2024-03-04
The LGBTQIA+ Community is being sidelined once again by WA Labor, and they're incorrectly blaming voters for it
By Alex Wallace (they/them), an LGBTQIA+ Activist from the Swan Regional Group, a Pride Working Group OB and previously on the Election Campaign Committee and a GWA candidate
Last year, I wrote an article for Green Issue titled LGBTQIA+ Legislation Queued For 2023. In that piece, I said the community was expecting three large pieces of legislation for the year, including reform of the Equal Opportunity Act and abolishing of the Gender Reassignment Board.
To recap, the Equal Opportunity Act is a big piece of legislation that encompasses all forms of anti-discrimination in Western Australia. It's currently rather lacking in a number areas, particularly on protections for trans and gender-diverse folks, and has no anti-vilification protections either. The Gender Reassignment Board is dehumanising and archaic process of legal gender change in Western Australia. It's the second worst system of any jurisdiction in Australia and only allows for binary gender options, it needs to be replaced with best practice self-ID processes, as used in places like Victoria and now Queensland.
In the 12 months since I wrote that article, the WA Labor Government has done nothing to act on these critical issues to our community. There has been no draft legislation, no commitment to a timeline for introduction and not even an indication that this legislation will be introduced before the state election in 2025.
What's worse, in the Sunday Times on January 7th, an article titled "Cook Government have not ruled out change for WA parents to choose ‘gender free’ option for babies" said, "Senior Government sources have told The Sunday Times the Cook Government is fearful that any changes it makes will trigger voter backlash leading up to the 2025 State Election." This assumption of voter backlash has no factual basis.
In fact, the evidence tells us quite the opposite. Ipsos polling[1] of Australia in mid-2023 found that 79% of people felt that trans and gender-diverse people should be protected from discrimination in employment, housing and access to business, such as restaurants and stores. Furthermore, 57% felt that, with parental consent, trans and gender-diverse teenagers should be allowed to receive gender-affirming care and 53% agree that transgender people should be allowed to use single-sex facilities (e.g. public restrooms) that correspond to the gender they identify with.
So if the polling suggests that the Australian people support the rights of the trans and gender-diverse community, why is it that the WA Government continues to hide behind the lie of supposed voter backlash? They're using this lie to hide their own lack of political will to get the job done; an absolute shame.
Now is the time for the Government to act, in the best interests of the LGBTQIA+ community, especially after nearly seven years of Government. Power for powers sake is meaningless. Should the Government lose the progressive majority of the Upper House next election, the anti-discrimination and anti-vilification legislation could be watered down, or worse lost for good.
The community is also concerned that if this legislation drags out to the state election, we will face another public debate on the lives and livelihoods of the trans and gender-diverse community. With public acts of transphobia on the rise, those at risk in our community, particularly the youth, do not need their lives under constant scrutiny and pressure, for simply wanting to live their lives.
The Greens (WA) should be able to go to the next stage election, looking to further improve the lives of the LGBTQIA+ community, with things like ending unnecessary surgeries on intersex babies, increased public education and awareness of LGBTQIA+ people and fighting back on the dehumanising rhetoric of "TERFs" and "Gender Critical"[2]. Instead, we may have to push for policy that the WA Labor Government has already, allegedly, committed to. What a shame that would be.
Header image: Produced with Canva
[Opinions expressed are those of the author and not official policy of Greens WA]
[1] Majority of Australians support anti-discrimination protection for transgender people (June 8, 2023) https://www.ipsos.com/en-au/transgender-anti-discrimination
[2] Definitions of these can be found in The Greens (WA) LGBTQIA+ Policy https://greens.org.au/wa/policies/lgbtqia