State governments are being forced to grapple with a law that requires transgender people to divorce before changing their birth certificates, following a landmark UN ruling revealed by BuzzFeed News last week.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee published a decision on June 15 declaring Australia's transgender "forced divorce" laws are in violation of international human rights law.



The committee found in favour of a married transgender woman from New South Wales, identified only as G, who had tried unsuccessfully on multiple occasions to change the sex on her birth certificate.

The UN decision was related to federal law and state law in NSW, however laws with the same effect exist in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

Despite the landmark decision, timely reform looks unlikely in most jurisdictions. We asked the states and territories with transgender "forced divorce" law for their response to the UN decision, and whether they plan to change anything.