A leading Catholic ethicist has endorsed the decision to recognise a 48-year-old Sydney woman as the first person in NSW to officially be neither man nor woman.
The woman known as Norrie, has become the first person in NSW to be officially recognised as neither man nor woman by the state, receiving a certificate from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages that says "sex not specified".
A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General's department confirmed it was the first such certificate to state non-specified gender, and that even intersex children have their sex determined within weeks of birth, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Norrie, who identifies as neuter and uses only a first name, was born in Scotland (and used the surname May-Welby), so the document was not a birth certificate but a Recognised Details Certificate - the version given to immigrants who have changed sex and want it recorded.
The law had not considered that anyone might want neither sex recorded but was able to accommodate the request when presented with evidence from two registered doctors that Norrie was physically and psychologically androgynous, it adds.
Norrie was registered as male at birth, began hormone treatment at 23 and had surgery to become a woman - but has since ceased taking hormones, preferring to live as neither male nor female.
Catholic ethicist, Nicholas Tonti-Filippini from the John Paul II Institute, said birth certificates should also record no gender in such cases, updated with ''any changes to phenotypic gender''.
He said there was a trend against the practice of selecting a sex for intersex children, which could mean more androgynous people in future.
FULL STORY
Sexless in the city: a gender revolution (Sydney Morning Herald)