When she is a female Intersex or Transsexual person and lives in Australia, apparently.
I got this story via Kate Bornstein on Twitter. It sounds too crazy to be true. (Kate had doubts at first as well.) But I have been checking it out and it looks real. Here’s the story.
A common issue for both some Intersex people and male-to-female Transsexuals is suppression of male hormones. For Intersex people who identify as female this can help avoid the masculinizing effects that their unusual biology forces upon them. So someone like Caster Semenya, who has grown up female and identifies as such, may take pills to stop the excess of male hormones in her body making her look too much like a bloke.
For male-to-female Transsexuals such therapies are very important in the crucial period between being accepted for treatment and surgery. Most countries require MtFs to live as women for a few years to show that they can cope in their new gender role before allowing them to undergo surgery. That task is much more difficult for them if their bodies are still pumping out male hormones unchecked. Just think facial hair. Most FtMs can stop taking these treatments after a few years, but some, either through choice or because of medical conditions, are unable to have surgery.
A commonly used drug for these purposes is Androcur (the trade name of cyproterone acetate). It is even, as this site notes, prescribed to people who are raised female with no obvious intersex condition but who develop a problem with facial hair.
But not in Australia. Because in Australia, under this regulation, you can only be prescribed Androcur if you have prostate cancer or if you are a male sex offender who is being treated to reduce your sex drive.
As a result, doctors treating Intersex people and MtF Transsexuals in Australia — in the absence of a cancer diagnosis — have to register them as “sexual deviants” who are receiving treatment for dangerous behavior. Understandably some people in Australia are not too happy about this.
As I said earlier, this is so bizarre than both Kate and I were initially skeptical. However, I have since found this report by the Australian Human Rights Commission which clearly states:
the health system is not inclusive of people who are sex and gender diverse. Several responses mentioned that in order to receive specific hormone treatment a person must be labeled a sexual deviant.
I’m currently trying to find out exactly what the consequences are of this labeling, and whether the patients are necessarily aware of being so labeled. The explanation that I currently have suggests that the records in question are kept by a body called the Therapeutic Goods Administration, and they may go no further than that, but on the other hand they could be searchable by potential employers. I’m also interested in when the regulations came into effect. The information I have so far suggests 1995 or 1996.
If anyone in Australia has more information on this I’d be delighted to hear from them.
Update: More information here from Caitlin Ate who is a prominent Australian blogger and therefore hopefully won’t get accused of being anti-Australian for discussing the issue.
Update 2: More information on this comes from Zoe Brain. Two rather bizarre pieces of information. Firstly people in Australia can apparently be prevented from seeing their own medical records on “privacy” grounds. And secondly the list of “male” sex offenders kept by the TGA is apparently so discredited that being on it is no barrier to getting security clearance, especially if you happen to be a woman. Isn’t bureaucracy wonderful?
Thanks for clarifying this however-could-it-be-true story. I’m intensely curious to see who picks up the activist ball and runs with it. K
I don’t know much about this in detail, but I can say that AFAIK Australia doesn’t have a public sex offender registry like the US does, so your employer (for example) wouldn’t be able to look it up.
As an Australian with a more than passing familiarity with our health system, i can state that the TGA is purely a regulatory body. It has no authority to share patient information with prospective employers – and to my knowledge, the ‘registration’ is a medical practitioner side process in case they are audited for prescribing a restricted substance.
If there is a criminal record, then naturally this information is available via search.
A ‘sex’ offender is just that – someone that has committed an indictable offense.
So, despite the fact that there is labeling occurring, this appears to be more a matter of ineffective legislative process than turning Intersex or Transsexual people into social pariahs.
This article suggests a level of intolerance in Australian society out of accord with the rest of the world. Whilst there is no question that Intersex and Transsexual persons experience more than their fair share of social challenges, it is entirely unreasonable to suggest that Australia is any worse than any other nation in this regard.
Cameron:
Point taken. Australia is actually well ahead of many countries in its treatment of gender variant people. This particular instance is very odd, but it is more an example of how badly people who don’t conform to social norms are treated, even in the most liberal of countries, than a problem with Australia.
Of course if you happen to be an Australian who has fallen victim to this legislation you may still feel that it is a very important issue.
Kate:
Given that this has been going on since the mid-90s, I’m guessing that Australian activists have more immediate things on their mind.
That’s gotta suck and I know that It would never happen in America. I’m glad that’s not in place in America or otherwise I would be up at arms in an instant. That’s why I think it’s more of an Australian issue rather than an American issue. It’s also why you don’t see Americans placing intersex people with sex offenders and that would be a violation of the US Constitution
Oh for goodness sake, who decided that comments on this post should be an exercise in macho patriotic chest thumping?
People who are seen as outside gender norms get treated abysmally everywhere in world. The appropriate response to that is to try to treat them better, not to play silly games of “my country is marginally less horrible than yours.”
Yea, but still in America, you don’t see intersex people getting listed as trans or worse, a sex offender in America to get treated like they do in Australia. I believe they have their reasons why as why they do that and I’m not an Australian to know. I’m an American and In America, our Health standards would never allow such things as with what the Australians are doing to intersex people down their.
Marcus:
I don’t know a lot about how the US health system treats trans people, but I do know that you don’t have a national health service, and that many health insurance companies refuse to pay for treatment of trans people. Australia, I suspect, has one over on you there. You might also want to check employment discrimination laws. And there are some states in the US that don’t allow trans people to change their legal gender at all. Really, you have nothing to crow about.
And I note in passing that I have lived in the USA and Australia, so I do have a fair idea of what goes on in each country.
As you may have already know, The Obama Administration is working on getting some form of national health care and they are working on it right now.
The reason why American HMO’s won’t pay for trans is because under the DSM book, which the HMO’s still follow. It’s considered a psychiatric disorder and they will not pay for something that’s elective surgery. Even in America, Trans is not considered a disability and as such they are not protected under the American ADA laws.
That’s why as an American we have the right to choose and have rights and freedoms that most countries would be so jealous of. That’s why I’m glad they don’t put intersex with the trans and I’m glad they don’t put intersex with the sex offenders in the same way they do in Australia. Otherwise I would be up at Arms and yanking my congressman in the next election.
As an American, I have to suspect why the Australians are doing that and I believe it’s a way to control who gets what, when, how and at what time. I also think they want to weed out people who don’t need it or for some other reason for which I think the Australians who put that rule in place have an answer and a reasons why.
So being that I am not from Australia, I am glad they are only doing that over their and not here in America. I do not have to worry about it or feel sorry for them. That’s their problem and their’s alone to deal with it.