Gender-bender headache for jail

02.07.2003
By NICK SQUIRES in Sydney

Prison authorities in New South Wales are wrestling with an unusual quandary - how to treat a transsexual prison officer who wants to use women's changing rooms and wear a female officer's uniform, despite fierce opposition from colleagues.

The officer, who is known as both Rick and Monique, is in the process of changing sex from male to female and has been taking hormone medication since February.

The officer, who has worked at Silverwater Prison in Sydney for 11 years, dresses as a man at work and uses the jail's male changing rooms. In his own time, Rick often dresses as a woman.

But when Rick officially becomes Monique through a sex change operation this year, he expects to use women's facilities.

Rick, who is in his 40s and has worked in the jail's prisoner transport unit, told the Sydney Daily Telegraph yesterday: "All I ask is to be treated like a human being and an officer within my department. The laws state I am allowed to use the changing rooms and toilets of my chosen gender."

Last week the issue was raised in the New South Wales state Parliament.

The Minister for Justice, John Hatzistergos, confirmed that the officer was in a transitional phase of gender change, adding: "Female officers have raised concerns about what may happen in the future."