LGB Tasmania Puts Up Anti-Trans Billboard In Hobart

Anti-trans group LGB Tasmania has put up a billboard in Glenorchy, a northern suburb of Hobart, that LGBTQI advocacy groups have termed the ‘antithesis of Pride Month’. Equality Tasmania slammed the anti-trans billboard saying such displays have “no place in an inclusive Tasmania”.

The controversial billboard features the phrase “Let Kids be Kids”. LGB Tasmania’s Jessica Hoyle in a press statement said that the billboard was part of the group’s campaign against gender-affirming treatment for children. 

According to Equality Tasmania, LGB Tasmania was a group that “excludes trans and gender diverse people.”

In November 2022, Hoyle failed in her bid to get the Tasmanian Civil And Administrative Tribunal to approve her application to ban trans women from her Drag King events.

Antithesis Of Pride Month

Equality Tasmania spokesperson Rose Boccalatte said that the billboard could cause immeasurable harm to the LGBTQI community. 

“This billboard is inflicting harm on trans and gender-diverse young people in Hobart’s northern suburbs, young people who are already struggling to find their place at school, at home and in the community. It has no place in an inclusive Tasmania,” Boccalatte said in a statement.

“The message of this billboard is that trans and gender-diverse young people don’t exist or are misguided, that supporting them is somehow a threat to young people and they should be left alone to suffer in silence without hope. That message is the antithesis of Pride Month.”

Boccalatte said research has consistently shown “that trans and gender diverse young people thrive when they are affirmed.”

Erasing LGBTQI Community

Equality Tasmania Vice President Dr Lucy Mercer-Mapstone said the billboard sought to stigmatise young LGBTQI people.

“The slogan on this billboard has been used to justify erasing, ignoring, stigmatising and discriminating against young lesbian, gay and bisexual people for decades,” Mercer-Mapstone said in a statement.

“It has been code for saying lesbian, gay and bisexual young people don’t exist or are just pretending, and if they do exist their needs should be ignored and they should be pushed to the margins. It is a travesty that this slogan is now used by an LGB group to stigmatise young trans people.”

“Pride Month is about inclusion and celebration, not prejudice, shaming and exclusion from one part of our community against another part,” added Mercer-Mapstone.