Fed: Court clears way for 13-year-old girl to become a boy

AAP General News (Australia)
04-14-2004
Fed: Court clears way for 13-year-old girl to become a boy

SYDNEY, April 14 AAP - A 13-year-old girl who wants to be a boy will be allowed to
go ahead with a sex change procedure following a landmark ruling by the Family Court.

But the girl, known as Alex, will undergo reversible hormone treatment only when she
is 16 and won't be allowed to have surgery until she is 18, The Australian newspaper reported
today.

It is the first time legal approval has been given for an Australian child who is biologically
one sex to begin to change to the other through hormone treatment because of purely psychiatric
considerations, the paper said.

A state welfare department initiated the legal action on Alex's behalf.

The judgment was handed down by outgoing Chief Justice Alistair Nicholson after receiving
submissions from Alex's school principal, psychiatrists, case workers and specialists
in children's gender identity.

Alex believed she was a boy until the age of five and dressed as a male.

But she has no male chromosomes and has female reproductive organs and hormone levels
typical of a teenage girl.

She is treated as a boy and uses male toilets.

Justice Nicholson said he was satisfied that Alex knew the risks of the proposed sex
change treatment, and that steps have been taken to counter "challenges in his chosen
identity in respect of peer relationships, possible bullying and ostracism".

AAP ka/sco

KEYWORD: SEXCHANGE

2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.