Tony Briffa

Tony Briffa (born 1970) is an Australian politician who is notable for being the world's first known intersex mayor and public officeholder.

Briffa was raised as a girl, then lived for a time as a man, and now chooses to live as female. Briffa is one of the first people to be public about her experience of being mistreated by doctors as a result of her intersex variation, and about intersex human rights. In an article on SBS News, Briffa explained that she had her first surgeries when she was a baby and had further procedures including the removal of healthy gonads. She also explains that she was born with a "female" body.

Speaking to a 2013 Australian Senate inquiry into the Involuntary or coerced sterilisation of intersex people in Australia, Briffa describes how doctors "convinced my mother to approve me to be castrated" (i.e. the removal of her internal testes without her consent):

Career Briffa has worked in positions with the Department of Defence and the Australian Federal Police. She is the world's first openly intersex public mayor, serving as Deputy Mayor of the City of Hobsons Bay, Victoria, between 2009 and 2011, and Mayor between 2011 and 2012. She resigned as a local councillor on 14 February 2014, effective on the appointment of a successor. In October 2016, She was re-elected to Hobsons Bay City Council.

Briffa has previously served as the President of the Genetic Support Network of Victoria, Board Member and Secretary of ILGA World, Co-executive director of InterAction for Health and Human Rights (formerly OII Australia) and long term President of Intersex Peer Support Australia (formerly the Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia. She fostered several children, is a member of numerous Victorian Government Ministerial Advisory Committees since 2001, and a current member of the Victorian Government LGBTIQ Taskforce. She is also the co-chair of the Victorian Government's Intersex Expert Advisory Group.

Briffa is running as an independent candidate for Williamstown at the 2026 Victorian state election.

Selected bibliography

Parts of Briffa's life story are depicted in a short online animation.

Marriage Legal issues presented by Briffa's non-specific birth certificate meant that she could not lawfully marry in Australia until late 2017. On 27 September 2013, Tony Briffa married Manja Sommeling in Dunedin, New Zealand. Intersex Human Rights Australia notes:

Tony was born in Victoria with Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (PAIS), one of many intersex variations, and Tony's birth certificate does not state a sex. Marriage in Australia is currently only permissible between a man and a woman, and Tony is not eligible.

Tony is able to marry in New Zealand because legislation providing marriage equality was passed earlier this year. Tony has had to declare an "indeterminate" gender for the purposes of today's marriage.