{"id":1973,"date":"2003-09-09T14:07:00","date_gmt":"2003-09-09T14:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/?p=1973"},"modified":"2024-10-08T12:56:40","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T10:56:40","slug":"9-september-2003-parliamentary-hearings-on-the-alteration-of-sex-description-and-sex-status-act-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/9-september-2003-parliamentary-hearings-on-the-alteration-of-sex-description-and-sex-status-act-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"9 September 2003 \u2014 Parliamentary Hearings on the Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act, South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the 9th of September 2003, a group of organisations and interested individuals, including<a href=\"https:\/\/gala.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Sally.pdf\"> Sally Gross<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/static.pmg.org.za\/docs\/2003\/appendices\/030909simone.htm\"> Simone Heradien<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com.mx\/books?id=jtiUvdDlTboC&amp;pg=PA250&amp;lpg=PA250&amp;dq=estian+smit+%2B+bio&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=-1kPQhNEMM&amp;sig=ACfU3U0oUNqcj6YpBOlDqu1Q48tqTHqLVQ&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiV1sXX14P5AhWCDkQIHe92AlkQ6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&amp;q=estian%20smit%20%2B%20bio&amp;f=false\"> Estian Smit<\/a>, members of the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pmg.org.za\/docs\/2003\/appendices\/030909capetown.htm\"> <strong><em>Cape Town Transsexual\/Transgender Support Group<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pmg.org.za\/docs\/2003\/appendices\/030909sahrc.htm\"> the South African Human Rights Commission<\/a>, and the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pmg.org.za\/docs\/2003\/appendices\/030909cge.htm\"> Commission on Gender Equality<\/a>, made<a href=\"https:\/\/pmg.org.za\/committee-meeting\/2832\/\"> oral presentations during the parliamentary hearings<\/a> to advocate for amendments to the <em>Sex Description and Sex Status Act, Act 49<\/em> of 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As gazetted at this point, The <em>Sex Description and Sex Status Act<\/em> made no provision for trans people without genital surgery or for intersexed and other persons who did not wish to have any medical\/surgical procedures, but who may want to change the gender identity\/sex description assigned to them at birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pmg.org.za\/docs\/2003\/appendices\/030909capetown.htm\"> <\/a>Cape Town Transsexual\/Transgender Support Group only heard about the hearings at short notice, about 10 days before the hearings. Due to this short amount of time, they<a href=\"https:\/\/static.pmg.org.za\/docs\/2003\/appendices\/030909request.htm\"> requested an extension<\/a> of two months, to better prepare. The request was denied. The Group then went ahead and prepared and delivered their<a href=\"https:\/\/static.pmg.org.za\/docs\/2003\/appendices\/030909capetown.htm\"> oral presentation<\/a> on 9 September 2003.<a href=\"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Presentation-Alteration-of-Sex-Description-and-Sex-Status-Act-49-of-2003.pdf\"> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A quick overview of <em>Act 49<\/em> of 2003:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cThe Act applies to:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Persons having gender reassignment.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Intersexed persons.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Requirements:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;For gender reassignment, reports by two medical practitioners.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;For <\/em><em>intersexed<\/em><em> persons, reports by a medical practitioner and a psychologist\/social worker.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Who may apply?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Any person whose sexual characteristics have been altered by:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>i) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; surgical treatment<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>ii)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; or medical treatment<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>iii) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; or by evolvement through natural development resulting from gender reassignment, or any person who is<\/em><em> intersexed<\/em><em> 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.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Note: \u201cEvolvement through natural development\u201d is not defined in the Act, so it could be interpreted as changes in biological development, or as changes in psychological\/social development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Critical comment: The Act assumes and therefore demands that applicants must undergo some kind of change before they qualify for an alteration of sex description.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the 9th of September 2003, a group of organisations and interested individuals, including Sally Gross, Simone Heradien, Estian Smit, members of the Cape Town Transsexual\/Transgender Support Group, the South African Human Rights Commission, and the Commission on Gender Equality, made oral presentations during the parliamentary hearings to advocate for amendments to the Sex Description [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[335,39,41,34],"tags":[391,51,387,389,315,45,390,386,27,388],"class_list":["post-1973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-community","category-legislation","category-trans-and-intersex","tag-act-49","tag-alteration-of-sex-description-and-sex-status-act","tag-cape-town-transsexual-transgender-support-group","tag-commission-on-gender-equality","tag-estian-smit","tag-sally-gross","tag-sex-description-and-sex-status-act","tag-simone-heradien","tag-south-africa","tag-south-african-human-rights-commission"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1973"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3303,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973\/revisions\/3303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}