The two-day hearing early last month was an appeal against the Australian Human Rights Commission rejecting a year ago an application from a group of lesbians — the Lesbian Action Group — to hold public events exclusively for “lesbians born female,” a door rule that would have excluded, among others, trans women, meaning biological males identifying as lesbian.
A decision is expected to be handed down before December.
The case is one of several currently before Australian courts and lesser jurisdictions that touches on the question, “what is a woman?” and lays bare the efforts of mainstream politicians and sense-making institutions to suppress debate on the question — perhaps because their policies would not withstand scrutiny.
An appeal is being lodged in the landmark Federal Court case of Tickle v Giggle, in which a female-only app and its owner were found to have indirectly discriminated against a trans woman (biological male) on the grounds of “gender identity.” (The decision, in my view, uncritically adopted trans-activist mantras — you can read my analysis here.)
The same court is hearing the lengthy and politically intriguing trial of Victorian MP Moira Deeming’s allegations that state Opposition leader John Pesutto defamed her as a Nazi sympathiser in the aftermath of last year’s infamous Let Women Speak rally — an “anti-trans” rally in the reckless media shorthand — where neo-Nazis gatecrashed and sieg heil’ed in front of Parliament House.
Elsewhere, Victorian breastfeeding expert Jasmine Sussex is being taken to Queensland’s Civil and Administrative Tribunal for alleged vilification after she labeled attempts by trans women to breastfeed their children “experimental’’ and a “dangerous fetish”. Yes, some biological males — presumably, and mercifully, small in number — are taking a cocktail of hormones to induce pseudo lactation so as to breast feed the baby they fathered. Is your head spinning yet?
Source: Let’s talk about sex — and fetishes – by Julie Szego