This article was originally published by the OUTInPerth. You can find the original article here.
Concern has been raised over what WA politicians will be told about transgender people and their healthcare by a lobbying group that claims to represent the views of many people in the LGBTIQA+ communities.
LGB Alliance Australia will be holding an online meeting for WA members of parliament on 21 May in what has been described as a “briefing session” on the results of the Cass Review into gender affirming care.
WA spokesperson for Just.Equal, Brian Greig, said it was important MPs understood exactly what the LGB Alliance was, and also that it does not speak on behalf of the broader LGBTIQA+ community.
“The LGB Alliance only exists to advocate against inclusion and equity for trans and gender diverse people.
“They oppose gender affirming care, oppose allowing trans women in women’s sport and services, and oppose bans on conversion practices if the ban includes people who are gender diverse,” Greig said.
Just.Equal say while the LGB Alliance is very small it has a growing online presence in the UK and here and often seems to share the views of anti-LGBTIQA+ groups, much to the delight of religious conservatives who conveniently use the LGB Alliance to try and legitimise anti-trans measures.
Recent research found only 7% of LGB Alliance UK members identify as lesbian.
Greig said it was “concerning and sad” that LGB Alliance Australia failed to realise that many of the arguments they presented to oppose trans identity, health care and anti-discrimination protections, were often the same arguments used in earlier decades to oppose LGB equality and sexuality anti-discrimination protections.
“The way LGB Alliance focuses on ‘protecting children’, is reminiscent of the way homophobes claim their concerns are always about protecting children – whether it’s Safe Schools, ages of consent or book bans in libraries.”
Greig said the LGB Alliance also likes to focus on the extremely small number of transgender “detranstitioners”, in a similar way to religious groups focusing on lesbians and gays who had been “cured” through conversion practices.
Last year, LGB Tasmania protested the trans inclusive changerooms policy at Hobart Aquatic Centre which had been in place four years without complaint.
In 2022, the Tasmanian Equal Opportunity Commissioner upheld that LGB Alliance Tasmania could not exclude trans women from its lesbian-only events.
“It is no coincidence that the LGB Alliance has suddenly popped up in WA at the very time that trans law reform has been introduced and a ban on conversion practices is under discussion,” Greig said.
LGB Alliance says they are being “denigrated” by transgender activist groups
Jenny Nabben, Director of the LGB Alliance has told OUTinPerth that the accusations against their group are unfounded.
“We are well aware that trans activist groups seek to denigrate organisations such as ours that seek to hold a respectful debate regarding contested issues.” they said.
LGB Alliance Australia say they represent concerned members of the gay, lesbian and bisexual community who feel that historic gay organisations no longer represent their interests and are concerned that Australia is “sleepwalking into a medical scandal.”
Nabben told OUTinPerth that the outcomes of the Cass Review in the United Kingdom should be concern for all Western Australian politicians.
“Following the publication of the UK’s Cass Review we are witnessing a seismic change in the UK and a significant pushback on gender ideology in medicine, education, public policy and politics.
The UK is waking up and its political class is grappling with the profound effects gender ideology has had on medicine, public policy, legislation and education.”
“Our briefing for WA MPs details the impact of the potential changes to the Births Deaths and Marriages bill and the impact it will have on LGB people when sex is erased from law.” Nabben said.
