Aussie, Aussie, Aussie; ally, ally!

Words By Rose Tate

Life after World Pride

In a whirlwind of colour and excitement, 2023 brought World Pride to Sydney, Australia. For 17 days, Sydney hosted parties, performances, parades, and more to promote awareness and visibility of the LGBTQIA+ community. As exciting as it was to see so many people draped in colour and the streets rainbow-washed to the extreme, World Pride exposed some of the cracks in Sydney’s story. Over the past month, multiple accounts of hate crimes and hate speech have surfaced, often based in anti-trans sentiments.

In an interview on Triple J, author and former Miss Universe Australia, Maria Thattil, recounted a homophobic encounter that her brother and his boyfriend endured at Mardi Gras. Maria received a call from her brother after they were spat at and taunted by a group of men who pretended to gag at the sight of them. She was told they felt unsafe and were leaving as a result. Despite there being hundreds of people around in rainbow and glitter apparel, no one reacted or came to the mens’ defence, apart from a woman who told them “not to worry” before asking if she could get a picture with their outfits. This kind of behaviour shows the performative activist culture that many straight people at Mardi Gras cultivate.

In a similarly worrying event on Friday, March 3, a group of 30 men walked down King Street in a “Christian prayer march”.1 They intimidated locals and bargoers and tried to enter Queer venues. While an alleged assault is still being investigated at the time of writing, no arrests were made despite this demonstration being an unauthorised protest that was clearly anti-queer in nature. The response from the police? Walking beside them. Remind me again what gives them the right to then walk beside us in the Pride Parade?

Later that same month, neo-Nazis attended an authorised anti-trans rally hosted by Kellie-Jay Keen in Melbourne on Saturday, March 18. Men in masks marched down Spring Street chanting “White power,” while yelling homophobic and transphobic slurs.2 This comes at a time when transphobic hate and violence are rising. The most heartbreaking thing about these events that continue to occur is that, once again, police were standing in front of these “activists” and protecting them from counter-protesting Queer people. In doing so they were pushing and physically blocking Queer people, while letting Nazis stand proud.

On a personal level, I have felt unsafe on countless occasions as a Queer person in Sydney. Just the other day, while catching a train into the city at about 9pm, I removed my headphones when I heard four men enter my carriage yelling “Hail Mary,” and “Fuck the gays, they can go to hell”. This was the day after the event in Newtown. I was alone. I tried to move carriages but was at the end of the train, which kept skipping stops because it was late. I moved to the end of the train next to the conductor’s carriage and hid behind a seat. As soon as the train stopped I ran off. If I’m being completely honest, I haven’t gotten over it.

Understanding intersectionality

Despite most members of the LGBTQIA+ community experiencing discrimination, intersectional identities mean that some members experience more than others. It’s important to acknowledge that when women don’t centre men in their lives, they are often faced with violent repercussions. This is what makes the lesbian identity so unique; catering away from the male gaze. The repercussion of this has become a sense of tolerance towards gay men and exiling of lesbians (including trans and gender diverse lesbians). This comes from the intersection between misogyny and homophobia. Misogyny, after all, is a foundational thinking pattern for homophobia. Sydney hosted World Pride despite not having one lesbian bar or club. Furthermore, Queer people of colour also experience intersectional discrimination and higher rates of homophobia. One study from Western Australia noted:

“While [Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island] people experienced both forms of discrimination, racism was most frequently observed as more problematic because sexuality or gender identity could be hidden, whereas one’s skin colour cannot”3

This manifests in hate crimes against Queer people of colour being more common. It is vital that we acknowledge these layers of intersectionality in our strive for equity.

Representation and legal recognition

Aside from anecdotes, Australia’s history with the LGBTQIA+ community is painful, as in most countries. Debates began hundreds of years ago in colonialist societies that brought homophobia to diverse Indigenous peoples. However, systemic homophobia and transphobia still have a firm grip on Australian society. It still stands that people who are transgender are unable to change the sex listed on their birth certificate without gender reassignment surgery in NSW and Queensland.4 Similarly, in Western Australia, one requires a ‘reassignment procedure’ such as hormone therapy in order to change the sex on a birth certificate.4 In 2013, Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act 1984 was revised to include new protections from discrimination in many aspects of public life based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex status. It is vital for Australia to introduce further policy to protect LGBTQIA+ people as they remain a group at higher risk of experiencing violence, mental health issues, homelessness and discrimination.5

Queer voices continue to be silenced. We have advanced a long way from the criminalisation of homosexuality, but the protection of LGBTQIA+ people is still being compromised. Funding for policy research that looks into helping minority groups such as the Queer community are often informed by statistics. However, there was a distinct lack of questions based around queer identities in the 2021 Australian census questions. The inclusion of questions regarding gender and sexuality could have improved our knowledge on how much of the population is impacted by unequal legislation. This in turn could have seen more government funding allocated to LGBTQIA+ organisations.

Schooling and queer health

As LGBTQIA+ issues have become increasingly politicised over the last four decades and people continue to “debate” minority groups’ livelihoods, we have heard a lot of arguments against our “way of life”. In Australian schools, providing what could be life-saving support for queer kids is seen as supporting a political agenda rather than just being a caring human being. The ramifications of the “No’’ campaign against marriage equality continues to manifest in several private and religious schools’ policies and statements, condemning gender and sexual diversity. According to a 2021 study, “9 in 10 LGBTQ+ students say they hear homophobic language at school, and 1 in 3 hear it almost every day”.6 In 2021, the NSW Education Legislation Amendment (Parental Rights) Bill 2020 was proposed. If passed, this would have prohibited teachers from discussing gender and sexuality diversity. It would also have allowed schools to revoke teachers’ accreditations for offering targeted support to Queer students.6 Bills like the Religious Discrimination Bill 2022 are still being proposed in 2023, providing more opportunities for homophobes and transphobes to once again disguise their hatred as “different political beliefs’’. These alternate avenues of discrimination, designed for the purpose of firing Queer employees at religious schools, oppose the very reasons that the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 was passed to begin with.

It is clear that Australia is not doing its best to support the LGBTQIA+ community. Even as we have achieved marriage equality, we still have a long way to go with legislation and mindset before Australia can call itself a truly inclusive nation. With a surge in transphobic protests and hate crimes and lack of action from the police, the Queer community and its allies are reminded that we still have so much left to fight for.