Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Bill - Amendments from NCOP Select Committee (ANC)

 

Section 1(1)

1.(l) Any person whose [sex organs] sexual characteristics have been altered by surgical or medical treatment or by evolvement through natural development resulting in [sex change] gender reassignment, or any person who is intersexed may apply to the Director-General of the National Department of Home Affairs for the alteration of the sex description on his or her birth register.

Section 1(2)(b)

1(2)(b) in the case of a person whose [sex organs] sexual characteristics have been altered by surgical or medical treatment resulting in gender reassignment, be accompanied by reports stating the nature and results of any procedures carried out arid any treatment applied or prepared by the medical practitioners who carried out the procedures and applied the treatment or by a medical practitioner with experience in the carrying out of such procedures and the application of such treatment; and

Section 1(2)(c)

1(2)(c) in every case in which sexual characteristics have been altered resulting in gender reassignment, be accompanied by...

Sections 1(2)(d) and (e):

1(2)(d) in the case of a person who is intersexed be accompanied by medical reports corroborating that the applicant is intersexed;

1(2)(e) in the case of a person who is intersexed, be accompanied by reports from a qualified psychologist or social worker corroborating that the applicant is living and has lived stably and satisfactorily, for an unbroken period of at least two years, in the gender role corresponding to the sex description under which he or she seeks to be registered.

Definitions:

"gender reassignment" means a process which is undertaken for the purpose of reassigning a person's sex by changing physiological or other sexual characteristics, and includes any part of such a process;

"intersexed" means a person whose congenital sexual differentiation is atypical, to whatever degree.

"medical practitioner" means a person providing health services in terms of any law,

including in terms of the

(a) Allied Health Professions Act, 1982 (Act No.63 of 1982);

(b) Health Professions Act, 1974 (Act No.56 of 1974);

(c) Nursing Act, 1978 (Act No.50 of 1978);

(d) Pharmacy Act, 1974 (Act No.53 of 1974);

(e) Dental Technicians Act, 1979 (Act No.19 of 1979); and

(1) Mental Health Care Act 2002 (Act No.17 of 2002);

 

"sexual characteristics" means primary or secondary sexual characteristics or gender characteristics. Primary characteristics are the form of the genitalia at birth. Secondary characteristics are those which develop throughout life and which are dependant upon the hormonal base of the individual person. Gender characteristics are the ways in which a person expresses his or her social identity as a member of a particular sex by using sly]e of dressing, the wearing of prostheses or other means;

Application for alteration of sex description

1.

(4) If an application contemplated in subsection (1) is refused, the applicant may appeal to the Minister of Home Affairs against the decision taken by the Director-General.

(5) An a application contemplated in subsection (4) must be lodged with the Minister within …… days after the decision was made known and accompanied by the documents referred to in subsection (2) and the reasons for the Director-General’s refusal.