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New law to give transsexuals rightsOWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 10.00am.A NEW law set to straighten out the bizarre legal consequences facing people who have had sex changes is to come before Parliament early next year. The Sexual Orientation Bill will allow anyone who has had a sex change through surgical and medical treatment to apply to the director general of home affairs to change the birth register, The Star reports. Current laws, considered clumsy and outmoded, date from 1963 and 1992. They do not allow for effective recognition of transsexual changes in crucial spheres of life and law, such as marriage, rape, income tax, the law of evidence, insurance, and the law of succession. Applicants will have to provide their birth certificates, reports from the medical practitioners involved in the sex change, and a report from an independent medical practitioner, the paper reports. If the director-general refuses, reasons will have to be provided in writing. An applicant will be allowed to appeal to a magistrate for an order instructing the director-general to alter the birth register. Applicants will have to appear before the magistrate in chambers, with all the documentation used in the application to the director-general. According to the South African Law Commission “additional information and proof may be required of the applicant”. It recommends that the bill specify that no rights or obligations that existed before the sex change should be lost afterwards. Related: |
