Adjudication No. 1164 (May 2002) [2002] APC 19

Adjudication No. 1164 (May 2002)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint against The Australian by Karen Gurney, about a report of a legal dispute over the validity of a marriage in which one partner is a transsexual.

The report was prompted by an appeal by the Federal Attorney-General against a Family Court judgment upholding the validity of the marriage.

In summarising the case, the headline and the article contained a total of three references to "same-sex" marriages. Ms Gurney, a transsexual woman, complained that the published material was factually wrong, maliciously misleading, intentionally sensationalist, offensive to the concerned couple, and distressing to other transsexuals.

The Australian considered that the headline was entirely appropriate, and that the article was fair, accurate, and objective. It believed Ms Gurney's concerns "smacked more of a campaign than a genuine complaint" - and indeed, she describes herself as "a campaigner for the rights of all those who were born between the states of individual sexual differentiation".

The Press Council can find no evidence that The Australian sought deliberately to mislead or offend any of its readers in this matter. The report was a brief, but balanced, summary of the essential facts of the marriage, the Family Court ruling, and the basis of the Attorney-General's appeal.

The Australian pointed out that the "same-sex" view of the marriage was central to the Attorney-General's appeal.

That was certainly not the view of the Family Court in reaching its determination, which drew a clear distinction between transsexuals and homosexuals, stating explicitly that this case "does not raise any issue about homosexual relationships and marriage". It went to considerable lengths to explain the Court's reasons for declaring the post-operative female-to-male transsexual to be a man in determining the status of the marriage in this instance.

However, the final view of the court system on the question is yet to come. Until that determination, the Press Council believes that references to "same-sex" marriages were not unreasonable but, in any case, the situation was clearly outlined in the story.