From the Commissioner - Pride in WA's LGBTIQ community

With an increasing number of young people in WA identifying as transgender and gender diverse the WA Equal Opportunity Act needs amending, as it does not provide protection from gender identity discrimination.

The WA Law Reform Commission is currently reviewing the Act including whether a gender identity ground should be included. Although submissions closed last month, it is worth addressing the barriers that exist for the gender diverse community.

The Act currently only recognises gender ‘history’ as a protected attribute. That means a person needs to have obtained a Gender Recognition Certificate recognising they have ‘transitioned’ their gender according to the criteria set out by the Gender Reassignment Act 2000.

As far as protecting gender diverse people from discrimination this process falls short because it does not cover people in the extremely vulnerable transition phase.

It also cannot cover transitioning youth who suffer an extremely high rates of mental health issues, self-harm and suicide, or people who do not wish to go through invasive procedures to gain a Gender Recognition Certificate, people who are non-binary or gender fluid.

In its 2021 update, LGBTIQ+ Australian reported transgender people aged 14-25 are fifteen times more likely to attempt suicide than the general population.

The main reasons for this are experiences of stigma, prejudice, discrimination, and abuse on the basis of being LGBTIQ+.

What is exceptionally troubling for these young people is that they will not always have the support of family in dealing with these issues.

The federal Sex Discrimination Act 1984 does cover some transitioning and gender diverse people; however, employees of State or Local Government cannot access the federal Sex Discrimination Act in the area of employment.

Without adequate legislation to cover this cohort we see very little in the way of providing adequate services for them and it is left up to decisionmakers to be generous in their consideration of this community to enact change.

Recently City of Perth Lord Mayor, Basil Zempilas announced an investigation into the feasibility of all-sex toilets to be installed in the CBD and the Commission commends Mr Zempilas for this initiative.

We need to be mindful of the discrimination people still face because of their sexual orientation in Western Australia as well.

Of the eligible Australians who expressed their view in the postal vote on same sex marriage in Australia 61.6 percent agreed that it should happen.

It is a good indication most Australians have accepted a person’s sexual orientation should not hinder their rights; however, this cohort still faces discrimination and harassment regularly in the areas of employment and goods and services and according the Australian Human Rights Commission, almost half the LGBTIQ+ hide their sexual orientation or gender identity due to fear of discrimination.

Beyond discrimination is fear of abuse.  Six in ten people of diverse sexual orientation or gender identity reported suffering homophobic abuse.

The WA Equal Opportunity Act does not include sexual orientation vilification as a ground, which means if the offending conduct is outside an area of public life listed in the Act, such as employment, goods and services, or education, for example, they may not be protected.

These are some of the immense barriers people from the LGBTIQ+ community have to face in their everyday life, yet despite this many LGBTIQ+ people have a resilience that has enabled them to form loving relationships and successful careers.

 According to a survey of working adults in Australia in 2020, 16.6 percent of respondents working in the public services sector identified as being part of the LGBTQ community, 8.9 percent in the banking and finance sector identified as LGBTQ and over six percent in education and legal.

There are many activities the public can get involved in to support the LGBTIQ+ community for Pride month in WA.

 The Commission will be holding an information stall at Pride Fair Day on Sunday 14 November at Hyde Park and we encourage all of you to get involved to support WA’s LGBTIQ+ community.