Dual Olympian Deborah Lovely-Acason says Q+A trans episode lacked balance

A dual Olympian contacted the ABC to voice her concerns about the lack of balance on a Q+A panel discussing transgender athletes participating in sport.

Queensland weightlifter Deborah Lovely-Acason was a last-minute guest on Thursday night’s Q+A after she alerted the program to its lack of diversity on the panel.

The ABC was forced to hurriedly adjust its line-up of guests on last Thursday’s Q+A discussion on transgender athletes in sport, after a dual Olympian contacted the broadcaster to alert it to the lack of diversity on the panel.

Queensland weightlifter Deborah Lovely-Acason, who is a dual Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist, said she was made aware last Tuesday the upcoming Q+A episode would be discussing transgender athletes participating in sport, but not a single female athlete was slated to appear on the program.

Lovely-Acason was subsequently invited to appear on the panel, and she did so via videolink.

The ABC had promoted the five panellists online including Australian Sports Commission chief executive Kieran Perkins, handball player and transgender athlete Hannah Mouncey, former NRL player Joe Williams, Pacific sports consultant David Lakisa and University of Canberra sports lawyer Catherine Ordway.

“I said to them (the ABC) as a two-time Olympian it would be good to have a female athlete speaking to the topic,” Lovely-Acason told The Australian.

“When you put yourself out as a show, either (SBS) Insight or Q+A, I just feel like you need to present it fairly and my whole thing with the transgender topic is fairness, and fairness is not about feelings.

“I would like to see everybody being able to have that discussion and their viewpoints shared.”

The panel on ABC's Q+A program on Thursday, August 25, 2022 that discussed issues including transgender athletes competing in sport.

Lovely-Acason said she contacted the show via a private online inquiry on Tuesday, only to be later invited to be part of the program at the ABC’s Melbourne studios. However she was unable to attend in person so she agreed to take part via videolink.

She was brought into the discussion with the five panellists about halfway through the program and was given a few minutes to speak, but said it was “frustrating” she didn’t have more of a chance to air her concerns about transgender athletes participating in women’s sport.

Q+A did not promote her as being part of the program’s panel and the failure to have a female athlete listed as a panellist in the lead-up to the show also drew the ire of British Olympian, swimmer Sharron Davies.

Davies retweeted a Q+A post promoting the show, adding: “Shame on you! Not a single female athlete on a panel to talk about fair sport for females! This isn’t the 1920s but that’s how you’re treating women, utterly disgusting sex discrimination.”

The post drew more than 1270 retweets and 7000 likes.

During the program, Lovely-Acason spoke about how she competed against New Zealand weightlifter, transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard, in her fifth Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018. “Lining up against Laurel Hubbard and being presented in this competition didn’t feel fair,” she said.

On Q+A’s Facebook page there was plenty of criticism in the lead-up to the show, including one viewer who wrote, “Where are the female athletes on this panel? Biased much Q+A.”

A column penned by Q+A host Stan Grant after the show praised the panel’s discussion: “Deborah and Hannah engaged vigorously yet respectfully. But it isn’t always like that.”

Earlier this month ABC Media Watch host Paul Barry criticised the public broadcaster for failing to cover the closure of the UK gender identity clinic, Tavistock.

He said it was “a story being reported around the world, but you won’t see on the ABC”.

The ABC defended the move but Barry said on the August 15 episode: “We believe it is relevant now and if the ABC is convinced it’s not, perhaps it should run an article explaining why that is so”.

Despite repeated approaches to the ABC for comment, no one from the taxpayer-funded broadcaster responded to The ­Australian.