Hundreds march on parliament to fight gender hormone ban

More than 400 protesters have marched on Queensland parliament on Saturday to rally against the government’s ban on gender hormones.

Hundreds have marched on Queensland’s Parliament House to protest the state government’s ban of hormone therapy for transgender youths.

The rally formed part of Trans Justice Project’s Protect Trans Youth National Day of Action, with 19 other rallies held across Australia.

The rallies are a direct response to Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls’ decision to pause the delivery of puberty blockers and the federal government’s pending review of the controversial treatment pathway.

The crowd, of about 400, brandished signs and chanted ‘trans rights are human rights’.

Trans and gender diverse advocate Jenny, who attended the rally in Brisbane today, said public awareness of gender dysphoria needed to increase.

“I’ve got two older children that accessed gender care when they were younger and it changed their life,” the Gold Coast mother said.

“I’d love the public to learn more about gender dysphoria and understand what a mental health battle it is.

“If the government wants to pick on a minority like transgender people, they could at least look at it from a mental health point of view.”

Hundreds gather to protest the government's ban on gender hormones.

According to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, gender dysphoria is the distress or discomfort that may occur when a person’s biological sex and gender identity do not align.

Jenny said access to puberty blockers and gender clinics go a long way towards preventing youth suicide and self-harm in transgender children.

“We need to have the Children’s Gender Clinic over at the Mater Hospital reinstated and reopened,” she said.

“Anyone under 18 at the moment can’t access puberty blockers. That’s the big issue here.”

Fellow parent and transgender advocate Michelle Barnes said the bans were bringing more financial stress to already struggling families.

“We’re here today because my daughter is affected by the ban,” she said.

“She is 13-years-old and on the cusp of starting puberty blockers. The ban, even though she has been engaged with the gender centre since 2017 and she was in primary school, it doesn’t matter she’s still banned from starting.

“I’m a single-mum with a mortgage that means I now have to get treatment elsewhere. It means the script is going to be $1000 a quarter. That is money I just don’t have.

“Our community is trying to put a fund together to make sure kids like my daughter don’t slip through the cracks.”

One guest speaker at the Brisbane rally expressed her anger towards Queensland’s health sector and the decisions being made by politicians.

“While the Queensland government has banned new patients from accessing gender affirming care for trans and gender diverse pediatric patients, these medicines remain accessible to the broader population,” she said.

“What the broader community needs to realise is that if a non-trans child is diagnosed with, for example, precocious puberty, meaning that their body is developing too early, doctors can and do prescribe the exact same puberty blockers that are now being denied to trans kids.

“So for cisgender children, puberty blockers are deemed to be safe and effective. Yet, for transgender children, suddenly they are too dangerous?

“This is not about medicine, this is targeted discrimination.

“This is not the first time that we have seen politicians interfere in medical decisions.”