Monday 8 September 2014

Mum forced to leave Australia after discovering gender error on birth certificate - Yahoo!7

Mum forced to leave Australia after discovering gender error on birth certificate - Yahoo!7
A British woman says she's been forced to surrender her dream life in Australia, after discovering her birth certificate lists her as a boy. Mother-of-five Kim Walmsey was mistakenly recorded as a male at her birth in 1965, meaning her marriage of 23 years was illegal
Upon discovering the mistake, Walmsey found herself unable to renew her Australian visa and spending over £150,000 on a mission to set things right in the UK. Worse, when word got out in her Liverpool neighbourhood, Walmsey became the victim of homophobic slurs as neighbours believed she was in a gay marriage.

Kim told the Mail, “The whole thing is absolutely disgusting. I’ve lived nearly 40 years not realising I was actually registered as a boy and then all of a sudden my whole life fell apart. “In the eyes of the law we were technically two men marrying and that was against the law at the time. "Since I found out I have tried everything I can possibly think of to get it changed but it’s like banging your head against a brick wall."

Westminster sanctuary ruled her marriage to Jack, a security officer, was against the law, which was confirmed in a letter from the Arch Bishop of Canterbury in June last year, the Mirror reports

Walmsey’s MP Bill Esterson has written to UK Prime Minister David Cameron on her behalf. "This is a ludicrous case of a mistake which was made nearly half a century ago, which is still plaguing Kim and her family today," he said. "The fact that Kim is obviously a female is unquestionable. She has five biological children, but because her birth entry states that she is male, she is having these problems which are causing great distress to Kim and her whole family."

So even a woman who has given birth to 5 kids can't get her birth certificate corrected. And suffers from the effects of Transphobic/Homophobic neighbours as she's in a "same sex relationship" with "another man".
“We live in a small community and we felt really intimidated. I don’t want people thinking I’ve had a sex change," she told the paper.
“Some people might think the kids are adopted and that I’m trying to hide the fact I’m a man.
“My death certificate will say I’m a boy too and so when I’m dead and buried, my family down the line will think there was this huge scandal.”

It's all about appearances. If it's this bad for someone in this situation who hasn't "changed sex" - consider what it must be like for someone who has?

3 comments:

Sophie said...

I suppose the US must be a bit better, otherwise Clark Gable would have had major problems...

Anonymous said...

It shows how absurd government is and why would anyone be loyal to a machine?

Wonder

Anonymous said...

I agree

surely its a simple matter to see that the wrong sex was put down on the birth certificate.

if not as if her parents would say she was born a he. Or the school records would show her as a boy.

there would be no record of a sex change operation, and her pregnancies should have some records of occurring.

this is where her member of parliament needs to set in. And her friends in her area needs to support her

din