Norrie May-Welby, 48, of Australia, is reportedly the first person to have "sex not specified" on hir Recognised Details Certificate, equivalent to a birth certificate. More than wenty years ago, May-Welby became "first chemically then physically castrated," but then decided to become completely androgynous. You can read May-Welby's fascinating story on hir blog, "I who may well be…":
For many people, one of the benefits of growing old is becoming more comfortable with yourself and not suffering so much from a relentless comparison with some usually gendered standard of beauty or strength or whatever.
For me, that has meant accepting myself as I am, and rejecting the idea of fitting other people's gender stereotypes, or even the idea that I have to identify as a man or as a woman.
Those concepts, man or woman, just don't fit me, they are not my actual reality, and, if applied to me, they are fiction. At 48 years of age, I'm less inclined to just humour other people's delusions about gender and try and conform to one of their expected options.
If I need to show identity documents, I certainly don't want details that are false, for this will only cause trouble when officials realise I don't match my documents.
"My journey to getting a 'sex not specified' legal document"
