Tasmania’s sweeping transgender laws threaten to unleash a “Pandora’s box” of implications for gender-based schools and women’s services, and could undermine legal protections for religious ministers.
As well as default gender-free birth certificates, the wide-ranging changes, passed by the state’s lower house on Tuesday night, allow anyone aged 16 or older to change their gender simply by statutory declaration. People can change their gender without the need for realignment surgery or any other requirement, or opt to have no gender recorded on their birth certificate.
A broad range of opponents of the reforms, from feminist groups to Christian organisations, warned of potentially dangerous consequences for gender-specific services, from schools and the Girl Guides to women’s shelters and sports. Mark Brown, the Tasmanian director of the Australian Christian Lobby, said: “We can no longer be confident that a man is a man and a woman a woman. A transgender woman with no gender reassignment surgery will legally have every right to share female-only facilities, not to mention participating in women-only sporting divisions.”
The amendments, passed by Labor and the Greens with the casting vote of independent-minded Liberal Speaker Sue Hickey, extend state hate-speech laws to cover gender identification, including “gender expression”. At the same time, a state government amendment to mirror federal protections for religious ministers and faith-based celebrants who decline to perform same-sex marriages was voted down.
While some women’s groups support the changes, others, such as Women Speak Tasmania, back the ACL’s concerns. It points to the case of trans woman Karen White in Britain, who while on remand for rape of women demanded to be housed in a women’s prison, only to commit further multiple sexual assaults against fellow inmates.
“It’s nonsense to say sex markers on birth certificates mean nothing to most people,” said Bronwyn Williams, of Women Speak Tasmania.
There is a push by such groups and the state Liberal government for the independent-dominated upper house, which will now vote on the reforms, to defer them pending a public inquiry into their full implications. They argue that a broad range of services, from gender-specific schools, to priests and women’s shelters, will run the risk of anti-discrimination complaints if they deny access to people based on their gender identity.
Labor, the Greens and transgender activists insisted yesterday that the changes would only affect trans people and their families. ”The amendments protect the rights of people who need it and will in no way diminish the rights of others,” said Labor’s legal affairs spokesman Ella Haddad.
Mr Brown said it was unclear what rights religious ministers would have if they knew a couple seeking a marriage ceremony had the same biological sex, but one had a birth certificate showing they were legally a different gender from their partner. It was also unclear what right ministers had to decline to solemnise the marriage of two people whose birth certificates showed no gender.
“We’ve seen overseas activists deliberately testing some of these laws, particularly relating to bakers and florists, and so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them tested in this scenario,” Mr Brown said.
Under federal law, religious ministers are protected from federal anti-discrimination laws, allowing them to decline to officiate at same-sex marriages. However, Mr Brown said this might not prevent a case being taken up by the state anti-discrimination commissioner, putting priests through a potentially costly, lengthy process.
Ms Haddad and veteran LGBTI rights campaigner Rodney Croome rejected the concerns. “If a couple who was turned away by a religious minister lodged a case with an anti-discrimination authority there is no chance at all the case would proceed because the (federal) Marriage Act effectively overrides all state anti-discrimination statutes,” Mr Croome said.
Scott Morrison condemned the reforms and demanded Bill Shorten prevent a similar push by other Labor governments.
Source: The Australian