Greens war on transphobia

Women who have long supported the Greens for their stance on the climate and asylum seekers certainly are, seeing the party’s transphobia policy as in conflict with their own rights and identity.

How the Greens arrived at a place where, arguably, discussion of sex-based rights is forbidden, is a complex and heavily contested story in which Haven can be found at both the start and the end.

In February, Haven was censured by the Greens for posting repugnant material, including defending paedophilia and incest. One of her (sic) private accounts carries a warning that it contains sexual fantasies involving non-consent. Two months later, she was chosen by branch members to champion the new transphobia provision which, according to Greens leader Samantha Ratnam, “will ensure our party remains a safe and welcoming space for all”.

Linda Gale, one of about 50 observers in the Zoom meeting when the new definition was adopted, never imagined she’d be cast on the wrong sign of that line.

Gale is a union rep and socialist feminist who had has been a Greens member for about 13 years. She has spent the past five years locked in an increasingly rancorous battle with trans rights activists and her party’s leadership over how the Greens should support trans women without eroding the rights and identity of biological females.

In the lead-up to last week’s council vote on the transphobia position, Gale made clear her concerns on Greens Ideas, an internal party forum, about where the Greens were heading. “It has been repeatedly asserted that there is no conflict between the rights of trans people and the rights of women, and that to suggest otherwise is inherently transphobic. This is nonsense.

“Human rights come into conflict all the time. It is silly to pretend that they do not and outrageous to suggest that it is inherently transphobic to raise the existence of such conflicts. The purpose of understanding the points of conflict is to find ways to resolve them, not to exclude any particular group from access to rights. But in the Greens, this discussion is announced as trans exclusionary.”

Gale’s original sin, committed in partnership with Nina Vallins, a former Greens member who has since quit the party, was to co-author a rebuttal to Haven and Ramcharan’s 2018 proposal, which they said aimed to shut down debate on a critical issue in feminism and women’s rights. At the time, Gale and Vallins were both members of the party’s state executive.

It is less clear what impact the new transphobia definition will have inside a party riven with grievance. Half of the current state council face re-election on June 30.

Source: Greens war on transphobia