A transgender rights group is pushing for reform in the name of a transgender woman who was allegedly raped while being housed with the male population inside a Tasmanian prison.

The mother of Martin Harwood, who identified as Marjorie, said she always knew her child was "different".

"It didn't worry me," Ms Harwood said.

"I didn't hide his gender. I'd walk down the street with him, I used to buy his make-up. I didn't care. He wanted ladies' clothes, he got ladies' clothes."

Marjorie had kidney disease since she was a child. ( Supplied )

She said Marjorie, who she still referred to as Marty despite acknowledging she was a transgender woman, turned to alcohol and crime after enduring years of bullying.

Ms Harwood said Marjorie was in and out of jail several times and went back to Hobart's Risdon Prison about a year ago.

"And I used to say to the magistrate 'can you please put him somewhere safe'," she said.

"But people say I can't blame the magistrate, it's not up to the magistrate to say where he goes."

Ms Harwood said Marjorie was housed among the male prison population.

She alleged while in prison, Marjorie was gang raped by a group of men and hospitalised, and that the injuries were so significant Marjorie needed a colostomy bag.

"He said 'Mum, they raped me. Five of them," Ms Harwood said.

"When the magistrate used to sentence him he would sing out 'Mum, help me'. I would feel helpless.

"I have been thinking to myself lately that he would have been lying there bleeding and crying and thinking 'Mum, help me'. I wasn't there."

Alleged rape not reported

A spokesman for the Tasmania Prison Service (TPS) said allegations of serious offences were referred directly to Tasmania Police for investigation.

Police have no record of the alleged rape, which was never reported.

Marjorie Harwood's mother says she refused dialysis and died in July. ( Supplied )

Last month Marjorie, 38, died from kidney failure.

Ms Harwood said Marjorie had kidney disease since she was a child, but after the alleged rape she lost the will to live.

"The doctor offered him dialysis numerous times," she said.

"[Marjorie said] 'no I don't want dialysis mum I want to die'. That is hard for a mother to accept."

The TPS spokesman said the service had a comprehensive policy for transgender, transsexual and intersex prisoners which prioritised safety, and treated prisoners with dignity and respect.

"Subject to the security of the prison, transgender, transsexual and intersex prisoners are housed in a correctional facility appropriate to their gender identification," the spokesman said.

"The TPS has no record that the individual in question identified as female."

Transgender rights activist Martine Delaney knew Marjorie since she was a child.

Martine Delaney says Marjorie should not have been housed in the prison's male section. ( ABC News: Rhiannon Shine )

"She was a lot braver than I and she was attempting to be herself back in the early 1980s," she said.

"That caused her a lot of trouble and a lot of grief that went on for most of her life."

The Transforming Tasmania spokeswoman said Marjorie should not have been housed in the men's prison.

"I wonder why a prison system which provides protective custody for people accused of child sex offences didn't provide that same protection for a transgender person being placed in a male prison," Ms Delaney said.

Push to remove gender on birth certificates

Since same-sex marriage became legal, all states and territories have until December to remove the forced divorce clause in the Marriage Act that forces heterosexual couples to divorce if one of them underwent a gender transition.

As part of that legislative change, Ms Delaney has called for further law reform including to remove the need for a person's sex to be listed on their birth certificate, which has already been done in some countries.

"We are asking for the removal of gender markers from birth certificates," she said.

"The sky has not fallen in in any of those countries [where this has happened]. It simply means that the data on gender is still collected it is just not displayed on a birth certificate.

"What happened to Marjorie goes to the heart of the legislation that we are asking the Government to pass.

"I think it would be very fitting if [these law reforms, if passed] were known as Marjorie's Law.

"Somebody like Marjorie would not have been in a situation where because of their birth certificate they were automatically placed in a men's prison."

Under current state law, transgender people cannot change the gender on their birth certificate unless they have surgery to remove their reproductive organs.

South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory are the only two jurisdictions to have removed the requirement.