Canterbury Mornings

The world's first openly trans-sexual MP has high hopes for a new bill allowing people to change the gender on their birth certificate - by way of a statutory declaration.The bill - in the name of Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin - would allow people to label their gender as other than male and female - with intersex, or X unspecified among the options.Former Labour MP Georgina Beyer told Chris Lynch this would bring the birth certificates in line with passports and driver licences.She says there needs to be some recognition for those who wish to be officially identified in the gender to which they wish to be identified.Georgina Beyer says because there are so many new terminologies under the umbrella of transgender - it can get confusing.