Decades-long wait for trans birth certificate reforms nearly over for Queensland’s Emily Wells

Emily Wells says most trans people can’t afford the sexual reassignment surgery needed to be allowed to change the gender on their birth certificate. ‘You don’t just wake up and decide to be [trans] – it’s always there.’ Photograph: Supplied by Emily Wells

Emily Wells was 16, living in Mackay and about to go for her driving licence when she saw her birth certificate for the first time.

That was when Wells discovered, she says, the document was wrong. Not only did it list a name she now refers to as her “dead name” but, according to the certificate, Wells should be a young man.