Transgender man plans to challenge proposed law on marriage rights

A transgender man will challenge the government over its controversial Marriage (Amendment) Bill, which would force transgender people to undergo a dangerous sex-change operation in order to be recognised as their chosen gender and allowed to marry.

Lawyer Michael Vidler and his client said they would challenge the legislation as unconstitutional should it pass on July 9.

The man, who can only be identified as Q, should not have to give up his "constitutional right" to leave his body unharmed in order to have the right to marry, Vidler said.

"What would all the men of this world say if they were told they had to undergo full adult male circumcision before they were allowed to marry? "Well, what they're asking of Q is a thousand times worse than that."

The life-threatening female-to-male sex-change procedure could leave Q wearing diapers for the rest of his life. "I don't want to undergo [penis reconstruction] surgery," he said.

Vidler said the bill defies a Court of Final Appeal decision last year, involving a transgender person known as W, that said the city should adopt guidelines based on Britain's Gender Recognition Act.

The British law, passed in 2004, acknowledges a person's gender once they have adopted it for two years, without the need for a full sex-change operation.