Independent MP Alex Greenwich has introduced his Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill and Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill into the NSW Parliament.
And they are the most anti-women, anti-children set of reforms we have seen introduced at one time.
The proposed reforms include:
The introduction of sex self-ID, which will allow anyone to change their legal sex, thereby erasing single-sex spaces, sports, schools, and even sex-specific language. Men will be able to legally identify as women and access female-only spaces including bathrooms, changing rooms, refuges, and prisons, undermining the rights and safety of women and girls.
Further liberalised prostitution, which will remove protections for prostituted persons (the majority of whom are women), as well as for the wider community. This, despite the fact that progressive countries are trying to combat, rather than foster, this abhorrent form of sexual exploitation and violent commodification of women’s bodies.
Removing bans on commercial surrogacy if it takes place outside NSW, legalising the practice undertaken by NSW residents overseas, and encouraging the exploitation and commodification of vulnerable women as wombs for rent and children as products for sale. This modern-day form of human trafficking is condemned by women’s, children’s, and human rights defenders.
The criminalisation of medical professionals and parents trying to help those suffering with gender dysphoria in a way that doesn’t simply affirm a person’s ‘gender identity’. This ignores the mounting medical evidence against the ‘affirmation only’ approach, the phenomena that have given rise to the rapid increase in gender dysphoria, the harms resulting from medical transitioning, and the regrets of detransitioners.
Even if the Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill doesn’t pass, Labor has promised to introduce its own version of this concerning legislation (see our submission on the Government’s consultation).
These regressive reforms endanger and/or commodify and exploit women and children and in some cases, put at risk the rights and freedoms of NSW citizens, and subvert best medical practice. They are out of step with evolving research and developments taking place overseas.
Women’s Forum Australia has launched a campaign to protect women, children and our community from these harmful reforms, and calling on the NSW Parliament to reject them.
Every person deserves respect, equality, and care under our laws, but these reforms are counterproductive to those principles. At best, the reforms elevate the rights of some groups over others. At worst, they are to the detriment of all, including those they are meant to help.
Women’s Forum Australia is an independent think tank that undertakes research, education and public policy advocacy on issues affecting women and girls, with a particular focus on addressing behaviours and practices that are harmful and abusive to them. We are a non-partisan, non-religious, tax-deductible charity. We do not receive any government funding and rely solely on donations to make an impact. Support our work today.
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