The same-sex marriage plebiscite’s current wording stands to exclude a sizeable portion of Australians from equal rights status.

LGBTI activist groups argue the advertising campaign leading up to it will encourage hate speech that could prove damaging for young people in the community.

Also, it’s expected to cost about $170 million in taxpayer funds — not including the additional $20 million of government advertisement funding for each side — even though our elected officials are still free to dismiss the result.

But an additional point is the fact that, even if it were to go through and parliament was to legalise same-sex marriage in accordance with the plebiscite’s wording, some Australians will still miss out on the right to get married.

HOW THE PLEBISCITE EXCLUDES INTERSEX AUSTRALIANS

The same-sex marriage plebiscite’s current wording stands to exclude a sizeable portion of Australians from equal rights status.

The vote, which is set to take place on February 11, 2017, will ask Australians: “Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?”

This wording fails to include people who fall into the ‘intersex’ category — namely those who are unable to identify as either male or female exclusively.

The wording of the same-sex marriage plebiscite fails to include intersex Australians.Source:Supplied

The Organisation Intersex International Australia (OII), an activist group for intersex people, defines ‘intersex’ as “people born with physical sex characteristics that don’t fit medical norms for female or male bodies”.

“The wording of the plebiscite is problematic, but it’s important to be clear that intersex people are diverse in our understandings of our bodies, sexes and genders,” said a spokesperson for the OII.

It also acknowledged, based on this definition, that some intersex people are already married.

“In a large 2015 study of 272 people born with atypical sex characteristics, 65 per cent of respondents who answered a question on marriage and relationships had never legally or formally married. 12 per cent of respondents are legally recognised as married in Australia. Eight per cent of people had married overseas (six per cent) or in Australia (two per cent) but their marriage is not recognised here. One per cent were widowed, and 14 per cent are separated or divorced.

“Some of us are already married, and legally recognised. Some of us are married in relationships that are not legally recognised.

“We all need respect.”

While there’s no expert consensus on how many types of intersex variations exist, a recently released United Nations fact sheet explains that up to 1.7 per cent of the population “is born with intersex traits.”

To put this in context, it means about 408,000 people in Australia may have an intersex variation.

Judging by the OII statistics, a sizeable number of people in this category will still technically be able to get married, but many others may not.

Up to 408,000 Australians may have an intersex variation, based on UN figures.Source:Getty Images

Norrie May-Welby is a Scottish-Australian person who became the first in Australia to be legally registered as neither male nor female.

In 2014, the High Court of Australia ruled that it was in the power of the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages to record in the register that the sex of May-Welby was ‘non-specific’.

They expressed discontent with the plebiscite as it stands, pointing out that the wording the government has ended on still fails to include people whose gender doesn’t fit binary conventions.

“I had hoped that by exposing the inequities of marriage inequality, the government would have moved by now,” they told news.com.au. “I applied to marry, and was formally told that as a person of non-specific sex, I could not marry.

“The ban also affects marriages where one partner changes sex. Instead of addressing these issues, the government has doubled down on this wasteful plebiscite exercise in futility, unlikely to even be approved by both houses of parliament, and foolishly worded to leave gaps even if it was miraculously put in a plebiscite and passed.

“There are apparently too many with influence in the Coalition who don’t see anything wrong with putting lipstick on a pig.”

Norrie May-Welby, who identifies as neither male nor female, will not be able to get married even if the plebiscite does pass.Source:Facebook

In October last year, Norrie stormed the NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages registry office, seeking the right to marry their long-term partner.

By coincidence, the ABC was filming documentary series Hatch, Match & Dispatch at the registry that day, so the couple’s encounter with the authorities was caught on camera, and aired on the first episode of the ABC’s Hatch, Match & Dispatch.

The couple’s application to marry was rejected.

Norrie says it’s difficult to say what the next step for gender-neutral Australians will be over this matter, especially given the same-sex marriage plebiscite itself is not legally binding.

“It’s all hypothetical, for the chances of the plebiscite being implemented are sub-optimal, assuming the parties maintain their stated positions,” they said.

“I don’t think there will be even one plebiscite. But if there were, and it passed, politicians could do the right thing and legislate marriage equality for all, or do the wrong thing and leave non-sex-specific people hanging.

“That’s only going to leave the pollies looking like d**ks, so I’d hope for better.”