Victorian Liberal MP Louise Staley under fire for transphobic comments
VICTORIAN Liberal MP Louise Staley has been criticised by the LGBTI community for her comments about trans people during a debate in parliament last night.
The divisive debate was on allowing trans and gender diverse people to change the sex on their birth certificate without having undergone sex reassignment surgery.
When Staley rose to speak, she said she opposed the bill and 鈥榤en鈥� changing their birth certificate without surgery.
鈥淭his is the sort of post-modernist mumbo jumbo we have come to expect from the Andrews Labor government,鈥� she said.
鈥淚 ask the house to reflect on what we鈥檙e doing when we let a man who has male chromosomes and who naturally has the right to enjoy privileges we as a society still give to men鈥� be recognised by the state as a woman because he feels like a sex he biologically is not and cannot ever experience.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 help feel that such men are engaging in a radical form of mansplaining, telling women what really makes a woman.鈥�
https://twitter.com/thegenderfairy1/status/775612197456089088
Get your transphobic, harmful, and cisnormative opinions In 馃憦 The 馃憦 Bin 馃憦
— Mx Jacob Thomas (@jacobthomasaust)
Appalling. Shame on
— Shane Bazzi (@shanebazzi)
Staley went on to cite radical feminist Sheila Jeffreys, who has been under fire multiple times for her .
She added that including preoperative trans people in clubs, schools, and associations that are only open to one gender would cause 鈥渃ommunity disharmony鈥�.
鈥淭he feminist in me objects strongly to a man changing his birth certificate to female because he feels enough of a woman to identify as one but not enough to take the step of permanently doing so,鈥� she said.
Chair of Transgender Victoria Brenda Appleton was at the debate, and said some of the comments made her feel ignored.
鈥淭he MPs [in opposition to the bill] seemed to feel that passing this legislation will suddenly lead to people becoming trans and being a threat to society,鈥� she told the Star Observer.
鈥淭he reality is that trans people have always been there, and I felt that a lot of their comments were denying our existence and our positive contributions to the community.鈥�
Appleton added that Staley鈥檚 comments were extremely damaging.
鈥淚 think to throw Sheila Jeffreys in our face when she鈥檚 been discredited in so many forums is appaling, and I lament the ability of the Liberal Party to contribute to social justice reform,鈥� she said.
Trans advocate and author of The Gender Fairy Jo Hirst was also at the debate.
鈥淚t was a shock to hear such blatant transphobia in such a setting,鈥� she told the Star Observer.
鈥淪he could not look at the gallery which was full of transgender people and their families.
鈥淪he walked out immediately after her speech with her head down and did not look up鈥� I can only hope she felt a sense of shame.鈥�
Executive Director of Transgender Victoria Sally Goldner said she would expect Victoria鈥檚 MPs to use their parliamentary privilege with care and responsibility.
鈥淭here was extreme shock from those trans and gender diverse people in the gallery, including myself鈥� she told the Star Observer.
The debate will resume this afternoon, with the bill expected to pass the lower house, despite opposition from the Liberal MPs.
When it makes it to the upper house, it will come down to the crossbenchers to decide whether the reforms are legislated.
Louise Staley has been contacted for comment.
She’s a conservative, Lisa. Do you even know what “TERF” means or do you just lob it at any woman who doesn’t drink the kool aid?
Labor, Greens and the Sex Party support the birth cirtificate reforms bill, but it still is 2 votes short to pass the upper house! The LNP oppose these reforms as expected – so were are the missing 2 votes going to come from? The bill appears doomed…
l trans* people and intersex people for far too long have been waiting for recognition for years now!
This bill needs to pass into law immedietly!
How about we just delete gender off the birth certificate altogether? It used to be a form of identification to verify people in the event of their death etc. Now gender is such a fluid concept, and we have other means of identifying people. Gender, like marriage is now a political tool and has lost the focus of its original intent in our society. So if we can delete the role of gender, and delete the traditional institution of marriage we will get the society so many seem intent on getting….whatever that may look like.
I wonder what societal norm will be the next victim?
She’s looking at things from a purely simplistic outwardly genital based perspective, I don’t think she can fathom past her own experience, if how ever you feel with in your self energies not attributed as being ‘normally masculine or feminine’ in nature do you really need surgery or documentation to accommodate those energies with in your self comfortably ? I guess some feel they do, does documentation mean a relationship will last ? people on either sides of perceived arguments seem to have their own theocratic well rehearsed stances to shove down every one else’s throats, let’s leave the politics & religion out of it just see what the science shows us and go from there
Standard TERF devoid of all facts argument which is sly as well.
If those who have not had GRS are not accepted it means that all trans kids and adolescents (too young to have GRS or cannot yet afford it) cannot legally transition. This leaves them open to discrimination and prejudice at school, university, workplace etc.
Then there are those who cannot afford it (no medicare or public hospital support after all) and those who have medical conditions that do not allow it.
Then there are trans men. What criteria do you set for them to be ‘allowed’?
Lower surgery (to construct a penis) Is insanely expensive, only done in a few places in the world and doesn’t work very well at this time.
So are they ALL automatically excluded because they cannot have GRS?
Note as usual (and as all TERFs do) no mention of trans men is made, despite that there are now similar numbers of them as there are trans women.
As I said a sly way of excluding huge numbers of trans women and maybe all trans men.
Hey i have no problem with what shes saying “if” she wants to make sexual reassignment surgery free for australia trans . When the price of living is so expensive its very hard to find a spare 30-50k for the surgery. Ive been mtf trans for 4.5yrs but if i had the spare 30-50k id do it today . Sweden i have a trans friend she had her srs done by the government at no cost to her the moment she qualified for the surgery. She cannot make comments like that when shes on 200k a yr plus . Unless i was to resort to prositution i dont see me being able to afford it for atleast another 4yrs