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“It’s important that these reforms are done properly… everyone deserves respect and dignity and to have their legal identity aligned with their lived identity,” he said.
“These reforms are about dignity, but most importantly, they’re about equality.”
Attorney General John Quigley said the bill was hardly earth-shattering, conceding the rest of the country had already implemented the changes, but would bring WA “out of the dark ages”.
TransFolk of WA spokesperson Dylan Green welcomed the changes, describing the previous process as “humiliating”, “inhumane” and “cruel”.
The move was also backed by former AFL star Danielle Laidley, who said she had been deterred from legally changing her gender in her home state because the process was “archaic” and allowed someone else to tell her who she was.
But Green said while the proposed legislation was welcomed, it was not in step with best practice employed in other jurisdictions, which have done away with the need for clinical evidence and employed a self-determination model.
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“The abolition of the gender reassignment board will allow trans and gender diverse West Australians an approved pathway to align their legal documentation more closely with their gender identity,” Green said.
“But we will be making further recommendations to the government regarding the bridging regulations for this proposed bill and advocating for further reform that we have seen interstate.”
The number of applications to the board has skyrocketed over the past 15 years, from five in 2008/09 to 80 in 2022/23.
And Green said many were deterred by the process because it was often lengthy and very costly.
The reforms are the first tranche of the state government’s pledge to improve the lives of those in the LGBTQIA+ community, the second of which will focus on developing a new Equal Opportunity Act and a ban on gay conversion therapies.
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