Speech made on 11 May 2022 in response to a motion to limit the involvement of trans women in sports, moved by the Katter Party. The motion was voted down.
Instead of talking about healthcare, housing or climate action, we’ve seen the LNP and now the Katter’s drag trans people’s basic rights through the dirt.
As Claire Garton, our candidate for Moreton said in April “Using transphobic tactics to win over voters is just pathetic. I can’t express how much the continuous rhetoric and dog whistling over trans rights by both big right-wing parties fills me with dread. This isn’t a hypothetical for our community. Real people in my community continue to die because of this shit. Instead we should be debating how we include gender affirming surgery into Medicare and how we lift marginalised LGBTQIA+ folk out of poverty. Both the Liberals and Labor continue belittling trans children and women as a conservative rallying call to arms against progressive changes in society. Using bigotry as an election strategy is weak and desperate.”
This kind of gross discrimination is what we’ve come to expect from parties that have run out of ideas and have lost touch.
Sport is for everyone. If we want to be a country that includes everyone, then everyone should be able to participate in sport, including trans and gender diverse people.
I have been a committed critic of the plans for the 2032 Olympics Games, as a criminal waste of money, with a track record of draining host city budgets, displacing people from their homes and destroying neighborhoods, and in my own neighbourhood, threatening a state school and a local park. One small bright spark, would be if Brisbane committed to being the most trans-inclusive Games in history, welcoming trans athletes with open arms.
Trans people experience unacceptable discrimination, hatred, and even violence, in the workplace, in hospitals, at school, in prison, on the street and at home, and motions, like this one, tell trans kids and trans adults, that you are not welcome.
And if we’re really serious about supporting women’s sport - let’s pay women sportspeople the same as men. Show women’s sports on free-to-air TV and in news coverage. Start programs that encourage women and girls to take up sports. The Greens will always stand up for trans people,
The Greens have committed to investing $15 Million to allow trans and gender diverse people to access gender affirming healthcare. Gender affirming healthcare can be life-saving, but cost is often a major barrier to accessing this.
Just as we hear that, although abortion is now legal it’s very hard to access pathways to pregnancy terminations consistently across the hospital system, we also consistently hear from trans people that it is hard to access gender-affirming care even when it funded by Medicare. For instance, orchidectomy is a vital procedure which allows trans women to go off the intensive hormone therapy that their transition may start with. It is funded by Medicare. But many Queensland hospitals simply refuse to provide it. Trans advocates have urged the Health Minister to fix this, and I will be following up with her about that.
The Greens have also been pushing for changes to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Register Act. Queensland is lagging behind other states in the ways in which gender is noted on birth certificates.
My colleague Michael Berkman tabled a petition organised by Esther Vale, an amazing campigner that we are lucky to know. The Government committed to reforms to the BDMR Act last year, but we’re yet to see a draft bill or any movement on this.
We are privileged to have many amazing trans people and non-binary people as part of our movement in the Greens, and I want to spend the rest of my time re-iterating how loved, appreciated and needed you are.
To the Trans youth who swell the number at rallies for climate action, for renters rights, for land rights - your energy, knowledge and strength is crucial to our movements.
To the Trans campaigners who have been on the front lines of fighting the Religious Discrimination bill - thank you. I’ll be joining you at the protest on Saturday, to Stand up to LNP's transphobia.
To the trans kids and trans adults who are yet to come out - we wish you the strength, support and love you need to live your life in the richest and most fulfilling way you can.
To the trans athletes getting up early to train, or spending your weekends on the hockey pitches, in the pools,
To trans artists, writers, thinkers, coders and musicians, amazing artists like Navikaram, we need your creativity and your work out there in the world.
To trans kids doing their NAPLAN tests today - I’m bloody sorry you have to do NAPLAN! But I know you’ll do great!
To the trans organizers and volunteers out there on pre-poll booths in the rain today - we couldn’t do without you.
To the trans candidates, like Claire Garton, putting their hands up to represent their communities - politics needs you so badly, and we’re so proud of you.
We recommit today, to the fight against transphobia and transmisogyny, the fight for justice, the fight for a world where everyone gets to be their best selves.
Links
The Queensland Greens reaffirm commitment to the trans community