Androgyny de-certified?

“It’s been variable, up and down,” said the 48-year-old Scottish-born South Sydney resident.

The Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages had registered Norrie as “Sex: Not Specified” on the eve of the Mardi Gras Parade in late February (prior to that hir name was registered as “norrie mAy-welby” when sex was not part of the identification in this registration, back in 1988). But after the story made national and international headlines the Registrar informed Norrie via phone on March 18 that the certificate was invalid, revoking the androgynous status.

According to a media release from the Registry’s Greg Curry, Norrie’s certificate had been recalled after receiving legal advice that it was “invalid”. Claims also circulated that the NSW Attorney General’s Department had actively sought to have the certificate recalled, but this was not the case according to the release.

“At no time did the Registrar state or imply that the Attorney General or anyone else had ‘pressured’ him to cancel the certificate,” the release stated.

For Norrie this series of events has been both harrowing and uplifting.

“I felt elated when I got the certificate, and then crushed when they took it away,” zie said. But Norrie won’t accept a return to what was a retrograde or inappropriate status. There is yet to be any definite reason as to why the sexual status had been nullified and that is simply not good enough for Norrie. “They can’t just take it away. That’s not the way the law works,” Norrie said.

As well as personally appealing the Registrar’s decision, many, including Gordon Moyes and Lee Rhiannon, have flocked to Norrie’s side in voicing their disapproval.

After being petitioned by Sydney residents, Lord Mayor Clover Moore has written to the Attorney General’s Department to ascertain on what legal grounds Norrie’s sexual status had been revoked.

Former New Zealand parliamentarian, Georgina Beyer, has also raised the issue with her former Prime Minister, Helen Clark, who now heads the UN Development Program. Beyer is a former sex worker from Kings Cross and the world’s first transgender member of a parliament.

Norrie is positive that this connection might reach the ear of Prime Minister Rudd, but is presently dismayed at Australia’s major parties regarding their approaches to ending sexual discrimination. Some minor parties, however, have really come out for Norrie.

“I’m not sure what [Labor and Liberal’s] stand on it is,” Norrie indicated, “but I’m glad the minor parties are getting out in support.”

Norrie suggested that the Greens and the Australian Sex Party are the only ones that offer comprehensive support for gender and sexual equality.

Whilst the trailblazing gender transgressor will continue to fight for hir right for desexualisation, there is a positive aspect to bringing these unresolved matters into debate within the law. “I hope they change the law so that people are able to do as they naturally feel,” zie proposed. “No matter what dangly bits you have.”

Photo: Esther Turnbull - Norrie with supporters in the city

Source: South Sydney Herald April 2010 www.southsydneyherald.com.au