OII Australia joins with our European intersex and transpartner organisations in celebrating the passage of the Gender Identity Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Act. The Act passed with cross party support, without a vote, in the small hours of this morning.

This is an historic moment. The Act contains key improvements from all existing Australian legislation that seeks to address intersex issues. This includes recognition of a right to bodily integrity and physical autonomy that protects infants and children from non-necessary medical interventions, of types that still take place in Australia and around the world for “psychosocial” rationales such as parental distress and improving marriage prospects.

These provisions meet several key demands of the intersex movement, and the 2013 recommendations of an Australian Senate committee report.