Careful scrutiny needed before radical reforms
Don’t risk trampling the rights of women and girls, writes Bronwyn Williams
ON Tuesday the Tasmanian Opposition parties joined with the Government’s speaker to pass nine complex amendments to a simple procedural bill, in the name of transgender rights.
The lobby group behind the legislative amendments, Transforming Tasmania, claims to have the support of the Tasmanian people. They insist their ideology and their political agenda has been widely discussed and agreed upon by the broader community. Nothing could be further from the truth.
A majority of the Tasmanians who voted in last year’s same-sex marriage plebiscite supported the right of same-sex couples to marry. Transforming Tasmania has sought to use this as evidence of majority support for transgender law reform.
They have taken the empathy and goodwill of the Tasmanian people towards same-sex couples and used it to justify radical changes to birth registration and antidiscrimination laws.
In a clear diversion from normal parliamentary practice, the Opposition parties refused to provide their extensive suite of amendments to the Government for consideration until literally the last minute.
The amendments are wide ranging, inconsistent and incoherent in places. In less than two hours the Government identified several flaws in their drafting. Labor and the Greens, however, insist they are good laws that will greatly improve the lives of transgender people and according to Labor justice spokesperson Ella Haddad have “zero effect on the masses”. Yes, you heard that correctly — an elected politician referred to the 99 per cent of her constituents who are not transgender as “the masses”. Despite her earnest support for transgender people, there’s been one glaring omission in her advocacy. She and the other Labor and the Greens members forgot to ask all those they claim to represent what they thought about removing sex markers from birth certificates. Or what they thought about having to check everybody’s preferred pronouns before speaking to them, lest they be accused of breaching anti-discrimination laws. Labor and the Greens tell us there will be no negative consequences for anyone arising from these amendments. This is not true.
Women Speak Tasmania has evidence of numerous cases of male-bodied persons identifying as women and gaining access to female-only spaces. Male to female transgender persons have assaulted female people in women’s prisons, traumatised women in domestic violence shelters, and forced other spaces like female-only gyms to accept them as members or face anti-discrimination claims.
They have used antidiscrimination laws to extract monetary compensation from women who decline to wax their male genitalia, or commit the mortal sin of misgendering them.
Labor and the Greens say, without a trace of consideration for traumatised women — “So what, men will do that sort of thing anyway. That shouldn’t stop us from making life easier for transgender people”.
Allowing biological male transgender persons to become legally female simply by signing a statutory declaration will, according to any sensible understanding of male pattern violence against women and children, make it easier to perpetrate that abuse. It is naive and disrespectful of the rights of women and girls to safety and security to think otherwise.
There is a way to protect the integrity of birth certificate information, and allow transgender people to have their chosen social identity formally recognised. It isn’t necessary to trample all over the rights of women and girls, or make radical changes to the recording of sex-based information that serves a myriad of purposes, both general and personal.
The Legislative Council is now faced with the unenviable task of dissecting and interpreting the legislative monstrosity generated in the Lower House. We wish them luck, but remind them that ordinary Tasmanians are watching. Transgender law reform finally has its time in the spotlight — hopefully the bright lights will mean closer inspection and careful scrutiny of the amendments and all their consequences. Bronwyn Williams is a retired lawyer and social worker and a spokesperson for Women Speak Tasmania, which is a network of women and women’s groups.