Norrie May-Welby (born 23 May 1961^[1]), also known as norrie mAy-Welby,^[2] is a Scottish-Australian who became the first person in the world officially declared to be neither a man nor a woman,^[3][4][5][6] making Australia the first country in the world to recognise a 'non-specified' gender.^[7][2]

History[edit]

May-Welby was born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland as a male and moved to Perth, Western Australia^[8] at the age of seven. May-Welby underwent male-to-female reassignment surgery on 3 April 1989,^[8] but later found that being a woman was not what he felt like either.^[4][5][9] May-Welby moved to Sydney, New South Wales in the early 1990s, after a highly publicised court case in Perth.^[10] Doctors stated, in January 2010, that May-Welby was a neuter, neither male nor female, as his psychological self-image was as a neuter, hir hormones were not the same as a male's or female's, and he had no sex organs.^[2]

One of May-Welby's worries about being labelled male or female is that he now looks like neither and is physically neither as well. Because of this, if May-Welby's passport states gender as being one or the other, it is possible that he might be detained for not fitting what the gender field says zie should look like. This was one of May-Welby's reasons for seeking recognition as gender-neutral.^[6] Of hir own sexuality, May-Welby has stated: “I’d be the perfect androgyne if I was completely omnisexual, but I’m only monosexual. Just think of me as a big queen girl.” ^[11]

Australian ruling on gender[edit]

The New South Wales Government recognised May-Welby as being neither male or female - as hormonally, psychologically and physically zie was neither male or female. May-Welby is now referred to as "zie" (rather than she/he) and "hir" (rather than her/him). This comes three years after Australia's foreign minister of the time had reversed a policy whereby people could obtain a passport stating their "intended sex."^[12]

However, the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages rescinded its promise to supply May-Welby with a registered details certificate that had "not specified" written in the sex box. May-Welby had originally received the certificate the day before Mardi Gras, but then received a phone call from a representative of the agency that said it would be cancelled. May-Welby received a formal letter of cancellation on 17 March 2010. In response, May-Welby filed a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission and has claimed to the media to be "devastated with the news".^[13]

Because May-Welby is a member of the Sex and Gender Education (SAGE), which is a lobby group that supports and campaigns for the gender diverse, the group has pledged to give its full support in trying to help hir reclaim hir certificate.^[2][14]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norrie_May-Welby