Women speak out against the oppression of gender ideology

By Catherine Sheehan

The concerning impacts that gender identity ideology, or “transgender rights”, is having on women, children and people with gender dysphoria was the subject of a recent forum at the Hobart Town Hall.

The Gender Identity in Law conference, organised by the Coalition for Biological Reality, went ahead as planned despite efforts by protesters to have the event cancelled or removed from the Town Hall.

Keynote speaker, Senator Claire Chandler, said she had been contacted by people from across the political spectrum concerned about the erosion of women’s sex-based rights, in favour of “transgender rights”.

“Women need to be able to have this conversation and deserve to be heard,” she said. “They can’t be shouted down and they must be listened to.”

Senator Chandler recently tabled the Save Women’s Sport bill in the Federal Parliament, seeking to uphold single-sex sport for women and girls. The bill was in response to policies from sporting bodies mandating that males who identify as transgender be permitted to participate in female sports and use female-only amenities such as bathrooms and change rooms. Senator Chandler said women asking questions or expressing concern about such policies were being silenced.

“How did we end up in a situation where any discussion of this issue is shut down by activists claiming it’s an attack on trans rights to question these policies?” Senator Chandler asked.

“The people who tried to cancel this forum, and the man who reported me to the Anti-Discrimination Commission in 2020 for saying women’s sports, change rooms and facilities were designed for females and should remain that way, don’t want any of these questions about women’s single-sex spaces being asked,” she said.

“They don’t want to acknowledge that by taking away the right to have single-sex spaces by allowing self-identification, you are undermining a safe-guarding practice.”

Allowing males to enter female-only spaces including bathrooms and prisons, placed women and girls in danger, Senator Chandler said, given child sexual abuse and sexual violence against women was “at epidemic proportions” in Australia, and 97 percent of sex offenders were males who had access to their victims.

She said that while most transgender people were “decent”, and “law-abiding”, dangerous males would use the current legal loop holes to gain access to female-only spaces.

“That’s why single-sex spaces for women and girls are so essential,” she said.

Chair of the conference, Emeritus Professor of transnational studies at Sydney University, Bronwyn Winter, said the push from activists was about “the privilege and entitlement of men to invade women’s spaces, sporting clubs, prisons”.

She cited the UK case of Karen White, a biological male and convicted paedophile and rapist, who claimed to be transgender and was placed in a women’s prison where he sexually assaulted female prisoners.

“The assertion of the rights of some should not be at the expense of trampling over the rights of others. Because it we do that we’re not talking about human rights, we’re talking about shoring-up a sense of privilege and entitlement,” Professor Winter said.

She also said she knew friends and colleagues who had been vilified, de-platformed, and even received death threats, “simply for saying that sex is a biological fact”.

Development psychologist, Dr Dianna Kenny, said females aged 10 to 29 were most vulnerable to gender identity ideology, and many also suffered from multiple mental health diagnoses including Autism, ADHD, Social Anxiety, depression, identity confusion, and confusion about their sexual orientation.

Dr Kenny said despite the lack of scientific evidence underpinning transgender ideology there had been “an extremely rapid rise in young people presenting to gender clinics throughout Australia” over the past eight years. She attributed the sudden rise in gender dysphoria to the promotion of transgender ideology which she described as a “social contagion”, seducing young people to believe they can change their sex.

“There are now tens of thousands of young people suffering from their decision to transition,” she said.

“Gender reassignment surgeons are reporting increases in requests for reversal surgeries.”

Co-founder and spokeswoman for Save Women’s Sport Australasia, Katherine Deves, said at least 76 biological males were currently competing in elite women’s sports in the USA, including Lia Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania, a biological male now competing in women’s Ivy League swimming competitions and “smashing pool, meet, and college records”. Previously, Thomas had competed in the men’s division and was ranked below 450.

Ms Deves said when female swimmers raised concerns about Thomas competing against women and using their bathrooms and change facilities, they were “referred to mental health services”.

The current encroachment of males into female sports in Australia could be traced back to the insertion of “gender identity” into the Sex Discrimination Act in 2013 under the Gillard government, Ms Deves said. This allowed the Australian Human Rights Commission and Sport Australia to produce guidelines making gender identity the “primary defining characteristic for sport”.

Allowing males to compete in female sports ignored the right of females to fair competition and safety, and meant women and girls would miss out on opportunities to reach elite levels, she said.

“Even one girl missing out is one girl too many.”

“What’s missing from this debate is the voices of the little girls, their parents, young women, grown women, those who have suffered damage and harm and exclusion, who are concerned about the policies that will cause damage and harm and exclusion to female athletes when they are forced to compete against males,” Ms Deves said.

“The campaign to allow biological men into women’s sport is nothing more than a front for the destruction of our rights. Our right to safety, our right to privacy, our right to dignity. Our right to participate free from discrimination in public life.”