澳大利亞最高法院承認“中性人”身份

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Australia'shighest court has ruled that a person can be legally recognised as gender neutral as opposed to male or female, ending a long legal battle by a sexual equality campaigner.

"The High Court... recognises that a person may be neither male nor female, and so permits the registration of a person's sex as 'non-specific'," it said in a unanimous judgement, dismissing a New South Wales state appeal to recognise only men or women.

The case centred on a person called Norrie -- who does not identify as either male or female -- who fought a legal battle for a new gender-neutral category.

Norrie, who uses only a single name, was born male and underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1989 to become a woman.

But the surgery failed to resolve Scottish-born Norrie's ambiguity about their sexual identity, prompting a push for the recognition of a new, non-traditional gender.

The campaigner made global headlines in February 2010 when an application to the NSW Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages accepted that "sex non-specific" could be accepted for Norrie's records.

But soon afterwards the office revoked its decision, saying the certificate was invalid and had been issued in error. At the time, Norrie said the decision felt like being "socially assassinated".

That sparked a series of appeals which resulted in the NSW Court of Appeal recognising Norrie as gender neutral last year, a decision which the High Court backed on Wednesday.

Norrie's lawyers argued in court that the activist was "being forced to live a lie" every time their client filled out a document that listed only two options for gender.

"Norrie's sex remained ambiguous so that it would be to record misinformation in the register to classify her as male or female," the judgment said.

Norrie told AFP last year that most people did not have a problem accepting a non-specific sex category.

"People seem to be able to accommodate the truth," the Sydney resident said.

"I'm not the first person like this in society, I'm the one that happened to put my hand up for this particular case -- I stand on the shoulders of giants."

The Intersex International Australia organisation welcomed the High Court ruling.

"We hope that the media will respect the difference between intersex and transgender identities, and identify Norrie's gender as 'non-specific'," it said.據《每日電訊報》4月2日報道，澳大利亞最高法院裁定，法律上可以承認一個人爲中性人，而不被歸類爲男性或女性。這一結果結束了一位性別平等活動家長期的法律鬥爭。

“高等法院……認識到一個人可能既不是男性也不是女性，因此將允許某些人的性別登記爲‘非特定’。”法院以這份一致判決駁回了新南威爾士州一份關於只有男性和女性的上訴。

案件主角叫諾里，是一個不認同自己爲男性或女性的人，併爲中性人這一範疇的存在而上訴。

諾里只有一個名字沒有姓氏，她出生時是男性，但後來於1989年接受了變性手術成爲一名女性。

但變性手術沒能讓出生於蘇格蘭的諾里明確自己的性別，這促使他/她呼籲承認一種新的，非傳統的性別。

諾里曾向新南威爾士州主管出生死亡和婚姻的有關部門提出申請，要求以自己爲考量接受“非特異性”的存在，並因此於2010年2月登上全球新聞的頭條。

但沒過多久有關部門撤銷其決定，稱該證書是無效的。當時，諾里說，知道這一決定後感到像“在社會歸屬上被除名了” 。

這引發了諾里後來的一系列上訴，最終新南威爾士州上訴法院於去年承認諾里爲中性人，週三高等法院也再次確定了這一決定。

諾里的律師在法庭上聲稱，每次填寫表格發現只有兩種性別選擇時，諾里都有一種“被迫活在謊言”裏的感覺。

“諾里的性別仍然是模棱兩可的，所以將她登記爲男性或女性其實都是錯誤的“，判決寫道。

去年諾里告訴法新社記者，大多數人可以接受非確定性這一性類別。

“人們似乎能夠接受這一真相”，悉尼某居民說。

“我不是這個社會上第一個這樣的人，我只是碰巧就這一問題站了出來——我是站在巨人的肩膀上的。”