The stranglehold of GI in Australia - finally an article/opinion in a major newspaper that sets it out

agree. I work in a private school and we still had the training by the local council group same as the state schools.

I was in FNQ a few months ago and went out for a late lunch only to be seated next to a group of six male people with transgender identities. The discussion was very concerning about the ‘hatred’ that they receive.

One was saying how they reacted to a little girl who asked whether they were a man or woman.They proudly told the group that they told the the little girl to look at their (the male person’s) breasts and look at the girl’s mum’s breasts - and was their a difference? No. So that made them a ‘woman’.

The worst was one of them recounting the horror about them being asked to use a third space to change at the gym. I don’t know where. But two separate women had complained about them being in the female changing room in the past. The recounting went that they told the gym manager (female) that this was not acceptable and how dare the gym ask this. It was sexual harassment. The gym manager said ‘but you are not female. You do not have a female body.’ and this male person told the group that they ‘showed’ the manager that they did have a ‘female body’.

The person I was with and I looked at each other in alarm at that point. Because the way the story was told that male person showed the gym manager their crotch- and obviously had no comprehension of the magnitude of that act nor the ‘sexual harassment’ of that act. They were high on their righteousness of demanding access to the female gym changing room. We could only assume that male had had surgery.

It was certainly not something I expected to find discussed over a late lunch in FNQ. Plus one of male people walked past and was wearing a micro mini so short that we could see butt cheek at eye level. The suspender belt that was holding up fish net stockings was perhaps pulling the shirt up. The cleavage on display because of the bustier was startling too.

My family in FNQ is already pretty clued up about what has been happening, particularly in schools. I have said very little to them since discussions a few years ago when we first discussed it and they already knew a lot about it.

They knew much more detail about it than my friends in NSW major cities. When I have mentioned anything to some of my friends in NSW, the reaction is more of the ‘be kind’ sort and they don’t have much knowledge outside of that, but that is the minority. Some didn’t know much outside Hubbard and Lia Thomas and it didn’t impact their teens. The rest were quite well informed and were concerned about the impacts they were seeing. Particularly if they had teenaged girls. One friend asked me by text about the LWS rallies when they were happening because she was curious about who KJK was and did I know more as I was in the UK.

I suspect that there are a growing number of people in country areas now being directly exposed to what it means to lose female single sex spaces.

But I have to say in my semi-regular trips back, the knowledge is getting out there despite the poor media. Usually because the people are becoming interested and searching further for the information.

The thing is though, don’t underestimate who knows what and who knows who in Australia. I do know many in NSW & VIC cities who won’t discuss it openly.

@monkeyspaw That’s interesting, I hadn’t realised it was so rife in the wealthier and older private schools. I take your point about where you live and work being the source of how much it affects your day to day life.

@Enough4me I agree with you re voting for Trump while wishing to vote for Harris but I had a look at Moms for Liberty on election night and they were winning seats in small elections all over. Those who voted really voiced their opinion on this subject. I found it very interesting.

It is rife in Catholic schools in Far North Queensland.

R053 · Yesterday 22:26
I suspect it’s less of an issue in Australia because it doesn’t affect the day to day life of most. A third of children are sent to private schools, which are not expected to comply with gender affirming principles on the basis of religious exemption. So even if you are a non religious family, you can side step it to some extent, as many send their kids to religious schools for a more traditional education.

I have to politely disagree with the idea that private schools are not pushing this.
Perhaps smaller Catholic (and obviously Muslim schools) are not, but the largest private girls' school in Melbourne is a hotbed of this, and has been for some years. A Western Australian girls' school disciplined students who did not call a male teacher Miss.
The #be kind is heavily enforced amongst the wealthier schools, especially girls' schools
Whether it affects your day to day life or not I suspect depends on where you live. It decidedly does affect my life. Where I live and where I work there are many trans identified people of both sexes.

@R053 I agree the pressure to conform to a new belief that doesn't make sense increases frustration. People know what female and male means, being told to deny material reality never works in the longer term.
I wonder how many people voted for Trump because they sadly thought he was the better option for their children rather than Harris (while at the same time wishing Harris policy was more realistic).

I suspect it’s less of an issue in Australia because it doesn’t affect the day to day life of most. A third of children are sent to private schools, which are not expected to comply with gender affirming principles on the basis of religious exemption. So even if you are a non religious family, you can side step it to some extent, as many send their kids to religious schools for a more traditional education.

However I can see that it’s making religious Australians more right wing in their outlook and they are becoming more political, whereas previously they were not. I know a few who have resigned from their jobs because of being expected to tow a gender affirming line or have been made to take compulsory gender affirming subjects in university degrees that don’t seem connected (like sport).

I feel like it is a trap and that an anti-identity, right-wing backlash will eventually come to Australia and take down many other vulnerable groups with it such as people with disabilities, ethnic minorities and particularly indigenous people (things are already dire for them).

Shutting people down and labelling them transphobes doesn’t work and is self defeating in the long term. It simply increases frustration rather than shame them into compliance and that’s why The Right has become such a broad church.

Im Australian. I’m a teacher, and I would never speak out or share anything because I would lose my job. They fire people for saying anything. I’ve had to sit through training by a gender clinic run by our local council. During discussion time I did quietly discuss with my table mates that the premise was bullshit - but I wouldn’t speak up to the whole group.

not to mention my kids (tween and teen) who just accept that their friends call themselves trans, change their names and pronouns regularly and call me transphobic if I say anything to them. My daughter has even at times hinted that she thinks she is trans, but honestly it’s just the latest trend I think. so many kids seem to be doing it.

i know a teen girl who is 100% gay. It’s very obvious. She identifies as a boy from time to time. Never permanent just when it suits. Usually when she ‘likes’ a straight girl and then they can get together because it’s fine as she’s a boy now.

They are just awful and they twist everything. What they did (and are still doing) to Moria Deeming is fairly typical of them.

I recall watching two news segments on the same lockdown protest in Melbourne, one on Sky and one on the ABC.

Sky’s coverage showed lots of shots of the massive crowd- mainly small business people in the food industry- restaurant owners and cafe owners and the like. A majority not white- muslims, sikhs and people of all sorts of ethnic backgrounds. Typical Melbourne cafe people! Sky interviewed about half a dozen people. Most were just desperate small business people explaining that they were not anti vax or anti public health measures- they just wanted their businesses to survive. They did interview an anti vax person too.

The ABC’s coverage- no crowd shots at all so you couldn’t get a feel of the type of people. They interviewed 2 people- both white, both QAnon conspiracy nutters ranting on about poison in vaccines.

So 2 news reports. My woke friends who only watch the ABC to this day think any lockdown protests were just a few anti vax nuttters. Because they blindly trust the ABC and wouldn’t dream of watching or reading the right wing Murdoch owned hateful press.

That kind of thing is hard to defeat. If anyone lodged a complaint against the ABCs coverage what could they complain about? The ABC did cover the protests. It did interview people attending the protests. You can’t police tone apparently. It’s not what they say, it’s what they don’t cover, who they don’t interview and who they choose to interview.

I stopped watching it after the disgracefully biased way they reported the "Let Women Speak" rally in Melbourne. I'll occasionally listen to the news on my local radio station on the drive home, and that's it. I'm beginning to join the ranks of those who think that it should be defunded!

Ah! So I don’t feel so uninformed now. Because I have known women who have had them due to medical emergencies and so never thought more.

@NotYourCisterinAus The ABC is a disgrace. It’s meant to be neutral. It’s not. They’ve just appointed a former channel 9 man as the boss so it’s not going to get better any time soon I don’t think. Ita destroyed it. I miss when Tony Jones hosted Q and A and it was a great show to watch. Not now.

@Helleofabore I didn’t realise that it was illegal until I was pregnant with DD and became aware that the large tertiary public hospital I used didn’t provide abortions unless it was an emergency. That seemed crazy to me. It wasn’t a religious hospital. That’s when I learnt that abortion was technically illegal but a blind eye was turned to it if a woman requested it. That also meant that women had to pay privately for it. I had wondered why when my fertility specialist referred me to a private ultrasound clinic for scans that he said that if there were any issues detected that they’d be able to arrange termination within the clinic’s staff. That made sense later on.

This issue has seen me drift to the right. The ABC and the Fairfax papers either don't report on it (or do rainbow-coloured puff pieces). Sky News and The Australian, on the other hand, <i>will </i> discuss the issue. I'm left wondering what else the media that I used to trust has been lying about and concealing.

Likewise, One Nation and some members of the LNP are trying to push against Gender Identity ideology, while Labor and the Greens rush to push affirmation only and self-ID policies.

Incidentally, I only became aware of the issue in the first place, because a bloke at work decided to "transition" and I decided to do some research. If I'd left it to the local media to learn about the topic, I'd be nearly as ignorant today as I was 10 years ago.

Oh fuck! I mean, I haven’t lived in qld for a long time now but how the fuck did I not know abortion was considered illegal until 2018? I lived there nearly half my life and thought it was legal already. That must have been because I chopped and changed states and just wrongly assumed.

@Helleofabore Always the abortion comments on anything to do with women. Protecting the pre-born. Fuck off to those people commenting that sort of thing. I didn’t click on his name to check his profile. I remember celebrating when abortion was legalised in 2018. It felt like a monumental step forward for women. If this pack of LNP shitheads restrict it I’ll be furious.

I was reading the comments feral and saw that. Hopefully clarity will be forthcoming.

i also noticed the immediate ‘what about abortion’ comment. . It is such a typical activist move. At least, I assumed it was an activist rather than just a big standard stirring troll.

That is heartening to see.

That must be the only intelligent and good thing to have ever come out of Bleijie’s mouth.

I was reading the comments and someone pointed out that only yesterday it was announced that 25 recommendations from a committee would be implemented into the children’s gender service but today they’re announcing that no expansion etc will happen. Which is it?

There wasn’t any mention of this on the news. I watched channel 10, 7 and the ABC. Nothing. There was a bit of coverage about some argy bargey between the LNP and Labour. I think it was about when will the mid (financial) year budget be released. Labour said hurry up, LNP said we’ve only been in since October, give us some time.

Well it looks as if sanity might return to one party at least.

I have spoilt my ballot - voting not compulsory here but have aways felt women fought so hard I should and couldnt vote for the local tory. Protect children from puberty blockers is a bit long but might be my choice.

Excellent news. It seems that the reports of yesterday that the LNP would accept and implement the findings of that unbelievably biased review of children’s gender services were totally wrong.

I am a Queenslander and I know two girls that might be saved if the government acts fast.

Is that 'safeguarding' being talked about? Looks promising.

Good news:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/15eu16JmRB/?mibextid=wwXIfr