In a time of growing transphobia, the last place you would expect to find it is among the organisers of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG).
The SGLMG, which organises the biggest LGBTIQ event in the Southern Hemisphere, promised to centre transgender rights in this year’s parade. This follows last November’s annual general meeting where it was agreed there would be a stronger focus on trans rights and anti-discrimination law reform.
But the board of directors reneged on January 20, citing “obligations” under the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission governance standards. It said it needed to “align with Mardi Gras’ values, strategic priorities, and long-term sustainability”.
Former board members, two of whom had been stood down for engaging in political action, and trans rights advocates said the decision shifts Mardi Gras away from its origins as a protest to build support for all LGBTIQ people.
Evan Gray, spokesperson for LGBTIQ advocacy group Pride in Protest, accused the board of “pretending that trans rights are against the nature of Mardi Gras”. Gray, who moved one of the motions that the board struck down, said: “They are the most popularly supported motions in AGM history. This is not only spitting in the face of trans people, but the membership generally.”
Two board members, Luna Choo and Damien Nguyen, were also stripped of their access to Mardi Gras email systems, after they expressed personal support for trans rights to members. The board tried to censure both directors, alleging unauthorised communications. The censure motion misgendered Choo, the only publicly known trans person on the board, referring to her as “he”.
Polls before last year’s federal election showed support for the trans community was high: 81% agreed that trans people “deserve the same rights and protections as other Australians”.
However, as transphobic attacks from the far right grow and spread, emboldened by United States President Donald Trump, unequivocal support for trans people is needed more than ever.
Trump wants to silence, attack and destroy what he terms “transgender insanity”, through legislative attacks and empowering his violent MAGA goons. Advocates for Trans Equality said he is “seeking to force the nation back to an imaginary time where people like us didn’t exist”.
More than 1000 anti-transgender bills were introduced across the US last year. Executive orders have defined sex as an “immutable biological classification”. National security memos have labelled people and organisations “domestic terrorists” if they support “extremism [on] gender”. The LGBTIQ suicide hotline has been defunded.
Trump has threatened cuts to Medicaid and Medicare funding to hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to trans youth. He has abandoned safety protocols, introduced in 2003, that provided protection for LGBTIQ people against sexual violence in prisons. He has reversed policy that allowed trans people to update their sex designation on identification documents.
Trump is now aiming to spread his anti-trans crusade across the globe. In January, a new rule, “Combating Gender Ideology in Foreign Assistance”, makes US$30 billion in foreign aid, including hospitals, HIV/AIDS programs and educational institutions, dependent on sweeping restrictions barring gender-affirming care, not only for trans youth, but for people of any age.
The rule prohibits any organisation, school or hospital receiving US aid from providing gender-affirming care, or speaking about it or gender dysphoria in therapy. The ruling effectively forces other countries to adopt US anti-transgender policies.
One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson is taking inspiration from Trump, releasing a transphobic song from her new self-promotion movie, A Super Progressive Movie, titled “Kiss Kiss (XX) My Arse”.
Sung by former Neighbours actress and vocal Trump supporter Holly Valance, the track mocks trans people. The animated video portrays a gross caricature of a presumably trans woman dancing around in underwear, to the lyrics: “I’m a real biological woman / I’m a real diabolical lefty.”
The song (and the film) takes aim at “snowflakes” and “woke” culture, as well as the Free Palestine movement: “Fave song — from the river to the sea / No job but I bleed LGBT… / Cause I’m a real diabolic lefty.”
Hanson’s “film”, which she had hoped to show at Parliament House, aims to stoke all the prejudices that, in a cost-of-living crisis, is relatively easy to do. It was not screened because it was deemed offensive.
Hanson’s attempt to position herself as Australia’s answer to Trump is a scary reality for all marginalised groups, and particularly the LGBTIQ community.
This is why progressive organisations, including the SGLMG Board, have to push back against every attempt to eradicate our democratic rights that so many people have fought for over successive generations.