Trans rights may become Australian federal election flashpoint after Trump win
The right of transgender athletes to compete in women’s sport could become a live issue in Australia’s upcoming election after playing a critical role in Donald Trump’s campaign.
The right of transgender athletes to compete in women’s sport could become a live issue in Australia’s upcoming federal election after playing a critical role in the campaigns of Donald Trump and many Republican candidates in US congressional races.
Transgender rights have become a political flashpoint in Australia over the past three years, most recently with Moira Deeming expelled from the Victorian Liberal Party and Coalition frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price vowing to push back against the transgender movement and its impact on children.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has encouraged Senator Price and Tasmanian senator Claire Chandler to express their views on transgender issues, while Ms Deeming has claimed Victorian Liberals can’t win in the state unless they adopt Mr Dutton’s “strong leadership” advancing conservative values.
Former Liberal Party candidate Katherine Deves sparked a firestorm during the 2022 federal election campaign for her outspoken views on trans women participating in women’s sport, including comments for which she later apologised.
However, senior Labor figures believe Mr Dutton is more likely than any of his recent predecessors to exploit trans issues, with Donald Trump’s aggressive campaign against trans inclusion and gender-affirming medical treatment for children highlighting the potential for winning votes from across the political spectrum.
Senator Price, now opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman, has nominated women’s rights in sport as a priority, saying “I don’t see why it should be controversial”. She says women like Ms Deves and Ms Deeming were “brave” and had been “thrown under the bus” in expressing concerns for women’s rights being impinged upon by transgender women.
Senator Chandler, who has long fought to keep biological males out of female sport, says the trans issue may well become a focus during next year’s federal election. “This is an issue where the left has failed women,” she told The Australian. “They’ve actively promoted a hugely unpopular stance that males have to be allowed into women’s sport and spaces. Women are really angry about it and there’s no doubt it cost the Harris campaign votes.
“It’s an issue that transcends the political spectrum, but in the US I think the left of politics has completely misunderstood the public sentiment, which is that it’s completely unreasonable that women should have to make room for men in their sports and their services, in their facilities that were designed for women.
“The majority of women who contact me about this are women who identified themselves as traditionally from the left, who feel totally abandoned by left-wing parties who are now saying women don’t even have the right to single-sex sports, bathrooms or services.
“That’s exactly what you’ve seen women saying in the US, and that even Democrat-aligned commentators are saying in the aftermath of the election.”
Mr Trump endorsed a ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports as a key campaign promise, while Kamala Harris studiously avoided the issue after becoming the Democrat nominee in July.
At a rally in Virginia on Saturday, Mr Trump welcomed onstage seven members of the Roanoke College women’s swimming team after they objected to a trans female — who had previously been a member of the men’s team — joining the squad. “The brave members of the swim team stood up to the transgender fanatics,” he said, blasting the “radical left” for its “transgender craziness”.
During the campaign Democrats tried to steer the agenda towards abortion and women’s reproductive rights — which polls show most Americans support – while Republicans shifted the focus to trans issues, aggressively attacking gender-affirming care for children and moves to allow biological men to take part in women’s sport.
Republicans spent more than $80m in the last three months alone on advertising campaigns hammering Democrat politicians — mostly in Senate races — over their support for transgender rights. Despite claims the ads demonised trans people and ‘distracted from important issues’, Republican-linked groups aired anti-transgender TV ads more than 55,000 times in battleground states. Several Democrat candidates retreated from their stances.
In Texas, groups supporting Republican Senate candidate Ted Cruz spent $16m on ads excoriating Democrat opponent Collin Allred for his past support of transgender issues.
Mr Allred backed away from his previous comments, released an ad saying: “Let me be clear: I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports, or any of this ridiculous stuff Ted Cruz is saying.”
The reversal came too late: Mr Allred lost to Senator Cruz.
In Australia a number of high profile trans issues have exploded onto the political arena.
In August transgender woman Roxanne Tickle won a landmark ruling against a women’s-only social media app after a judge found her exclusion from the app amounted to indirect discrimination. Ms Tickle sued Giggle for Girls and its owner Sall Grover for excluding her from the app, claiming unlawful discrimination under the Sex Discrimination Act.
Federal Court judge Robert Bromwich found that “sex is changeable” and non-binary, saying the “concept of sex has broadened over the 30 years since the SDA”.
The judgement is being appealed to the High Court and has led to calls for a change to the law, including from feminist groups saying discrimination law no longer offered women the protection it was once legislated to guarantee.
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