Spoke too soon :(

They changed their minds. From The Sydney Morning Herald:

Norrie's 'ungendered' status withdrawn

CHI TRANTER

March 18, 2010 - 5:49PM

AAP

Norrie, who famously became the first person in the world deemed neither male nor female, has now had the certificate confirming the gender-neutral status withdrawn.

NSW's Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages deemed invalid the certificate it issued on February 25 which established the 48-year-old's sex as "non specified".

It says it cancelled Norrie's "recognised details certificate" after receiving legal advice it was invalid.

"When I got the call on Tuesday I was absolutely devastated. I felt like I had been killed," Norrie told AAP on Thursday.

"My identity has gone all over the world ... (now the) attorney-general's taking back what they sold to me.

"If I sell you something by mistake ... I can't say: `Oh no, I have re-thought that. I didn't mean to do that.' I can't take it back off you."

Norrie, who only uses one name, wants to know why the registry didn't seek legal advice before issuing the certificate.

"Three weeks after they issued it and I go public ... somehow they get legal advice telling them they didn't have the right to issue it in the first place," Norrie said.

NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos told parliament on Thursday his office made some inquiries about the certificate after the issue was "ventilated" in the media.

He said legal advice provided to the registry said "the registrar may only issue a recognised detail certificate or a new birth certificate following a change of sex in either male or female gender".

Norrie was registered as male at birth, began hormone treatment at 23 and had surgery to become a woman, but then stopped taking hormones, preferring to live as neither male nor female.

After receiving the ungendered certificate, Norrie visited the bank, Centrelink and the Roads and Traffic Authority to update their details.

"They all said they didn't know how to put it (gender unspecified) into their computers, but they all agreed to do it and to have a word to their computer programmers," Norrie said.

"It is the job of the system to fit the people it serves, not the job of the people to fit the system.

"I would like to see the Attorney-General's Department apologise for harassing me."

NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has called on Mr Hatzistergos to reform the laws.

"If NSW laws prohibit Norrie and other gender-diverse people having their status recognised, the NSW government should act to change these laws," she said in a statement.

Ms Rhiannon said a 2009 Human Rights Commission report recommended people over 18 should be able to choose to have an unspecified sex, and NSW's laws should reflect the recommendation.

NSW Registrar Greg Curry denies Mr Hatzistergos forced Births, Deaths and Marriages to revoke the certificate.

"At no time did the registrar state or imply that the attorney-general or anyone else had `pressured' him to cancel the certificate," he said in a statement.

Whelping box

Kevin finally got this built.

Friday Stresses

I'm taking Alprim and Rafen. The first is for a UTI that I think I never got rid of, and the second I was told was a "muscle relaxant" though apparently it's really Ibuprofen. Why do I need a muscle relaxant? To each the problem with the spur, which apparently is growing along a tendon or ligament or some such. Anyway, yesterday after I saw my G.P. I had a very early dinner at Westfields in Kotara, and took one tablet of each afterwards. Felt more than a little odd, like I wasn't quite there. Not necessarily an unpleasant feeling (for once). Anyway, today I took these just after breakfast. Didn't feel anything peculiar right away but I did when I went to the university. Went to a Spectrum meeting followed by a visit to the counsellor and then an intense conversation with a psycho pastry maker about comics on the veranda of Bar on the Hill. During all of which I feel hot flushed, peaky and "emotional". It may be the combination that's doing this to me, and it's brought on with exercise. Or not, as the case might be.

Was on verge of crying over lunch (a late free one at NUSA that was tasty and filling) and at Spectrum. It may have been general frustration, loneliness or the drugs (or all three). I wasn't keen on an idea at the meeting - a "genderfuck ball" where one would wear some clothes of the other gender. Last time I did something like that I was just treated as a man 

You'd think that maybe 10 years after surgery that wouldn't be an issue, but I guess it is. I get very tired of "standing out" in the crowd the wrong way.

One thing that came out in my counselling session was that mostly, I have no social life. The main reason for this is I have no car, and local public transport to mu home stops after 7pm. When I used to have a car I could go to places like "The G" and Necropolis if I wanted. I could drive it to a train station, go down to Sydney, and then come back in the early morning and drive it home. Even with the electric scooter I had for a year that was possible (though for my weight it was under powered). Some folk have suggested that I right a bicycle to social events, but I don't think they've thought that through. Would you want to turn up to an exhibition opening or club dripping with sweat? Bicycles are not practical for getting to social events (unless the event has something to do with bikes). Likewise, while I could get a taxi home, that generally costs about $20+ to go about 12 km, and over $35 to get home from the CBD.

One idea that I keep thinking of is getting either a postie bike, or moped/scooter to run about in.

Probably wouldn't use it to go grocery shopping with, but it would get me to uni, to the CBD and back, and to and fro a train station like my old station wagon did. And then at least, I might have a (possibility of a) social life. Getting out the house a bit more might reduce the frustration of staying at home all the time.