Transgender Queenslanders will no longer have to get a divorce before their gender is legally recognised.
Laws recognising the existing marriages of people who undergo gender reassignment passed the state's parliament on Wednesday, allowing birth certificates to be changed without an annulment.
Queensland is the third state to introduce the amendment after same-sex marriage was legalised last year.
Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, Anna Brown welcomes the law but acknowledges more needs to be done. Source: AAP
Anna Brown, Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, said it was a small, but significant, change that will allow transgender people to live as themselves without losing the person they love.
A separate state government review of existing limitations on changes to birth certificates, including the requirement that applicants undergo surgery, is also underway.
"Transgender people face problems every day accessing services and facilities most Australians use without thinking twice, because their identity documents do not match their gender," Mr Brown added.
"We need a complete overhaul of these outdated laws to ensure, for example, that trans people do not have to undergo invasive and unnecessary surgeries simply to be recognised as the gender they live as."
