Sexless in the City

Androgynous . . . Norrie is the first person in NSW to be officially recognised as neither man nor woman by the state. Photo: Wolter Peeters
THIS Mardi Gras, Norrie received a gift that no other androgynous person in NSW has had before.
The night before the parade, the postman brought a certificate from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages that contained neither the dreaded ”M” nor its equally despised cousin, ”F”.
Instead, it said ”sex not specified”, making the 48-year-old Sydneysider, who identifies as neuter and uses only a first name, the first in the state to be neither man nor woman in the eyes of the NSW government.

Historic . . . the gender-neutral Recognised Details Certificate.
Because Norrie was born in Scotland (and used the surname May-Welby), it was not a birth certificate but a Recognised Details Certificate – the version given to immigrants who have changed sex and want it recorded.
The law had not considered that anyone might want neither sex recorded but was able to accommodate the request when presented with evidence from two registered doctors that Norrie was physically and psychologically androgynous.
Norrie has since begun doing the rounds to have all offending records changed.
”I went into the bank and the woman’s eyes lit up when she saw the certificate, and she said, ‘What a good option’,” Norrie said yesterday.
Centrelink was flummoxed and had to call in computer programmers to tackle the task, but agreed to find a way.
Norrie was registered as male at birth, began hormone treatment at 23 and had surgery to become a woman – but has since ceased taking hormones, preferring to live as neither male nor female.
”It’s not a detail I think should be part of my identity,” neither he nor she said. (Norrie prefers ”zie”.)
”I think there are a lot of people who would like to have this kind of certificate and not just people who are physically different. Many women would like to have them because sex can so often lead to discrimination.”
A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General’s department confirmed it was the first such certificate to state non-specified gender, and that even intersex children have their sex determined within weeks of birth.
Tracie O’Keefe, from the transgender group Sex and Gender Education, called it a breakthrough for children whose doctors and parents are confused about their sex at birth and are often operated upon.
A Catholic ethicist, Nicholas Tonti-Filippini from the John Paul II Institute, said birth certificates should also record no gender in such cases, updated with ”any changes to phenotypic gender”.
He said there was a trend against the practice of selecting a sex for intersex children, which could mean more androgynous people in future.