Tuesday, 21 March 2023

Ministers statements: LGBTIQ+ equality

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Water, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Commonwealth Games Legacy, Minister for Equality) (12:11): I rise today in my capacity as Minister for Equality. I am so proud to stand here today as a member of our LGBTIQ+ communities here in Victoria. I am so proud to be part of LGBTIQ+ communities, including trans people, who band together, tell our stories, share our experiences and try to build connections in the face of an escalating amount of bile, stigma, discrimination, isolation and trauma.

Over the weekend we saw a disgraceful display of hate. We saw an abhorrent display of the weaponising, the victimising and indeed the vilification of trans people. And then the Nazis showed up. This is not in fact able to be part of a civil debate, as it is said, when we are fundamentally talking about the rights of trans people to live without discrimination – the rights of trans people to be able to play sport, to use public toilets, to have access to employment opportunities and indeed to work their way through every day of their lives without the stigma and the discrimination that are a feature for trans people.

It should go without saying, but it cannot. The stigma and discrimination that trans people experience contribute directly to lesser life quality. They contribute to a suicide rate more than 15 times that of the general population. They contribute to a sense of isolation that limits employment opportunities, that compromises access to health care and that creates a series of isolating experiences that overwhelmingly contribute to self-harm. This is about honouring the trans and gender-diverse members of our communities, and our government will never take a backward step in confirming that equality is not negotiable.