We are excited to announce the release of our new report, A Fair Playing Field: Protecting Women’s Single-Sex Sport.

“Diversity and inclusion” are the watchwords of an ideology that is increasingly dictating Australian workplace policy in both the public and private sectors. The AIDS Council for NSW (ACON) continues to roll out a suite of “Pride Inclusion Programs”, working to a template developed by Stonewall in the UK, which helps employers comply with the new requirements to include “diversity”. Employer performance is published in ACON’s Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI), which serves as a national benchmark for “LGBTQ workplace inclusion from which Top Employers for LGBTQ people is determined”. Australian businesses and government departments are flocking to join.

Vulnerable women continue to get the short end of the stick in the growing conflict between women’s rights and transgender rights, particularly when it comes to female-only spaces and services.

By Rachael Wong

The vicious demonisation of Warringah Liberal candidate Katherine Deves is the latest attempt to silence women who speak out about the impact of harmful gender policies and practices on women’s sex-based rights and the welfare of children.

For ‘International Day of Transgender Visibility’ on 31 March, online publication Mamamia published a series of articles examining the reality of the trans experience in Australia. The articles explore first hand accounts of what it is like to come out as trans, what it’s like to live as a trans person in Australia, and lastly the changes that trans people want to see in Australia.

According to journalist and former rugby league footballer Paul Kent, the Australian National Women’s Rugby League (NRLW) is considering its first trans player.

Policy adjustments on behalf of trans people that materially reduce the safety of women in communal accommodation are the subject of increasing international controversy. On March 16th, Baroness Nicholson, addressed the UK’s House of Lords to demand the withdrawal of Annex B of the NHS’s 2019 Guidance on “Delivering same-sex accommodation” in UK hospitals. She argued that the dignity, safety and privacy of women needs to be brought back into the centre of public policy and treated as a priority.

Last month, after long deliberation, the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) handed down its decision on the appeal of radio newsreader, Beth Rep, partially reversing an earlier finding that she had unlawfully vilified former infantry Captain turned trans activist, Bridget Clinch. The ruling helps to remove lingering uncertainty about where the legal parameters of any public discussion of trans issues might lie, reducing the threat of vilification claims against individuals who venture upon this controversial topic.

This week, news.com.au ran a piece titled “Female sex attacker’s horror demand”, with the byline, “A woman has been thrown behind bars after sexually assaulting a stranger she followed down a Melbourne Street before issuing a shocking demand.”

Do transwomen (i.e. biological males) have a right to become pregnant? This somewhat dystopic question continues to be explored, most recently in a Letter to the Editor published in peer reviewed journal Acta Biomedica. Its authors are two Italian academics from the Sapienza University of Rome, who say that the speed of scientific innovation requires us to address this question.