This year, there has been a clear attempt by conservative politicians and media in Australia to import the Anti-Trans culture war present in the USA and United Kingdom. It is a dangerous trend that threatens our individual liberties and lives if we fail to take it seriously. Thankfully, in Australia, it is harder due to compulsory voting and parliamentary restrictions for extreme views to gain traction, but especially in times of economic hardship, it is still possible.

Demonstrations and Nazis

Making international headlines early this year was, of course, the now infamous visit of KJK to Australia and New Zealand. Her ‘let women speak’ rallies generally known for silencing any woman that doesn’t agree with her with threats of ‘annihilation’ made an immediate impact in Australia. This was due to the appearance of Neo Nazis in Melbourne which drew everyone’s attention. A frightening occurrence that in some ways helped to undermine the GC movement in Australia as it highlighted for the public the extreme nature of the movement. Organises attempted to distance themselves from this group of Nazis but their well-documented links to far-right individual made this difficult and was behind the push to expel Moira Deeming from the liberal party in response to the public backlash.

However, the perspective presented by conservative commentators as well as the inability for party leadership to gain sufficient support saw this push reverted to a suspension. It was not until she threatened to sue the party that she was expelled a short time later. This response demonstrated at the time that a clear element of Conservatives in Victoria shared these views but are perhaps more politically cautious than Deeming.

The Media war.

Sky News and Herald Sun media figures like Rita Panahi and Andrew Bolt have long been waging a war against any form of progressive social policy. This year, their attacks have become more focused at different times on the trans and wider LGBTQIA plus community. Covering everything from AFL pride jumpers, ‘virtue signalling’, trans participation in sport, Julie Gillard’s refusal to play the define a woman gotcha game and even the behaviour of Trans protesters at that same ‘Let Women Speak’ rally attended by Nazis. Hell Panahi has even suggested that the trans population has a disproportionate level of power. How she managed to write that without cackling insanely as we continue to have to debate about using public restrooms is beyond my understanding.

However, it has continued to get worse over the last few months with channel 7 getting in on the act. Their ‘news’ program Spotlight presenting a dangerous and flat-out fabrication on affirming care. This ‘special report’ used the same scare mongering we have seen in the US and UK filled with the same sound bites from the same De-transitioners.  At no point could they find an Australian De-transitioner to add any substance to their claims. Even beyond this, the very selective editing of social media videos from prominent trans figures to wrongly suggest they regret their transition has even led channel 7 to make an apology. Alarmingly, despite the inaccuracy of such rubbish and deliberate misrepresentation, it is clear from the experiences in the community that people took this program seriously. This is after all the impact of labelling opinion as ‘News’ and a ‘Special Report’ which means less decerning audiences accept everything and paves the way for a greater attack on trans rights.  

Legislative attack

Currently in NSW there is a growing demand to change the exemption of faith-based organisations to discriminate against the LGBTQIA community. Such a push is stirring up debate and the resistance will no doubt turn ugly if such a move begins to gain traction in parliament. Considering the ‘strong pushback’ of Christian lobby groups to the conversion therapy ban, a broader move to remove exemptions is unfortunately not a fait accompli. Yet, in a secular and democratic society like Australia, the rule of law should be paramount, and all organisations should operate under the same conditions to protect the individual rights of citizens. This resistance like the failed referendum has seemed to build towards the increased targeting of marginalised groups.

Since the channel 7 program, this has clearly started to focus into the beginnings of a legislative assault on trans rights by conservative politicians. In Victoria, this has been led by, you guessed it Moria Deeming, with a call for an inquiry into affirming care for minors. Such an inquiry would have been a waste of government funds since the weight of scientific evidence proves with little doubt that affirming care is life-saving care. The real goal of such a proposal is to discredit blockers and care in general as something that is experimental and potentially dangerous, which requires investigation. Considering hormone blockers have been around for 40 years and used to treat trans youth for a few decades, are fully reversible and compared to other medical treatment very safe it is once again an attempt to provoke fear through a deliberate misdirection. Deeming’s motion for an inquiry was defeated as expected, but it firmly puts the lives of trans youth up for debate and builds on the work of the media to create fear and moral panic.

Taking things, a step further, Alex Antic has proposed a member bill to South Australian parliament to ban affirming care for trans youth. These are exactly the types of legislation that we have seen proposed and passed in multiple states in the USA. Once again, this bill is expected to be defeated, and there has been vocal condemnation of the bill by other members of parliament. However, like Deeming’s motion, the bill sends a message that this care is something to fear and works to undermine the community’s faith in medically proven life-saving care. It is a dangerous act that shows at best a lack of research and understanding but more likely a callous disregard for people’s lives as these politicians prioritise their own personal views.

Our response

Activism and awareness are the cornerstone of our response to call out these tactics and reveal their duplicity for the wider community. However, it is a means to an end as the ultimate method to defeat these alarming political trends is to demonstrate that right-wing extremism continues to be a vote loser. This was effective in dealing with Katherine Daves, who suffered a 6.6% swing against after her attacks on the trans community that liken anti trans views to “standing up against the Holocaust.” This is perhaps the greatest evidence that the vast majority of Australians are not susceptible to these tactics, and due to compulsory voting, the minority are not able to influence elections. But we can’t rely on this and need to remain vigilant and active. Otherwise, this blatant hate mongering may get a larger foot hold.

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Read more about the improtance of supporting Gender Affirming care and support for young people and unpacking the debate over trans people in sport.