Today is the International Day Against LGBTIQA+ Discrimination.

May 17 marks the day in 1990 homosexuality was removed from the World Health Organisation Classification of Diseases, with IDAHOBIT now an annual event drawing attention to the denial of fundamental human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and asexual people around the world, including Australia.

Ordinarily, I would use IDAHOBIT to optimistically highlight issues of anti-LGBTIQ discrimination that can and must be addressed by Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments.

But I must admit I’m running as low on optimism at the moment as I am energy. On IDAHOBIT 2024, I just feel tired.

I’m tired of leaders who promise to protect LGBTQ students in religious schools against discrimination, but then fail to follow through on their commitments.

In the past, this statement applied to former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who promised to remove the exceptions in the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act 1984 that allow religious schools to mistreat students because of their sexual orientation or gender identity in October 2018 – before spending the following three-and-a-half years running away from that commitment.

Now it applies to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who promised to protect both LGBTQ students and teachers ahead of the May 2022 federal election but, having received an Australian Law Reform Commission report outlining exactly how to do this, now refuses to introduce legislation to make this a reality without the support of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Which is both an entirely unnecessary requirement – because the Parliamentary numbers exist to pass these reforms without the Liberal and National Parties – and will almost inevitably lead to an outcome which doesn’t actually end this anti-LGBTQ discrimination, either because the Coalition won’t agree to any changes, or any changes that are agreed simply allow this mistreatment to continue in other ways.

I’m tired of states that have allowed their own anti-discrimination laws to atrophy, through decades of neglect, such that they do not provide adequate protection against discrimination to the LGBTIQ community.

I am of course thinking of the successive governments in NSW who failed to update the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977, with the consequence that, in 2024, it still does not protect bisexual, non-binary or intersex people. Or LGBTQ students or teachers. And plenty of others too.

At least the current Minns Labor Government has referred this legislation to the NSW Law Reform Commission for comprehensive review. Although it would be even better if, in the interim, they supported the Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023, currently being considered by a parliamentary committee, which could address many of these shortcomings right now.

I’m even more thinking of the WA Labor Government who, despite promising to modernise the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 after their own Law Reform Commission inquiry process, have failed to use their parliamentary majorities in both houses to do anything about it, squandering what might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to finally bring WA anti-discrimination laws into the 21^st century.

I’m tired of the absence of action on birth certificates, particularly in NSW, which remains the only place in Australia that still requires trans and gender diverse people to undergo sterilising genital surgery in order to update their identity documents. And which does not provide legislative options to recognise sex or gender markers beyond male or female either.

Although, as with anti-discrimination reform, this could be solved quickly and easily through the rapid passage of the Equality Bill’s amendments to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995.

I’m tired of the lack of Medicare funding for gender-affirming healthcare, too. While not all trans and gender diverse people seek access to such services, including but not limited to surgery, many do – but the significant out-of-pocket costs involved place them out-of-reach for far-too-many trans Australians.

These are vital, in many instances literally life-saving, healthcare services. They are the opposite of ‘elective’, and must be properly, publicly, funded, to ensure all trans and gender diverse people who want to can access them.

I’m tired of the glacial pace of change to protect children born with variations of sex characteristics (aka intersex kids) from non-consenting surgeries and other harmful medical interventions.

It’s been more than a decade since the Commonwealth Senate first investigated these gross violations of human rights – the worst violations against any part of the Australian LGBTIQ community – and yet only one jurisdiction has passed any kind of law to limit them (the ACT, which legislated reforms in 2023, although I understand Victoria is also moving, slowly, toward its own scheme).

Intersex people deserve to control what happens to their bodies.

I’m tired of right-wing, and far right, politicians at all levels using the LGBTIQ community as convenient punching bags for their own self-promotional purposes. The latest notorious example being Cumberland City Councillor Steve Christou, with his thankfully short-lived ban on books depicting same-sex parents from council libraries. 

But, really, we could be talking about any number of people who use anti-LGBTIQ platforms to seek, or retain, public office, from Mark Latham to Katherine Deves, and Alex Antic to Claire Chandler.

I’m tired of the far right extremist threat against LGBTIQ people not being taken seriously by Government, and especially by the Commonwealth Government.

In the wake of the downright disturbing sight of neo-Nazis turning up to an anti-trans rally on the steps of Victorian Parliament in March 2023, the Albanese Government passed urgent legislation banning Nazi symbols, and salutes, but so far have still not introduced amendments to prohibit anti-LGBTIQ vilification under federal law.

Nor has there been clear Commonwealth condemnation of the wave of threats of violence and intimidation against Drag Story Times at community libraries around the country.

I’m tired of politicians who turn up to march with us in events like the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras parade, but don’t turn up to vote for us on the floors of our parliaments.

And who post short statements supporting LGBTIQ people on social media on days like today, but won’t say anything when it really matters, when our community is under attack.

I’m tired of some people in the LGBTIQ community who fought for the right to marry for themselves, but then turned away from the ongoing battles for the rights of others within our own community, including trans and gender diverse, and intersex, people.

And especially of fringe groups like the LGB Alliance who actively seek to deny human rights to trans and gender diverse people, employing the same arguments, and sometimes aligned with the same groups, that were used to deny their own.

And I’m tired of the amount of time, energy and emotional resources that we must consistently spend defending existing rights from baseless attack, simply stopping the situation from getting worse, rather than making progress on the many, many issues where change is still desperately needed.

I acknowledge that this list is at least partly the product of my own choice to be an advocate for LGBTIQ equality, both professionally and personally.

A choice that means, to some extent, nearly every day for me is a day standing up against LGBTIQ discrimination.

And so on this International Day Against LGBTIQA+ Discrimination I’m choosing to do something else.

I’m logging off, and spending the day with the man who I love, doing many of the simple but beautiful things we enjoy together.

In other words, we’re making sure on this IDAHOBIT we’re living the gayest, and most fabulous, lives possible.

The struggle for LGBTIQ equality will continue tomorrow. And many, many tomorrows after that.

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