Born male, Marcelle knew from the age of three that she was female. For the next 40-odd years she hid her true identity. Last year she began living as a full-time woman, but says people's opinion that people choose to be trans or gay is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome.
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''That's how some friends of mine saw it [as a choice]. One day I was this and the next day I was something else. They saw it as the Marcelle female had killed the Marcelle male - that the old me is gone and this new me is an imposter. They get angry because they don't understand the change,'' Marcelle said.
''My choice, and this is important, my choice was to hide it [my whole life]. To repress it and keep it hidden. This was done out of fear, because I was scared, because I wanted to fit in, and I was afraid of ridicule or being cast out.''
Now in her early forties, she is in her first year transitioning to life as a woman; attending sessions with a gender therapist, having hormone therapy, laser removal and electrolysis. She has not had sex reassignment surgery yet but for now, at least, she has the documentation to prove she is, legally, a woman.
Last December The Canberra Times reported on the beginning of Marcelle's battle. Required to travel overseas for work, she applied for a full Australian passport as a female but was refused because her birth certificate says she is male and she did not meet humanitarian guidelines.
Marcelle appealed against that decision and won, using evidence that the Passport Office did not have any guidelines on which to base their decisions. Marcelle has now been issued with a passport stating her sex is female.
Before the policy changes announced earlier this week, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade would only issue one of three travel documents: a full passport with the person's birth sex; a limited validity passport with the person's birth sex; or a Document of Identity with the sex field left blank. All of these options forced pre-operative people to travel on documents that either stated their sex as different to how they presented or left the field blank, which had the same potential for embarrassment and danger for the passport holder.
In 2009 the Passport Office apologised to transsexual woman Stefanie Imbruglia for withholding a female passport when she travelled abroad for reassignment surgery. They conceded that the Document of Identification was not a safe document for Australian citizens to travel on.
And, as Marcelle found, a passport that stated your sex as different to how you physically presented was a useless form of identification.
Before her case went to hearing, Marcelle had to travel to the US for work and found that at times her passport was not accepted. Her passport - still stating her sex as male and with a matching photo - was not accepted when she tried to check into hotels and book rental cars. She had to use her ACT drivers licence - which has a current photo and no sex field - as proof of identity.
Forms of identification such as state drivers licences, Medicare cards and Centrelink cards do not require a person's sex to match the one stated on their birth certificate, meaning many people are recognised as male and female on various forms of identification.
The medical procedure - costing upwards of $20,000 - is not fully covered by Medicare, with only the cost of amputation of gender body parts refundable.
Reconstruction surgeries such as breast and facial are classified as ''choice'' or ''cosmetic'' surgeries and are not covered, while cognitive and hormonal therapies, as well as procedures such as laser hair removal, are all at a personal cost to the individual. Combined costs for these therapies and procedures can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
While proponents say the policy change regarding passports is positive, they say further action needs to be taken to assist those that want the surgery but do not have the economic means to afford it. Marcelle says this has the potential for deadly consequences.
''For some people transitioning, it isn't a choice [to have the reassignment surgery]. Yes, some could survive without the surgery but others can't. There will be some who, if they don't have the surgery, will suicide and that's well known and happens a lot. There's a very high rate of suicide amongst trans people because they can't get the surgery.''
In 2007, a LaTrobe University report on the health and wellbeing of transgender people in Australia and New Zealand, found that those surveyed showed a rate of depression much higher than the level found in the general Australian population. Additionally, one in four respondents reported suicidal thoughts in the two weeks before they completed the survey.
Transgendered people also say discrimination continues in terms of access, quality and the appropriateness of health services for gender diverse people. No drugs that intersex and trans people require for hormone treatment are listed under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Currently, in order to obtain these medications at PBS prices - for example, the sex drive suppressant Androcur - they must agree to be listed on a sex offenders' registry.
Marcelle says this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to being able to afford the costs of transitioning.
''Over 12 years ago when being trans was classed as a mental illness in Canada, their government covered costs of surgery because it was seen as a cure. When attempts were made to declassify it as a mental illness in the early 2000s the Canadians actually resisted it, because as soon as that happened they would lose the right to have the costs covered,'' Marcelle said,
''So people who can't afford the surgery can still have it, but under the guise that, yes, it's a mental illness. And that's the horrible thing - you're either [considered] mentally ill or make the 'choice' to have surgery. It's such a black and white view.''
Dr Tracie O'Keefe, a sexologist, published author and advocate on trans gender issues, says these are ongoing problems.
''It's gone on for years in Australia. The first case was brought forward around 1989, on birth certificates, and since then it's just been one legal case after another because every single government since has refused to comply with the United Nations' directives for human rights.''
Dr O'Keefe says the new policy is now ''the most humane passport guidelines in the world for sex and/or gender groups of people''.
After a lifetime of hiding, and a long legal battle, Marcelle is one of the people who have paved the way for other sex and gender diverse Australian to exercise their right to be recognised in the way they self-identify.
