Dear candidate,
I am writing to urge you to support the Women’s Pledge initiated by Women Speak Tasmania, a campaign calling for the restoration of biological sex as a protected legal characteristic in Australian anti-discrimination legislation.
This issue has now been recognised at the international level, with the latest report to the UN Human Rights Council by Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls (A/HRC/59/47). The report raises serious concerns about how the erasure of sex in law and policy is exposing women and girls to new forms of violence, discrimination, and silencing.
Ms Alsalem’s report highlights:
- The loss of female-only spaces in prisons, shelters, sport, and health services
- The suppression of free speech for women who speak about sex-based rights
- The medicalisation of gender-questioning children, often based on regressive stereotypes
- The undermining of women’s data collection and protections when sex is replaced by gender identity in legislation
Listen to her speech in the UN Human Rights council
These findings reflect the growing risks facing women and girls in Australia, where sex self-identification laws have quietly redefined the meaning of “woman” without proper public consultation or regard for the consequences.
The Women’s Pledge calls for:
- The legal recognition of biological sex in the Sex Discrimination Act and other relevant laws
- The protection of female-only spaces, services, and sporting categories
- Transparency and accountability in public policy, grounded in evidence, not ideology
- Respect for free expression on matters relating to sex-based rights
I ask that you publicly support the Women’s Pledge and commit to reviewing and strengthening legislation to ensure that the safety, dignity, and equality of women and girls are no longer compromised.
We also wrote a Dossier on the Impacts of Sex Self-ID laws on women, girls and families. We presented this dossier to the Tasmanian Attorney General in January this year.
We look forward to meeting you soon and talk about these very important issues affecting everyday Tasmanians.
Yours sincerely,
WST Team