Lesbian Group Loses Appeal To Exclude Trans And Bisexual Women

A Victorian lesbian group have lost their appeal to bar transgender and bisexual women from its public events, with a tribunal finding the exclusion would amount to unlawful discrimination.

The Lesbian Action Group (LAG) in Melbourne applied to the Australian Human Rights Commission in August 2023 for a five-year exemption under the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) to allow them to exclude transgender and bisexual women from their public events.

The commission ruled against the group, who then applied to the administrative review tribunal for an appeal.

On Monday evening, General Member Stewart Fenwick handing down his funding, upholding the AHRC’s original decision.

A spokesperson for the LAG argued that the decline in lesbian community activity “was the direct consequence of an increasing number of trans lobbyists attempting to gain access to our events, facilities, and services.”

The LAG also tried to argue that they should be treated similarly to The Peel, a Melbourne gay bar that was granted the right to refuse heterosexual people.

However, in his findings, Fenwick concluded that the LAG were “a discrete minority within a group in the community that is already identified by their sex and sexual orientation, characteristics that afford them the protection of the SDA”.

“They seek to actively discriminate against another group in the community identifiable by their gender identity, a characteristic also protected under the SDA.”

Interpretations of lesbian feminism hotly debated

In the evidence against the appeal, Dr Elena Jefferys argued that lesbian feminism “‘does not, as a rule, include belief in binary sexes”.

Dr Jeffreys also referenced the Let Women Speak rally that was crashed by neo-Nazis in Melbourne last year, arguing that the subset of lesbian feminists who attended “have more in common with nazi fascists than with the other strands of lesbian feminists”.

In a statement following the ruling a spokesperson for the Lesbian Action Group, said “we need to be able to rebuild lesbian community, provide safe spaces for lesbians, provide role models for young lesbians, and lobby for lesbian rights in Australia without the threat of litigation from the trans lobby.

“Men cannot be lesbians, human beings cannot change sex, and we should have the right to say that.”

“This is an extremely disappointing ruling by the AAT”, said Nicole Phillips from LAG and LGB Alliance Australia. “It is giving men a loophole into lesbian spaces. We need our sexual boundaries to be respected, not denied in law. Lesbians are exclusively sexually and romantically attracted to other females, not to men who say they are female.”

The group are considering their options going forward.