Wednesday, 30 July 2025

LGBTIQA+ equality

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:54): (1775) My adjournment matter is to the Minister for Equality, and the action I seek is for the minister to write to her federal counterparts to address trans and gender-diverse Victorians living and working in the UK no longer being able to use their birth certificates to obtain a gender recognition certificate. Last year the UK government ruled that trans Victorians in the UK would not be able to use their Victorian birth certificates to obtain gender recognition certificates. Trans and gender-diverse people living in the UK need a GRC to be legally recognised. This means that trans Victorians will need to use the UK’s other pathways, which take years to access and require them to experience needless strife in order to be formally recognised as being themselves.

This situation is quite ridiculous, especially for people who have been living as trans or gender-diverse people for many years, even decades. We know a significant number of Australians travel to the UK each year to live, work or study. Being told your birth certificate will not be recognised means that when entering the country you are effectively forced to detransition in the eyes of the law, forgoing your legal protections under the equality act. This decision also impacts, I should note, intersex people. We know that rights for trans people in the UK are also being systematically dismantled. Trans people are unable to access certain spaces and are being limited in their ability to participate fully in public life. They are also losing access to health care, as we are seeing in the media. This situation is a trans travel ban in all but name, and trans people in Australia need to be aware of this before they travel. Trans people and gender-diverse people are victims of intense hate – we are seeing this continually – facing such devastating harassment and prejudice on a global stage.

It goes far beyond just what I have raised today in this speech, and I pledge I will always be a fierce ally to the trans and gender-diverse community. I will always stand up for you and fight for your rights. I appreciate that the Victorian Labor government shares our concerns on how this impacts trans and intersex Victorians, but the queer community is requesting more public leadership on this issue from the Victorian government and more awareness for trans and gender diverse Victorians that this has happened and the real risks and challenges they will face if they decide to travel to the UK.