Michelle Pearse from Australian Christian Lobby joined Doug on Mornings to discuss the amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act.
The 1984 act was introduced to protect women, and was amended in 2013 by the Gillard government. The amendment removed biological definitions of a man and woman and placed “gender identity” in its stead as a protected attribute.
This amendment is now impacting Women’s Rights and Women Only Spaces.
“What has taken this whole issue to the next level has been the outcome of the Tickle vs Giggle. This case involved Sal Grover, owner of female-only app, Giggle, who refused a man, identifying as a woman to use the app.”
Tickle vs Giggle Case
Roxanne Tickle, a transgender woman, sued Grover for discrimination over refused entry to the app.
“She had to pay for not only the case, but for his cost as well, which is just outrageous.”
The court determined, and the two judges actually said, that a man can be a woman.
“We have been pushing this for years and just recently, we exposed what’s happening with the National Construction Code, threatening to replace single-sex toilets with an all-gender toilet.”
“These stories are getting it out there in the public consciousness.”
The Deconstruction of Gender
“The consequences of this ideology of the removal and the deconstruction of gender and of making gender something different to sex.”
This discussion is now going beyond Christians and becoming a more universal discussion.
“They are waking up and realising this is actually a harmful ideology, that gender isn’t a social construct. It is something innate. People want to get to something that is real, what they can see and what they know.”
Changes Under The Gillard Government
Michelle went into further detail about the Gillard Government’s changes in 2013.
“Under the Gillard government, they actually removed the biological definitions of male and female. They replaced it with gender identity as a protected attribute.”
“It is really important to note that the Sex Discrimination Act was created to protect women. Our international obligations to women’s rights and equality between men and women was the purpose of the Sex Discrimination Act.”
Equalised Rights
Michelle said the modification of gender identity as a protected attribute was intended to equalise rights between women and also men who say they are women.
“But what we’ve seen in the courts is the interpretation, it was naive to think that the rights were never going conflict, but they have.”
Through the decision of Tickle vs Giggle, the rights of men who think they are women trump the rights of actual biological women. This is a sound argument to the courts, but also open to interpretation.
“It wasn’t clear enough in terms of the protection of biological women,” said Michelle.
Michelle referred to all the local leaders who have tried to amend this act in the past: Angus Taylor, Matt Canavan and Pauline Hanson.
“They’ve all committed to amending the Sex Discrimination Act, but they don’t have the numbers. To get it through, so we just need to keep the pressure on the Labour government to restore biology and restore truth in the Sex Discrimination Act.”
Speaking Out
“There’s been a lot of people that have been brave enough just to continue to speak out about it. And when you continue to say the same thing over and over again, the message catches on other, you know, other people start to wake up and it starts to make sense to more people.”
Michelle wanted to credit those who have continued to speak out without being fearful, even in the face of scrutiny and backlash.
“All of the work that we do, especially as Christians, has to come from that place of compassion and concern for others. When my kids started, they were in a public school when they were young.”
Michelle home schooled her children for a season because she couldn’t put them in an environment where they were learning such dangerous ideas.
“Schools are inundated with gender ideology within their curricula.”
“This is confusing children and causing them to question who they are and question their created bodies and that should move us to want to say something on behalf of these children that are really being lied to.”
Michelle spoke into body dysmorphia and the notion that children should change any physical feature they don’t like.
“We would never tell a child who thought, you know, maybe that they had a big nose or something, that they should go and get surgery because it’s not who they really are.”
Created Identity
“We affirm people in who they are in terms of their created bodies and their creative identities that’s given to us by God. That’s the response and we acknowledge, because of this, ideology has been so prevalent that there are many people that are now confused about their sex and their gender.”
“Due to the things children are taught, there are young people who have transitioned or are transitioning and then live to regret it,” said Michelle.
Michelle said this can lead to complications with detransition when these people can’t find any help or medical pathway to undo the damage that’s been done.
“It is not compassionate to tell somebody, you were born in the wrong body. Take puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones and get surgery.”
Michelle said, to that end, sometimes we are too afraid to have those uncomfortable conversations.
“In some states it is actually illegal to undergo those procedures, but regardless, we need to stand for the truth. Not a legalistic truth, but a truth that’s good for humankind. A truth that rests on human dignity.”
The Biological Definition
“This is basic and something that everybody should get behind. Restore the biological definition of male and female in the sex discrimination.”
“If we can get this definition back into law, it will save women’s spaces. It’ll give you know, biological women, a ground to stand on,” said Michelle.
Australians Need Their Say
Michelle encouraged those with a stance on the issue to speak up.
“You know there’s 100,000 Australians who want to see biology or truth restored back in the Sex Discrimination Act. It’s important that Australians have their say on it.”
Michelle Pearse encouraged Australians to have their say on the Sex Discrimination Amendment.
Check out the full chat with Michelle below.