Sexuality & Gender Identity

(Adopted May 2018; updated May 2023)

Principles

The Queensland Greens believe that:

  1. All people have fundamental human rights and are entitled to equal protection of the law without any discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status.
     
  2. Inclusion and celebration of diversity are essential for social justice and equality.
     
  3. People have the right to their self-identified gender, which is integral to people's lived experiences as citizens and members of the community.
     
  4. Society should be free of harassment, abuse, vilification, stigmatisation, discrimination, disadvantage or exploitation on the basis of the actual or assumed sex, sexual orientation or gender identity of a person or someone they are associated with.
     
  5. Society should be free of discrimination based on family formation, or the sex, sexual orientation and gender identity of parents and carers.
     
  6. The health needs of all Australians should be provided for without discrimination of any kind. Everyone has the right to have their specific health needs met with equity, dignity and respect.
     
  7. All people, including intersex and gender diverse people, have a right to bodily autonomy and physical integrity.
     
  8. Ensuring that the government adheres to all established international rights covenants and principles, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Yogyakarta principles, as well as UN rulings on cases, with regard to the laws and rights affecting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer and and Asexual (LGBTIQA+) Queenslanders.

Aims

The Queensland Greens will:

  1. Establish a Queensland first all-encompassing Pride Centre as a 'one stop shop' for drop ins, service providers, and referrals to specialist service providers.
     
  2. Add a portfolio role to the Queensland government for a minister to be responsible for sexuality, sex and gender diverse people and issues that affect their lives.
     
  3. Work towards complete equality in all areas for all sex, gender and sexuality diverse (LGBTIQA+) people under the law.
     
  4. Recognise the relationships and families of LGBTIQA+ people.
     
  5. End discrimination on the basis of gender and sexuality by a broad campaign of education, training, and community outreach.
     
  6. Enable transgender and intersex people to have barrier free access to appropriate and accurate recording of their sex and gender that are consistent with their self determined identity.
     
  7. Ensure that intersex and transgender people have adequate and informed access to medical facilities within the public health system to serve their specific needs.
     
  8. Recognise the survivors of HIV, who have volunteered for critical drug trials at personal risk to benefit the greater public.  They have lived beyond their medically advised prognoses and are struggling as a result and are deserving of both acknowledgement and ongoing support.
     
  9. Address the disproportionate hate crimes committed against LGBTIQA+ people.
     
  10. Address the disproportionate levels of mental illness and suicide within the LGBTIQA+ population.
     
  11. Remove the disparity in the provision of education, and medical  services between Brisbane and rural and regional Queensland.

Legal and administrative

  1. Continue to work with the Commonwealth to achieve marriage equality for all consenting adults regardless of sex, gender, or disability.

  2. Review all state anti-discrimination acts to ensure their currency and consistency with other states, and commonwealth legislation.

  3. Repeal unnecessary exemptions contained within anti-discrimination legislation and stand against religious discrimination exemptions.

  4. Establish a whole-of-government round table, expanding on the existing Department of Communities round table and its commitment statement, to facilitate the communication between branches of government and community organisations in identifying and responding to LGBTIQA+ needs.

  5. Remove gender from most Queensland state documents and, where gender is to be recorded, provide the option of “not specified”.

  6. Direct Queensland Government agencies to gather statistics including demographics of offenders and people prosecuted on hate motivated crime against LGBTIQA+ people and to make those findings public through the Australian Institute of Criminology.

  7. Ensure that transgender, gender-diverse, and intersex people are appropriately housed and their human rights are respected within correctional facilities.  Additionally where evidence based treatment is required for their ongoing care, this should be provided.

  8. Remove the requirements for surgical procedures in order to amend a person's sex on a QLD birth certificate  or adoption register.

  9. Where a parent’s name has legally changed since the birth or adoption of a child, provide the option to update parents’ details on the child's birth or adoption record to reflect the parent’s updated legal name.

Social and Educational

  1. Provide funding for community based anti-violence campaigns targeting hate motivated crime against LGBTIQA+ individuals.
     
  2. Incorporate adequate evidence-based education on the current understanding of the diversity of sexuality, sex, and gender identity into all levels within the school system as a core part of learning and not as an additional program on the side.  Provide training for teachers so that they may expertly administer this curriculum.
     
  3. Within existing domestic violence infrastructure, establish safe resources for LGBTIQA+ victims of domestic violence.
     
  4. Establish a peak body overarching LGBTIQA+ organisations to coordinate the efforts of LGBTIQA+ community groups, publicise those efforts to the LGBTIQA+ community, and provide relevant professional development for public servants.
     
  5. Ensure that media adhere to their own established principles when reporting on issues affecting sexuality, sex and gender diverse people.
     
  6. Work with the education department to ensure that students have the choice of school uniforms that are gender neutral and non discriminatory.

Medical

  1. Require mental health service providers to include de-identified data on the LGBTIQA+ status on client datasets to aid further research into mental illness among LGBTIQA+ individuals and successful interventions.
     
  2. Fund a state-wide LGBTIQA+ mental health promotion service, working closely with mainstream mental health services, to address the disproportionate incidences of mental health problems and suicide within the LGBTIQA+ community.
     
  3. Ensure that suitable counselling is readily available within the public health system to facilitate informed choices regarding gender presentation for transgender and intersex people.
     
  4. Continue to push for public funding of the diagnostic and counselling needs of sex and gender diverse people at state and federal level.
     
  5. Ensure that transgender or intersex young people have the opportunity, in consultation with their parents and clinicians, to undergo therapy that delays the onset of puberty until they can make an informed choice about their gender presentation.
     
  6. Ban the use of all conversion practices, such as Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), in all environments, including both clinical and religious contexts.
     
  7. Ban the use of gender surgery on infants, except where necessary for preservation of life.
     
  8. Ensure that all GPs and counsellors in the state are treating vulnerable people with the respect they deserve, especially as they may be a first point of contact for people and dealing with them at a vulnerable stage.