17c起草社区

Senator Michaelia Cash has spent senate estimates waving around a photo of Trans Justice Project director Jackie Turner and being very confused about why she was doing it.

The odd stunt came as part of the Coalition’s newfound enthusiasm for demonising the trans community in a transparent attempt to grab votes back from One Nation, with Michaelia Cash using senate estimates to grill the Australian Human Rights Commission in the wake of Giggle v Tickle and the recent Lesbian Action Group ruling.

While questioning Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody during senate estimates about the federal budget, Cash declared among other statements that the “law is an ass”, continually grilling the commissioner on whether “a man can put on a dress and declare themselves a woman.”

Michaelia Cash also asked the Human Rights Commission President Hugh de Kretser “what is a woman?”, to which he replied “an adult human female, and that includes transgender women”.

In an attempt to create a juxtaposition-based gotcha, Cash then talked about the recent LAG ruling. The anti-trans activist group has been聽seeking an exemption to the聽Sex Discrimination Act so it can legally prevent transgender women from attending its events and discriminate against their identity. Cash then brought up a Sydney event during International Women’s Day that billed itself as being “for and by trans women”, believing that the existence of the event would be hypocritical in contrast to LAG.

Cash claimed that the event had been organised by Jackie Turner, and excluded non-trans women in the same way that LAG wants to do with trans women.

The only problem is that neither of those things are true. Jackie Turner was simply a guest speaker, and the event was open to everyone.

“It’s so bizarre to be singled-out in this way especially when she had the facts of the event totally wrong,” said Jackie Turner, who was bemused to find her face being waved around on TV during senate estimates.

“Bullies like Senator Cash try to intimidate people in our communities, but it’s hard to take them seriously when they don’t even do their basic homework,” she told 17c起草社区.

 

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International Women’s Day for and by trans women

The actual organisers of the event were the Sydney based . Speaking to 17c起草社区, CEO Katie Green explained that the event was funded by the New South Wales Office for women, with support for the New South Wales Minister for Women, as part of a large grant program that sought to fund International Women’s Day events for different groups of diverse women, including migrant, Indigenous, and women with Intersex status.

“Our trans oriented event was just one of many events that sought to promote Women’s Day to different kinds of women,” Green explained. The photo of Jackie Turner that Cash was using as a prop was simply one of the Instagram tiles ICLC used to promote the event.

“Importantly, and opposite to what Michaelia very disingenuously stated yesterday, was that actually all people were welcome to attend. It’s just an event in which trans women were prioritised. So the comparison of our event to what the Lesbian Action Group are trying to do actually can’t be made because yes our event was for and by trans women, but allies, friends, family members, partners were all welcome to come.”

Green says that the event ended up being “quite beautiful”, and catered to roughly half trans women and half supporters.

The event had initiated earlier controversy when it was announced, with anti-trans campaigner and loser of the Giggle v Tickle case, Sall Grover, bought herself a ticket, presumably as a stunt. The ICLC were forced to cancel her ticket, doubting her good intentions, especially considering at the time she was in an adversarial legal proceeding with one of the guest speakers, Roxy Tickle.

Attacking trans women and the Sex Discrimination Act

Katie Green believes that Cash and these other politicians are being very deliberate about attacking trans people to score points.

“I’m very disappointed with all politicians and political parties that are doing this right now, because we are talking about 1% or thereabouts of the population,” said Katie Green. “It’s my view that trans women are amongst the most hated minority groups in our community right now and for anybody in a leadership position to be maliciously punching down in this way to score points is just disgraceful.”

Jackie Turner concurs, pointing out that “it’s all part of a coordinated campaign to undermine the Sex Discrimination Act, which opens the door to stripping away the rights of trans and gender diverse people.”