Five Things The Albanese Government Can Do To Protect The Trans Community

Australia has been a vicious hellscape for the past six weeks. For almost the entirety of the election period, politicians and commentators spread misinformed and alarmist views about trans people — particularly trans women and children — and fuelled what felt like an all-out assault on our community.

During this time, very few trans people were interviewed or asked for comment while other commentators had free reign to discuss, in ignorance, our lives and rights. The-candidate-who-shall-not-be-named was granted a number of interviews by outlets that failed to properly hold her to account for her views or even give equal opportunity to the people she was attacking. I know because I was reading everything.

I think that large parts of the Australian media owe the trans community an official apology.

Thankfully the election results were a clear rejection of this hateful and cruel rhetoric, but the debate itself shows just how far there is to go until trans people are equal in this country. The new government has made a strong commitment to bring people together, so now would be a great time to show their support for the trans community and to commit to working to remedy the ongoing injustices we experience daily.

Here are five things that the new government could do to improve trans lives, and move us closer to trans equality.

— Content Warning: This article discusses suicide. — 

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#1. Create A Comprehensive Plan To Make Trans Health Care Accessible And Affordable

Everyone deserves accessible, affordable, and good quality health care, yet trans people often struggle to find doctors that understand the basics of what it means to be trans — or that are not outright discriminatory. In fact, many of us avoid going to the doctor because of the discrimination and discomfort we face in receiving care. There are a number of simple changes that could be made to improve our access to care:

• Increase funding for trans-specific community-led health services.
• Work with relevant bodies to increase the number of GPs trained in gender-affirming care, particularly in ‘informed consent’.
• Make gender-affirming surgeries accessible and affordable to everyone who needs them.
  • Establish Medicare item numbers for all treatments related to gender incongruence, including health assessments, medications, and surgical interventions. Do this by working together with AusPATH, partner societies and the Dept. Of Health.
  • Work with state and territory health departments to remove all the barriers to surgical interventions and post-operative care occurring within the public hospital system.

#2. Protect Us From Discrimination

There are multiple areas where there are inadequate discrimination protections for trans people. Here is a couple:

• Protecting trans staff and students at religious institutions from being fired, expelled or treated unfairly.
• Protecting trans people from being turned away or discriminated against by religious providers of goods and services, including health services and shelters.
• Protecting trans people from workplace discrimination under the Fair Work Act, so that they can access a one-stop shop for unfair treatment in the workplace.
• Protecting LGBTIQ people from vilification, so that people who incite hatred or violence can be held to account for the harm they cause to people’s dignity, safety and sense of belonging.

#3. Address Trans Homelessness And Poverty

Housing is a huge issue across the trans community. In fact, one in five trans young people have experienced homelessness. This can be for many reasons, whether it be because of family rejection or violence, direct discrimination when renting, or needing to move cities to access services. Additionally, many homelessness services are run by religious institutions which retain the right to refuse service to trans and gender diverse people.

Many trans people draw on their super to afford the gender-affirming care they need.

• Invest in addressing the stigma and discrimination that trans people face that then leads to homelessness.
• Increase funding and accessibility for emergency housing.
• Work to address discrimination against people seeking to rent, buy, or access housing services.
• Provide funding for more culturally competent generalist services that can help a broader range of people access housing.

Money is also a big issue for a lot of us. Our community has high unemployment rates, often work in more precarious forms of employment, and experiences high rates of workplace discrimination. On top of this, many trans people draw on their super to afford the gender-affirming care they need. This combination of factors means that trans people often have very little left when it comes to our retirement.

#4. Lead The Charge Against Conversion Practices

Conversion practices are practices that attempt to change or repress an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. These practices are discredited, harmful, and destroy lives.

Protecting trans people from conversion practices is an urgent issue. Globally we are seeing anti-trans medical practitioners joining together with the religious right to build a new conversion movement targeted specifically at trans people. Basically, what happened with the ex-gay movement of the 1970-80s is happening all over again.

The movement is led by a small group of psychiatrists, aided and supported by fringe anti-trans ‘feminists’ who aim to exclude trans people from public life. In the UK anti-equality lobbyists have successfully attacked a proposed ban on conversion practices, managing to exclude protections for trans people from the legislation. This is despite the fact that the majority of people in the UK support a complete ban on these practices.

We need to get ahead of this threat and end these practices in Australia now. Our Federal Government can play a leading role by looking at options for federal reform while also working with the states and territories on implementing their own legislation (as Victoria and the ACT have done), before more people are harmed.

#5. Commit Significant And Immediate Resources To Address Suicide In The Trans Community

Our community is living through a never-ending public health crisis. The most recent data shows that 43 percent of trans people have attempted to take their own lives. The numbers are even higher for those who also live in regional communities, and/or are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

Trans people can not only survive but thrive when we address the stigma and discrimination that makes it hard for us to live our lives.

Labor has already committed to increasing funding for QLife, and working together with health organisations on identifying key issues for LGBTIQ+ populations. These are vital improvements, however, they barely approach the kind of leadership we need.

We have very clear answers as to what could be done right now. LGBTIQ+ Health Australia has already developed a full Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Strategy. It talks about the need for:

• Preventative action to reduce the distress caused by stigma and discrimination
• Increased funding for community-led services that are safe and inclusive for our people
• Culturally safe health services that are accessible for Brotherboys and Sistergirls
• Reform to improve coordination, governance, and data collection

We need a government that treats suicidality as the crisis that it is by taking decisive action to resource these initiatives.

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Jackie Turner is passionate about community power, developing the leadership of LGBTQIA+ people, and building movements that can win. She is currently working on a trans equality project at Equality Australia, working to win a society that guarantees the dignity, safety, and equality of all transgender and gender-diverse people. Follow her on Twitter @JackieMaeTurner.

Photo Credit: Getty