Why Queensland’s gender IDs are a dangerous defiance of science

Yvette D'Ath speaks to the media at Parliament House in Queensland.

Historically, Queensland hasn’t been known as the centre of progressivism. The home of alternative political characters such as Clive Palmer, Bob Katter and Pauline Hanson, the Sunshine State is rarely considered “woke”.

Yet, under the Palaszczuk government, this reputation is undergoing a metamorphosis.

Last week, Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath welcomed the passing of a new law that promised to “modernise birth certificates” in support of the “rainbow community”. This novel legislation now allows biological males to legally register as females, even if they’re in possession of a beard and penis.

“I want Queensland’s rainbow community to know: your lives matter, your stories matter and your struggles matter,” D’Ath announced with an air of self-congratulation. “Everyone deserves the respect and dignity of being recognised as themselves,” she said.

“Self-identification” laws are currently ascendant worldwide. Victoria implemented its self-ID law in 2020, Tasmania in 2019, and activists are lobbying the NSW government to follow suit. The trend is disconcerting. These laws stealthily eradicate the recognition of biological sex in any jurisdiction they are passed. The upshot is that women are left with no legitimate claim to single-sex spaces such as bathrooms, changerooms, sports and even prisons.

Bob Katter arrives with people dressed as the grim reaper at Parliament House.

And unlike marriage certificates, which remain unchanged even once a marriage has ended – and are instead supplanted by divorce decrees – “modernised” birth certificates can be changed to state that an individual has always been “female”, even if they have lived their lives as a male. Rather than issuing a new certificate of identity to recognise transgender status, these laws rewrite history.

Similar laws have been passed in other countries with embarrassing results. In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon’s fervent support of gender self-ID laws contributed to her political downfall. When a Scottish rapist with a shaved head donned a blonde wig and adopted female pronouns to secure a spot in a women’s prison, Sturgeon found herself unable to concede that there might be a distinction between trans women and biological women. The resulting backlash left Sturgeon bereft of moral authority, her flagship policy looking like a joke.

Will such events play out in Australia? It is hard to know.

There has been little protest around gender self-ID laws, and the overwhelming majority of our politicians seem unwilling to mount a persuasive argument against them. Proponents of such laws like to frame the opposition as being the preserve of the “religious right”, ignoring arguments from feminists, biologists and the parents of daughters.

But the recognition of biological sex is not a religious matter: it is a scientific one. And the public, while supportive of transgender rights, may start to have doubts when they see biological males dominating female sports, and sex offenders gaining access to women’s prisons.

Even in the highly polarised US, a majority believe sports should be restricted according to biological sex. And the public’s views have shifted over time. Gallup polling recently showed that less than half of Democrat voters supported a trans athlete’s right to compete in female sports, while the vast majority of Republicans are opposed.

The public shift reflects a growing unease that self-identification laws and policies are being taken advantage of by individuals with ulterior motives.

In Britain, there have been reports of pupils in schools identifying as various four-legged creatures, with teachers not knowing how to respond. Just this week The Telegraph reported that one pupil at a secondary school in England’s southwest insisted on being addressed as a dinosaur, and another identified as a horse. Yet another pupil was reported to wear a cape and demanded to be acknowledged as a moon. Not the moon, but a moon.

Of course, some of these children may be struggling with genuine mental health issues that deserve care and patience. Others may simply be having a laugh at their teachers’ expense. And this is the problem with these laws. They can too easily be exploited. Whereas biological sex is immutable, and is encoded in every single cell of our bodies, our “gender identity” relies on our word alone.

Nicola Sturgeon

Not only that, but it is apparently fluid, and can change from one day to the next. Will an individual who identifies as a male in the morning and a female in the evening be able to access two different birth certificates from the Queensland government? And if they cannot – isn’t this a repudiation of gender diversity?

Aside from the potential to be gamed by the unscrupulous, such laws reflect a wider cultural shift towards prioritising emotional needs over objective realities. This shift has been fermenting for years, now culminating in an outright rejection of biological truth, particularly in regards to sex.

And the paradox is that as our culture has become increasingly sensitive to the various emotional requirements of various groups, mental health has been plummeting. Young people today experience far higher rates of depression and anxiety compared to every generation that has come before them. Recognising a kaleidoscope of bespoke identities seems to offer little solace.

Perhaps in the haste to provide a la carte identity, one crucial aspect has been overlooked: true contentment arises not from distorting reality to fit one’s identity, but from accepting the world as it really is.

Claire Lehmann is founding editor of online magazine Quillette.