A Fijian man who migrated overseas and underwent a gender reassignment surgery was denied from having his gender changed on his birth certificate, Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum told Parliament yesterday.
He highlighted this while making his contribution to Government Whip Alvick Maharaj’s end of week statement on the importance of maintaining proper identification records especially with targeted assistance. He said the Fiji-born man had migrated overseas and then went to South East Asia to undergo gender reassignment surgery to have his sexual organs changed.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the man came back to Fiji and wanted his gender on his birth certificate changed from male to female. “Came back to Fiji and wanted his birth certificate to be now registered as a ‘she’, at birth he was male but he is now a female. We refused that,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
He said the matter was then challenged in court. Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the court was in favour of the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM).
“The only thing that can be changed in your birth certificate is your name, not your father’s name, not your mother’s name and not the place you were born, nor your gender.”
He said there were certain countries such as Germany that allowed people to change their gender.
“There are a number of issues that did not exist here 15 years ago.
“We want to make sure we are giving the right identification to the right person – the authentic identification.”
