Same-sex couples will also be able to register as mother/mother or father/father in Queensland for the first time.Credit:Getty Images
Conversations with people affected by existing laws revealed a common desire for legal documents to accurately represent identity,Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said.
“Without this they face the prospect of outing themselves every time they apply for a job,go for a rental property or enrol in university,” she said.
Fentiman recounted the story of “Emily” to parliament during the bill’s introduction.
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“Whenever I must present my birth certificate,I get anxious[and] worried that the person reading it will think I’m a fraud or ... mentally ill,merely because I know I’m female and yet my birth certificate says I’m a male,” she said.
“This legislation will mean I’ll get to correct something that has been wrong for 50 years.”
The bill also allows greater freedom over their chosen gender descriptors,including non-binary recognition.