The Family Court has ruled that transgender teenagers will no longer have to front a courtroom in order to access Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).
Prior to this ruling, transgender children and their families would have to go to the Family Court in order to access the treatment, which was often a long, painful, and expensive process, which could be emotionally draining and psychologically harmful to the child in question.
It would also be a race against time in some instances - transgender advocate Georgie Stone has spoken out about her own race to access puberty-blockers at the age of 10, in order to stop the 'masculinising' effects of puberty. She became the youngest-ever Australian to be granted access to the therapy, at age 11. She has since fought valiantly against the legal barriers that transgender children face.
Georgie's mother Bec told , “Australia is the only jurisdiction in the world where transgender children have to go to court for treatment,” explains Bec. “Doctors always follow the advice of the Court, so the process is lengthy, expensive and deeply distressing.”
Now that the Family Court has ruled that transgender children do not have to go to court, trans youth will be able to access hormone therapies with permission from just their parents or guardians, and their doctor.
The ruling was a response to Re Kelvin, a legal case brought forward by the father of a 16-year-old transgender boy, to determine whether the Family Court should actually be involved in the process of hormone treatment for trans kids.
The Family Court has received 60 cases of transgender children in need of hormone therapy since 2004, and zero cases have been rejected.
The federal ruling occurred on Thursday afternoon, and has received wide celebration throughout the LGBTQIA+ community and its allies on social media.
