Category: Articles
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Transgender law reform … a women’s rights perspective
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By Bronwyn Williams and Isla MacGregor – Women Speak Tasmania In recent years, ‘gender’ and ‘gender identity’ have become a feature of anti-discrimination law in Australia at both the federal and state levels. Transgender rights proponents are now lobbying for radical changes to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1999 (Tas) that will enable…
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Is mainstream media in Australia afraid to cover women’s views on the transgender rights debate?
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By Bronwyn Williams and Isla MacGregor – Women Speak Tasmania And what about the Mercury? In the last few months Tasmanian Times has published several articles on the transgender rights debate written by women from Women Speak Tasmania. Most of these articles were also sent out nationally as Media Releases. No mainstream media in Australia has…
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Protesters Call for Boycott of Girl Guides Australia
By Bronwyn Williams and Isla MacGregor – Women Speak Tasmania Women Speak Tasmania has held a street protest against Girl Guides Australia’s recently released policy that allows biological male persons, both boys and adult men, to join the organisation as members and leaders Thursday 11 October 2018 was International Day of the Girl Child. Girls…
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Silencing and Censorship in the Trans Rights debate. Part 3
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By Isla MacGregor Part Three. “I am not a Woman” – Transsexuals and Transgender Women Speak Out Today, the dominant discourse in the transgender rights debate insists that transgender women are ‘women’. It is not uncommon to hear the argument that, because they are women, their biology is female and it is ‘transphobic’ to suggest…
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Women call for review to sex discrimination laws
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By Isla MacGregor Women Speak Tasmania is calling for uniform changes to federal and state anti-discrimination laws. All Australian legislatures must urgently address the need for accurate and effective definitions of “sex” and “gender identity” in anti-discrimination laws across Australia. We must develop uniform laws in all Australian jurisdictions to remove confusion and to protect…
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Silencing and Censorship in the Trans Rights debate. Part 2
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By Isla MacGregor Part Two. The transgender debate is increasingly characterised by no-platforming, withdrawal from participation, censorship, bullying, threats, intimidation, silencing, stonewalling and expulsion from groups for those who express dissent from the ‘popular’ transgender narrative. The following Tasmanian case studies outline examples of trans rights crusaders and their ideological supporters apparently acting in a…
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Silencing and Censorship in the Trans Rights debate. Part 1
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By Isla MacGregor Part One. Silencing and Censorship or Robust Debate? The recent launch of the group, Transforming Tasmania, which aims to lobby for law reforms that improve the lives of transgender and gender-diverse people, is an opportunity for the community to engage in robust, open and safe discussions on matters concerning gender identity. The…
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Outrage over Oxfam investigations into paedophiles, sexual misconduct …
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By Isla MacGregor Yesterday’s news about NGO Oxfam’s 2011 internal investigation into allegations against some staff over sexual abuse, harassment and illegal use of prostitutes revealed a totally abhorrent culture within some elements of the world-renowned aid organisation. Several staff members who worked with Oxfam in Chad and Haiti between 2006 and 2010 have been…
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Funding cuts to Scarlet Alliance: Michael Keenan gets it right …
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By Isla MacGregor I can only congratulate Justice Minister Michael Keenan for not allocating funding to the Scarlet Alliance in the 2017/18 round of funding to NGOs for combating sex trafficking and slavery in Australia. In February, March and April this year I was a co-signatory of a group of concerned womens’ human rights campaigners…
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Amnesty International’s capitulation to women’s increasing poverty and subordination to men
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By Isla MacGregor “We need to eroticise equality. Prostitution is about buying a body, not mutual pleasure and free choice”, says Gloria Steinem … “The end of prostitution might be a distant ideal, but it is still far better than Amnesty’s grubby collusion with misogyny.” – Julie Bindel Simone Watson, a Survivor of prostitution recalls…