Trans advocates have welcomed one judge’s decision as heralding greater protections, but some say forcing inclusion is ‘authoritarian’.
For more than a decade, it has been illegal to discriminate in Australia on the basis of gender.
Now a series of cases at the federal level are testing that principle – and raising questions about what it means to be a woman.
Last Friday, in a landmark win for trans rights, a federal court justice ruled that transgender woman Roxanne Tickle had been indirectly discriminated against when she was barred from social media platform Giggle for Girls after the firm and its chief executive, Sall Grover, said she was a man.
And on Monday, the Victoria-based Lesbian Action Group (LAG) will ask the administrative appeals tribunal to overturn the Australian Human Rights Commission’s October decision that it cannot exclude transgender or bisexual women from its events.
The LAG argues that a special exemption from usual gender discrimination laws would help them to substantively improve equality – and that freedom of speech and freedom of association are essential for the advocacy and wellbeing of lesbians. They maintain that a trans woman is male and so cannot be a lesbian.
In October, the Australian Human Rights Commission found it was “impossible to tell who is ‘born female’ and who is not without intrusion on an individual’s privacy, bodily integrity, and dignity”. The commission found trans lesbians would be disproportionally negatively affected by an exemption, referencing studies that found transgender and gender diverse people reported high levels of harassment and social exclusion.
Carole Ann from the LAG said the decision, forcing the inclusion of “male-bodied people who identify as women and think they are lesbians”, was “authoritarian and oppressive”.
Anna Kerr, principal solicitor with the Feminist Legal Clinic, which is representing the Lesbian Action Group, says the finding against Giggle means freedom of speech and association protections for lesbians are more important than ever.
“Women want to be able to meet and say, ‘Well, what do we think about this? What does it mean for lesbian groups? What does it mean for young lesbians? What does it mean for women’s spaces and services and sport and women’s jails, women’s domestic violence refuges?’” she said.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/law/article/2024/sep/01/as-australian-courts-test-legal-definitions-of-gender-what-will-it-mean-for-sex-discrimination-laws-ntwnfb
Regardless what you think you are there’s still only 2 genders! To pretend a bloke is a woman is probably a trans right but to legally force others to go along with this delusional behaviour is in itself divisive and stress provoking to the majority! But for a minuscule minority the rest of the world has got to pretend it’s “ok” and go along with their ideals. My daughter and those of “normal” people deserve the right to compete with other girls/woman, they deserve to be respected in their dressing rooms not covering up while some bloke dressed as a woman flops it out it’s not normal, natural or wanted in our society! The judge who believes this needs disbarring because they are so detached from the general consensus it’s absurd!