Tasmanians support legislation making inclusion of gender on birth certificates optional when they learn what it actually does, transgender activist Martine Delaney says.
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A poll for the Liberal Party in December suggested strong opposition among voters.
The EMRS poll found 71 per cent of respondents opposed the birth certificate move and 21 per cent supported it.
Respondents were asked: "Do you support or oppose the Labor and Greens proposal before the Tasmanian parliament to remove gender from every newborn child's birth certificate unless parents opt to have gender included?"
Ms Delaney said the question was very misleading.
"The poll question is worded to suggest all new birth certificates will not include gender if a parent doesn't request it, which is just plain wrong," Ms Delaney said.
"The legislation before parliament will result in parents being offered the choice to include gender or leave it off the paper document, and all birth details will continue to be recorded by the registrar, just as they are now.
"As a result of the biased question, I believe the result of this poll does not reflect the values of fairness and inclusion with which everyday Tasmanians approach the issue of transgender law reform."
She said she was confident Tasmanians would accept the change over time.
It passed the House of Assembly as part of a suite of changes aimed at reducing discrimination against transgender and intersex people.
It was backed by Labor, the Greens and Liberal Speaker Sue Hickey.
Montgomery Liberal MLC Leonie Hiscutt said Labor and the Greens failed to consult with the community before they "pushed through" the amendments.
The Women Speak Tasmania group defended the poll question, saying the amendments "clearly state that information about sex or gender for a newborn may only be included on a birth certificate if requested by the infant’s parents, parent or guardian".
"If the amendments become law, the sex marker will be excluded from a newborn’s birth certificate unless the child’s parents, parent or guardian specifically request that it be included," spokesperson Bronwyn Williams said.
"It will be an opt-in system, as the poll question states."
In the poll, every voter group bar Greens voters opposed the move by a big margin.
Greens voters gave it net support of 36 per cent, meaning the percentage of Greens voters supporting it exceeded the percentage opposing it by 36 percentage points.
The net opposition scores from other voter groups included:
- Denison (Clark), 29 per cent;
- 18-34-year-olds, 33 per cent;
- Southern residents, 37 per cent;
- Labor voters, 38 per cent;
- Franklin, 38 per cent;
- females, 41 per cent;
- other voters (not Liberal, Labor or Green), 48 per cent;
- 35-54-year-olds, 52 per cent;
- undecided voters, 53 per cent;
- Northern residents, 55 per cent;
- Bass, 55 per cent;
- Lyons, 58 per cent;
- 55 and overs, 58 per cent;
- males, 59 per cent;
- Braddon, 67 per cent;
- North-West and West Coast residents, 70 per cent;
- Liberal voters, 92 per cent.
