Landmark legislation to better recognise the rights of transgender Tasmanians is halfway through the Legislative Council with significant change already made to various state laws.
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An omnibus bill on same-sex marriage registration and changes to sex and gender registration from birth - nation-first legislation - was debated late into Wednesday night before adjournment to Thursday morning.
Amendments passed so far include lowering the age of consent to 16 years old for someone to change their name or gender.
A requirement for surgical procedure for a change of gender has also been removed.
This means gender can be changed based on sexual characteristics such as a person's physical, hormonal and genetics features relating to sex.
The bill, which was primarily to do with same-sex marriage, was heavily amended in the House of Assembly last year to satisfy the wishes of many in the state's transgender community.
Further amendments were moved on Wednesday with Murchison independent MLC Ruth Forrest largely winning support for the new changes.
MORE ON THE BIRTH CERTIFICATES LEGISLATION
Under her amendments, sex at birth would be filled out and registered in the same way as it is now.
She said when a change was made, the details would be lodged and when a birth certificate was requested, the most recent recorded gender would be listed.
Montgomery Liberal MLC Leonie Hiscutt said government opposed the amendment because it only required a person to identify as that gender without any other requirements.
She said there were no limits on how many times a person could change their gender.
In another of Ms Forrest's amendments, a birth can be registered in up to 120 days where a child's characteristics do not allow for an easy assignment of sex.
Another amendment ensured the Registrar had to register the sex of a person as being either male or female but nothing would prevent a gender being registered.
Members concerned with some unintended impacts from the legislation dealing with the Anti-Discrimination Act had their amendments thrown out.
Those dealt with discriminatory speech against a person based on gender expression or identity, discrimination on the grounds of sex characteristics, and inciting hatred on the grounds of these attributes.
Windermere independent MLC Ivan Dean said the term "gender expression" was not used in any other Australian legislation so was, therefore, untested.
McIntyre independent MLC Tania Rattray said the extra protections would result in people who unintentionally misgendered a person being hauled before the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal.
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But Rumney Labor MLC Sarah Lovell said these laws would only apply to those who wantingly discriminated.
Ms Rattray attempted to raise the age of consent to 18 years for name and gender change so a person had the appropriate level of understanding and maturity to make "a life-changing decision".
"If we don't allow a 16 year old to buy cigarettes or vote... we should err with caution and raise the age to that of an adult," she said.
Mersey independent MLC Mike Gaffney said for transgender young people, it was "a life-saving decision".
The government on Wednesday night to move to suspend debates on amendments and move to other legislation.
Labor members and a number of independents shut the move down.
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