Australian Christian Lobby CEO Michelle Pearse says changing the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) to define male and female by biology is a top priority after last week’s landmark court ruling that the rights of men who identify as women override the rights of biological women.
On Friday, the full Federal Court of Australia found transgender plaintiff Roxanne Tickle was directly discriminated against on the basis of gender by being refused access to a women-only social media app called Giggle for Girls run by businesswoman Sall Grover.
The three judges stressed the desirability or otherwise of the law under the SDA laws was “not a matter open to this court to consider.”
Politicians from the major parties have refused to act since the Gillard government removed the biological definitions of male and female from the Act 13 years ago.
A RAY OF HOPE IN A PRIVATE MEMBER’S BILL
Ms. Pearse says there is already a ray of hope of addressing this.
“The good news is that Nationals MP Alison Penfold has put forward a private member’s bill to correct the damage that’s been done.”
“To reinsert the biological definition of male and female in the SDA for the purpose of protecting female-only spaces.”
“I know that the bill has been specially crafted to have that effect, that it will completely protect female-only spaces according to female biology.”
WHO WILL SUPPORT THIS BILL?
“The Liberal Party have said that the SDA needs to be fixed, but they haven’t said their position on Alison Penfold’s bill yet,” continued Ms. Pearse.
“The Nationals leader Senator Matt Canavan has come out saying that they will support the bill.”
“One Nation, I’m sure they will support it because Pauline Hanson herself tried to fix the SDA some time ago.”
“So I really hope that the Liberal Party supports this.”
ACL PLANS BIG CAMPAIGN TO SUPPORT CHANGES TO SDA
“This is probably the best that could be done at this point in terms of fixing the SDA,” reflected the ACL boss.
“We’re throwing our weight behind Alison Penfold’s bill and launching a big campaign to make sure that people contact their MP and we can see this at least go to a committee.”
“We can see a big hefty debate around it and we can put pressure on the Labor Party to come to a common sense position on this.”
If Labor and Greens Senators stand firm, conservatives and the cross bench don’t have the numbers to pass the bill.
THE LANDMARK RULING WILL IMPACT ON STATES
Michelle Pearse also pointed to the impact of the Federal Court ruling on Australian states.
“The point is that the court ruled that Roxanne Tickle, who is a biological man, is a woman, because by the purposes of the law, he is a woman.”
“So a refusal to enter into a female-only space is discrimination because according to the court, he is a woman.”
“We’ve seen this entrenched not only in the SDA, but also in our state laws where you can change your sex on your birth certificate and so, by all purposes of the law, you are a woman.”
“STATE GOVERNMENTS ARE COMPROMISED”
“Now state governments are compromised because when we state the unfairness of female-only bathrooms being replaced by all-gender bathrooms, there’s an outcry from the community,” Ms. Pearse explained.
“So they have to deal with the consequences of the decisions that they’ve made in law.”
“Unfairness is the consequence. Men coming into women’s spaces is a consequence.”
“So state governments have to work out how they’re going to remedy that according to the law.”
LANDMARK RULING’S IMPACT ON HEALTH AND EDUCATION
“The Federal Court ruling has implications on health.”
“We know children are taking puberty blockers and there’s also the collection of data with gender identity being part of a question in the Australian Bureau of Statistics survey that’s going out.”
“It has applications on education, what children are being taught at schools, on women’s spaces and on toilets, as we’re seeing with the National Construction Code recommending replacing single sex toilets with all gender toilets.”
“So the removal of gender from society is not a side issue. It’s not a culture war issue.”
“GENDER IS VITAL TO WELL-BEING OF CHILDREN”
“Gender is fundamental to so many aspects of our society and the way that families are constructed, but most of all, the well-being of children.”
“Soon our schoolchildren will be graduating and all throughout their school life from kindergarten to Year-12, they would have had this teaching that you can be something that you’re not.”
“That’s terribly confusing to a whole generation of school kids.”
“PARENTS NEED TO BE SPEAKING UP FOR THEIR CHILDREN”
“That’s the next thing we’ve really got to fight.
“Parents need to be speaking up for their children.”
“And we need to get gender ideology, this confusing deception out of the school curriculums.”
THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
“From a Christian perspective, I really think that the further a society moves away from God or rejects their Christian foundations, the further they actually move away from rationality and reasonableness.”
“As Christians, we’re created with a sound mind, that the confusion that we had when we were lost, turns into a real clarity in terms of our identity and our purpose in life.”
“God is the creator and he created male and female in his image.”
“Then you have the creation of marriage and then mother and father for the well-being of children.”
“SOCIETY BECOMES CONFUSED, IRRATIONAL AND DEVOID OF COMMON SENSE”
“You see it all makes not only spiritual sense, but good rational sense.”
“When you think of the well-being of children, the way that our bodies were made to sexually reproduce.”
“The more that we reject that, the more our society becomes so confused and irrational, and just fails in basic common sense.”
“CHRISTIANS MUST NOT BE INTIMIDATED”
“I think it’s really important for Christians to stand up and speak truth into this area and to know that when they’re doing so, they’re not bigots.”
“So, a big part of what we do is just trying to break that intimidation of people.”
“People are intimidated, they don’t want to say what they believe about gender.”
“But the only way we’re going to see this turn around, is for us to stand up and be bold and speak the truth in love.”
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