91������̳

Western Australian Liberal leader Libby Mettam vowed to hard-won gender recognition laws at the party’s state conference over October 19–20. 

Under pressure from LGBTIQ rights advocates, Labor passed the laws — which abolished the Gender Reassignment Board and streamlined the process for gender recognition — on September 17.

The reforms mean trans and gender-diverse people are no longer required to undergo surgery to formally change their sex and gender identification.

However, LGBTIQ rights organisations criticised Labor for not including community led amendments including self-identification, extending rights to 16-year-olds and allowing people to specify their own gender marker.

They also called for loopholes to be removed from anti-discrimination laws. 

Labor refused to amend the laws, pushing through some of the least progressive gender recognition laws in the country. 

The Liberals responded to Labor’s timidity by doubling down on its campaign against LGBTIQ rights.

Mettam said a Liberal state government would “ensure people can’t change their sex on birth certificates”.

Rainbow Futures spokesperson Misty Farquhar said: “The recent changes to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act will simply give trans and gender diverse people the freedom to live our lives with less government interference. That should be celebrated.

“The changes will not impact anyone outside of the trans and gender diverse community, so it’s galling to find ourselves the target of hateful political rhetoric…

“We encourage the Liberal leader to engage open-mindedly with trans and gender diverse people, and to focus on issues that will actually benefit the communities she claims to represent.

Queer Liberation Boorloo activist Alex Wallace told 91������̳ most people “support trans and gender-diverse people, and support us being free of discrimination”. 

In a bizarre attack, Mettam criticised Labor for passing gender recognition laws while there is a domestic violence crisis across the country.

She said: “It’s unconscionable that while more women are being killed in WA than any other state due to domestic violence, Labor has fast-tracked the gender ID bill over tracking domestic violence thugs.” 

How this justifies campaigning to scrap the gender recognition laws was not explained. 

The domestic violence crisis is urgent, with the number of women murdered by their partner this year doubling.

A major drive of the domestic violence crisis has been the lack of affordable housing. With domestic violence shelters full and affordable rental options nonexistent, women are forced to choose between staying with an abusive partner or homelessness.

Neither Labor or Liberals have proposed serious solutions to the housing or violence crises. 

Instead of acting on these issues, Wallace said “the Liberal Party would rather focus on fringe issues that only further risk our community’s safety”.  

“The Liberal Party has this week reminded us of their active position to further discrimination and harassment of trans and gender-diverse Western Australians.”