Self-ID Bill - Births, Deaths and Marriages Amendment Bill 2024

To start with, I don’t care what people wear or who they love. As long it is legal and doesn’t cause harm, be your authentic weird self out there. I certainly am. Some of the issues I am going to clarify in this opinion piece are often very poorly understood and a bill that does not avoid uncertainty by providing definitions of matters that will come into justiciable dispute inevitably will result in inefficient and irresponsible legislation such as this.

In failing to clearly define the words sex and gender, the bill can create misunderstanding and confusion. Biological sex, far from being a social construct like money or governments, is real. It is observable and has real life consequences. As an example, it is important to know the number of women in WA so as to adequately plan maternity wards, to know how many gynaecologists will be needed, and so on. It is also important to know the amount of men for similar reasons.

When you are born your sex is observed and recorded, not assigned. Assigned in this case is an archaic term appropriated by trans cultists from a time when if a child is born with ambiguous genitalia, they were assigned a sex. I actually did experience this when I was a registered nurse. There were discussions with the parents to understand what they would like the sex of their child to be. This child may have undergone surgery to make their genitalia less ambiguous. In some cases, surgery was required for corrective purposes, say for a hypospadia. These days genetic testing is carried out to determine the sex of the baby, and their genetic information used to anticipate the child’s health needs.

These cases are rare and whilst commonly referred to as intersex, another archaic term, the correct term is disorders of sexual development or DSDs. Now all of those people, accept in very rare cases of chimerism, are still either female or male. Many of these people have very obvious signs and symptoms, including reduced lifespan, infertility, and other medical conditions. 

Biological sex is immutable, and the lack of a Y chromosome indicates a female whilst the presence of Y chromosome indicates a male. There is no third option, there is no third gamete. Every single human on the planet is of a biological sex, there is no spectrum, there is no such thing as non-binary as sex is binary. 

Gender is a sex based culturally influenced stereotypes where certain behaviours, likes and dislikes, and abilities are seen as either feminine or masculine. We have always had women that were more masculine than other women, and some men might exhibit more feminine characteristics, and sometimes this links to sexual orientation. Gender is the social construct. 

I don’t identify with many of the sex based stereotypes that relate to women, I hate pink, I am very good with power tools, I don’t do makeup, I hate high heels, none of which has somehow turned me into a male. I fully understand not identifying with culturally influenced sex based gender stereotypes, that would be incredibly limiting.

I think it is a fair to state that sexual orientation is innate. I campaigned for same sex marriage. There are three options here, you can either be same sex attracted, opposite sex attracted, or both sex attracted. That’s it. There is no third sex. There are no other options. 

So looking at the LGB and the T-plus, it is important to understand that the LGB is based on biological sex being real, and this is important to clarify and to acknowledge. This is why we called it same sex attraction. The T-plus is based entirely on the denial of biological sex as being real. The belief here is that biological sex is entirely irrelevant but that the culturally influenced sex based gender stereotypes are real. That makes these two diametrically opposed to each other, and it makes the T innately homophobic. 

The denial of biological sex as the basis for same sex attraction is homophobic.

So how that currently plays out is that a 50 year old heterosexual male who chooses to identify as a woman must now be accepted as a lesbian. This is homophobic. We are now telling lesbians - same sex attracted women - that they must include heterosexual men in their events, and in their dating pool. And if they don’t, they get taken to the Australian Human rights commission for discrimination.

Imagine taking same sex attracted women to court for their innate sexual attraction?!?

And you know what that is - that is homophobic. 

If you are actively advocating for the fact that same sex attracted people must include members of the opposite sex in their dating pools and events, you are advocating for a homophobic movement.

As a result of these two diametrically opposite views, the LGB Alliance has now been formed. 

My observations are also related to the understanding of the conflation of the terms of sex and gender. Women and girls have facilities based on their biological sex, change rooms etc, and without any evidence of gender being real, deciding to replace and conflate the word sex with gender, so that those with a gender identity that does not match their biological sex must be included. 

My question here is, how many women or girls must be raped or sexually assaulted by men who identify as women before women and girls are allowed to have same sex facilities again?

This bill will make it easier for predatory men to access female only facilities, And speaking in favour means you are actively advocating for reduced safe guarding of women and children in our state.

Why on earth would anybody want to reduce safeguarding in the current climate of male violence against women? In doing so our government is giving a voice for predators. You are taking away the power of women and girls to be able to speak out against men in sex segregated spaces. 

And for those who believe there is no proof of an increased risk to women and girls, there is an increasing pile of evidence that this conflation of gender and sex is harmful.

My next point is pertaining to misogyny. The audacity of a man to claim that he is now a woman simply because he feels like one is both mind blowing and insulting. And what does that even mean? I didn’t menstruate because of how I felt? I didn’t get catcalled because of my feelings? I am not careful at night because of how I feel? These things have happened to me because of my biological sex.

There are men in women’s sports winning trophies that should be for women and girls, there are male inmates in female prisons raping their cell mates. Not respecting the rights of women and girls to have single sex sports is misogyny. To not safeguard vulnerable female populations in prisons and house them with biological males in their cells, is cruel. A study in the UK showed that about 80% of biological male prisoners that identified as female had convictions for sex crimes against women or girls. 

Do you think a 10-12 year old girl who has just started menstruating would be comfortable knowing a man in the cubicle next to her can hear the rustling of the wrapper of her tampon or pad? Do you think any woman or girls would be comfortable washing the blood off her hands or washing her underwear after an unexpected leak would be comfortable doing this next to a man?

How will women and girls will be able to tell if the man in that toilet is a trans identified man or a man with bad intentions? Currently we can call out men in our facilities, this bill will take that away from us. Why do think that is a good idea? Do women and girls not have the right to feel safe in society? 

If you are in favour of this bill you are the mouth piece for a homophobic, misogynistic, predatory movement, you should be embarrassed. Your hatred of women and girls is obvious.

Sex and gender are now different, yet they are interchangeably used in the amendments to the bill. 

Allowing this bill to pass will mean the end of same sex events, it will mean the end of sex based protections for women and girls, and women and girls will not have their own sports categories anymore. 

I was shocked and disappointed to find out this bill didn’t include a definition for woman in it. How can such poor legislation be introduced into our Parliament when it doesn’t include definitions? And in case you are wondering, circular definitions aren’t actual definitions. Just like trans women aren’t actual women.

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