LGBT rights in Western Australia
| LGBT rights in Western Australia | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Same-sex sexual activity legal? | Always legal for women; legal for men since 1990 Equal age of consent since 2002 |
| Gender identity/expression | Gender recognition certificate requires divorce and a gender change procedure, eg hormone replacement therapy or surgery. |
| Discrimination protections | Yes, under state law since 2002 and federal law since 2013 |
| Family rights | |
| Recognition of relationships |
De facto unions since 2002 (no civil unions or relationship register) |
|
Restrictions:
|
Same-sex marriage prohibited under federal law since 2004; see History of same-sex marriage in Australia |
| Adoption | Yes, since 2002 (a ban on altruistic surrogacy for gay couples remains) |
Western Australia, an Australian state, has made significant reforms relating to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. The most important of these reforms occurred in 2002, when the Acts Amendment (Gay and Lesbian Law Reform) Act 2002 passed the Parliament. Same-sex couples, though recognised as being in a de facto union, lack access to a state-based relationship recognition scheme, something that occurs in all other Australian states. The Surrogacy Act 2008 also bans single people and same-sex couples from altruistic surrogacy agreements, making Western Australia the only jurisdiction within Australia to have this law.
In December 1989, the Parliament of Western Australia passed the Law Reform (Decriminalisation of Sodomy) Act 1989 which decriminalised private sexual acts between two people of the same sex and went into effect in March 1990. The Act was however, one of the strictest gay law reform acts in Australia, as it made the age of consent for homosexual sex acts between males 21, whilst lowering the heterosexual age of consent to 16. The Act also created new homosexual-oriented offences under state law, including making it a crime for a person to "...promote or encourage homosexual behaviour as part of the teaching in any primary or secondary educational institutions..." or make public policy with respect to the undefined promotion of homosexual behaviour.
LGBT people in Western Australia achieved equalisation of consent ages in 2002 via the Acts Amendment (Gay and Lesbian Law Reform) Act 2002, which also repealed the laws with respect to promotion of homosexual behaviour in public policy and in educational institutions.
Attempts to allow men who have previously been convicted of consensual homosexual sex crimes prior to its decriminalisation in 1990 have gained traction in recent years. In April 2016, the Law Society of Western Australia submitted a detailed proposal to the state Attorney-General, recommending a scheme be implemented to allow individuals who have been convicted of an historical homosexual offence apply to have that conviction be expunged. Prior to the 2017 state election, both major parties in Western Australia discussed the prospect of expunging consensual homosexual sex crimes, with the opposition Labor Party pledging to implement such a scheme if elected and the incumbent Coalition Government stating it would consider the proposal.
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