanted to do and I just wasn’t good enough.”
Introducing the segment, host Cory Bernardi said it was the “first time in history” the option had been made available.
While it may be the first time the US has made travelling easier for transgender and intersex people, Australia made changes to our guidelines back in 2011 and has been issuing passports for transgender people in their requested gender as early as 2009.
In 2009 the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade began issuing passports to people who are transgender, without them having to undergo gender reassignment surgery, on a ‘case by case’ basis.
In 2011 the Rudd government introduced changes to the guidelines that formalised the process and also introduced an ‘X’ option for people who are intersex or identify as non-binary. The Australian Government’s website on passports clearly lays out the rules.
Graeme Watson, Senator Antic’s office has been contacted for comment. Â
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