Susie O’Brien: Scaremongers are skewing gender debate
Victoria’s intersex Bill and the new Cricket Australia inclusion policy are not about social engineering. They’re about fairness and respect, writes Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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It’s been a big news week for gender and sexuality issues.
Singer Miley Cyrus has been spotted kissing a woman after breaking up with her husband Liam Hemsworth, reminding us of her “pansexual” identity.
Cricket Australia has a new inclusion policy which will allow transgender people to play in the league of their chosen gender, not their biological sex.
And state parliament has started debating a Bill that enables non-binary people to choose which sex is recorded on their birth certificate without having to undergo costly and invasive surgery.
The Bill also means intersex people can choose from one of 33 gender descriptors that best matches their gender identity.
While Cyrus’s sexual predilections are above my pay grade, I’d like to set your mind at rest about the other two issues.
Sadly, scaremongering has scarred debate around these two important milestones.
An unruly union of conservative Liberals, renegade academics and radical feminists are claiming the changes to our birth certificates will have far-reaching consequences.
They’re overlooking the fact that transgender people in three states and two territories are already able to choose a gender on their birth certificate that matches their identity, not their biology.
These changes have passed into law with barely a ripple.
In those states, domestic violence shelters aren’t full of men scaring women seeking refuge.
Women-only gyms aren’t full of pretend men working out. Police are still able to track criminals and jails are still gender segregated.
And trans people are not putting it on so they can get into bathrooms and change rooms in order to harass and offend women.
In short, the legislative change has barely caused a ripple of interest for anyone other than the 0.05 to 1.7 per cent of people who are born intersex.
Under the Victorian Bill, children under 16 can officially change gender after an assessment by a doctor or registered psychologist.
And yet reports are still peddling the line that such kids are being brainwashed.
The Australian tells us kids who are “confused about sex and gender” and “captured by emotive promotion of trans status” are being pushed into “unproven hormone drug treatment”.
Opponents of transgender rights seem to think kids turn trans on a whim because they’re trying to be cool or fit in.
But the reality is our state’s treatment of gender-diverse kids is among the world’s best and a model for many other countries.
Under the proposed law, kids are not given free rein to change their gender without stringent medical oversight.
Also opposing the Bill is a group called Victoria’s Women’s Guild.
This bunch make me embarrassed to be a feminist.
They want the bill delayed, claiming the impact on women is “largely misunderstood”.
They say the changes will have an impact on women-only domains such as women’s sport, change rooms, dorms and sex-based anti-discrimination rights.
It’s not true. Similar legislation has already passed in other states and it hasn’t changed anything, except the rights of a small group of transgender and gender diverse people.
The idea that men will use this legislation to pretend to be women and infiltrate women-only spaces is absurd.
Women do not have anything to fear from transgender women who, on the whole, are desperate to fit in rather than cause trouble and stand out.
The state Opposition is also ramping up its scaremongering tactics, claiming the Bill could have an impact on sex offenders, those on parole and other prisoners.
It’s ill-informed and wrong.
The same ignorant approach was adopted by Prime Minister Scott Morrison over the Cricket Australia guidelines that will allow cricketers to play in a competition according to their gender identity rather than biological sex.
Morrison called it “heavy-handed”, suggesting it should be up to individual clubs.
Similarly, a chorus of extreme feminists called it “men muscling in on another women’s sport”.
And yet this policy has been crafted via consultation and follows safeguards to ensure transgender women don’t have an unfair advantage.
It follows similar rules in grassroots competitions, where guidelines state that clubs must allow players to take part in competitions in line with their gender identity and not the sex they were assigned at birth.
MORE: WHY LGBTQI+ BIRTH CERTIFICATE CHANGE IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS
Trans and intersex people have some of the highest rates of suicide and depression and face significant discrimination in our society.
Being accepted in a sporting team of their choice, and having documents which match their gender identity, are progressive, positive moves.
They won’t impact on most of us at all, but make a big difference to those directly involved.
It’s not about social engineering.
It’s about fairness and respect for the different lives people lead.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist.
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