A Sydney resident has reportedly achieved a world first by successfully petitioning NSW authorities to be officially recognised as a non-gender person.
Norrie May-Welby, 48, received a "Sex Not Specified" status the day before Sydney's Mardi Gras parade after a month-long battle with the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, the Sydney Star Observer reports.
"The first thing we were told at the counter was that it can't be done," May-Welby said.
"Then we spoke to her boss who told us it had never been done before … with a bit of pushing that became, 'We'll see what we can do'."
Eventually the registry decided the gender status was possible, while May-Welby's bank has officially recognised it too.
May-Welby will now have another battle to see whether the status can be listed on a passport.
Born in Scotland in 1972, May-Welby moved to Australia at age seven and lived as a man for 28 years.
May-Welby had a sex change operation at 28 after deciding to become a woman, but the community activist later decided that was not right either.
Doctors in January ruled that May-Welby could not be categorised male or female, as May-Welby had no gonads and an atypical hormonal system.
May-Welby described the official recognition as “life-changing”.
"It means whenever I go in and fill in paperwork and someone says are you a Mr or a Miss, I can say I’m neither, here’s a piece of paper saying that — please comply," May-Welby told the Star-Observer.
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