Gender-bender Buddie gets what zie wants

Mar 16 2010 by Andy Newport, Paisley Daily Express

A BUDDIE has become the first person ever to be officially recognised as neither male nor female.

Paisley-born gender-bender Norrie May-Welby, 48, entered the world as a man but had a sex change operation in 1990 when he was just 28.

However, after becoming unhappy living as a woman, May-Welby, right, decided to become a ‘neuter’.

The former prostitute, who now lives in Sydney, Australia, is now officially recognised as a person of no specific gender.

She or he – Norrie prefers the term zie – emigrated to Australia at the age of seven after being born in Paisley.

Officials from the New South Wales government altered the Buddies’s birth certificate to include the new no-gender classification after doctors said they were unable to determine the sex of May-Welby’s body.

Zie said: “The concepts of man or woman don’t fit me. The simplest solution is not to have any sex identification.

“Stating my sex as male or female makes the statement false, which is not acceptable for legal identity documentation. The simplest solution was not to have any sex identification on my legal documentation.

“I asked the New South Wales government to issue me a certificate that didn’t state my sex.

“After supplying the authorities with medical documentation that told me it couldn’t be done, they took some time to consider the matter and issued me a certificate stating my sex as ‘not specified’.”

The decision has delighted Norrie, who added: “I’m a happy eunuch, I’m a man, I’m a woman, I’m a human being.

“I used to identify very much as a trans-sexual and thought I was trapped in the wrong body.

“I’ve now come to the conclusion that, maybe like a lot of people, I’m a little bit yin and yang, male and female, masculine and feminine.

“I think any healthy human being has to embrace both sides of themselves.”

The UK’s Gender Trust welcomed the case.

A spokesman said: “Many people like the idea of being genderless.”