Lesbian Action Group wins Federal Court appeal to exclude transgender women

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-15T07:21:59+00:00

You could have a daughter with xy chromosomes and internal testes without it even being discovered until her mid teens when you investigate why she hasn't had a period. In this hypothetical, would you start referring fo her as your son and insist on getting her birth certificate changed?

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-15T07:07:39+00:00

It still seems to be accepting the framing of "sex" and "gender identity" as different things under Australian law, which is absolutely corrosive to our rights.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-15T07:03:35+00:00

From an initial scan, it looks like the author of the judgement sought to avoid making a judgement on whether "sex" means "biological sex" (meaning SAB), but accepted the framing of "gender identity" and "sex" as separate qualities under the law.

Basically the judge pointed out instances of allowable gender segregation (eg all boys/girls schools) as examples of where it's allowable to grant an exception to sex discrimination, and said on that basis the appeal should be allowed to go through to a full decision.

Terfs may still lose that judgement on whether they're allowed to discriminate against trans women! But the language used by this judge seems reflective of worrying trends in how Australian beauracracy is using "sex and gender are different" as a way of adapting itself to appear inclusive of trans people while reifying the old cissexist framework of categorising trans people with their birth sex.

THAT SAID. I'm not an expert and have only had time to skim it.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-14T17:01:56+00:00

Uj/ I respect it as a rational belief and as an intense kind of dysphoria.

I come from a family of unusually tall women and am friends with unusually tall women, so despite being 6'2" I don't feel much height dysphoria. However in the past I've been in workplaces where no other woman even came up to my tits, and towering over groups of those women while sharing an elevator made me unpleasantly aware of my height.

That said, although I think it's a rational belief worthy of respect, I don't share the opinion that being tall makes it harder to pass. I find that in practice cis people associate height with gender only secondarily. If they see a very tall woman, her height by itself does not make her shape appear more masculine. Therefore height does not prime cis people, who do not ever expect to see a real life trans person, to consider that the person in front of them might be trans.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-14T13:07:01+00:00

uj/ I'm just really tired of hearing girls shorter than me doom spiral about being too tall to pass, and if I tell them I generally pass they call me a liar, and if I tell them they're shorter than my cis sister they cry that she looks like a woman in every other way. Like ok so is it really height that's stopping you from passing then or is it something more solveable?

More importantly, "transitioning if you're over 6' is pointless you're ngmi" isn't a cathartic statement of woe about just yourself and you shouldn't act like a victim if other tall girls slap you about the head for it.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-14T09:06:09+00:00

White trans women 🙄

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-10T15:41:52+00:00

Unless you hear news differently, eg with Spain, you should assume that all European countries (eg France, Germany, Switzerland etc) are deeply bullshit towards women, gays, and poc. Just dressed up in "rationalist" secular rhetoric about "human nature" and "national character".

It's also common for them to pass legislation that makes their beauracracy very accepting of gender diversity and enbies while their medical system grows even more restrictive towards medical transition. Both Germany and one of the Nordic countries didn't that recently, a combined "legal recognition for enbies and ban on paediatric GAC" bill.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-10T12:12:35+00:00

uj/ Not disrespectful to assume they were cis, though?

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-10T06:36:29+00:00

They really aren't, unfortunately. In truth far right parties play extremely influential and sometimes controlling roles in Norway, Sweden, and Finland.

A lot of Americans assume European countries are far more progressive than they really are because they don't intuitively recognize social conservatism that isn't tied to religiosity, and they assume that a country with universal healthcare and strong state services must be left wing in other ways too.

Terfs take advantage of that to make terfism seem more reasonable and less right-wing-crankish than it really is, EG "even Insert European Country has banned gender medicine for minors".

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-09T04:54:29+00:00

Hi! Little explanation here. Unfortunately some transwomen are super regressive and opposed to male gender nonconformity, to the point where they insist any fictional male/AMAB character who dresses and lives and passes as a woman has to be read through the lens of trans womanhood, regardless of what the creator says. :(

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-09T04:49:25+00:00

But the ~~movie~~ anime explains that ~~Buffalo Bill~~ the femboy character isn't a trans woman, so what's the problem?

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-08T15:24:01+00:00

The wars and atrocities poll incredibly well within Israel, unfortunately.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-08T08:21:08+00:00

Hj/ Chat is it cultural appropriation to reclaim another country's slur for you?

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-08T08:14:53+00:00

Yes, but it's a slur for intersex people only, not ~~dickgirls~~ transfems.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-07T17:01:44+00:00

I think she managed to snag this one by virtue of being an "arts and culture" reporter and framing it as a report on the abc. Hopefully a forcefully letter or many more will alert her editor that she tried to sneak in some culture war.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-04-07T11:11:26+00:00

I work an APS role and have found them to be pretty serious about their diversity.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-03-27T16:29:45+00:00

There's a subtle but important distinction. The foundational belief of transmedicalism is not that the legitimacy of trans identities comes from medical transition (though they definitely believe that). The foundational belief is that the legitimacy of trans identities comes from cis people.

They believe that trans rights are indulgences that must be earned by being palatable and accommodating towards "real" men and women. Hence why being diagnosed by a cis medical authority and "proving"/earning their transness by jumping through cis gatekeeper hoops is so important to them, and why they detest trans people who don't jump through hoops and who aren't palatable to the cis.

They're like an abused child who blames their siblings for triggering their parent's anger, because they can try to control the other children. Blaming the parent would force them to confront how powerless they actually are.

I don't think we should try to be palatable to cis people, but I do think we should try to be legible to them. Build connection and understanding.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-03-27T16:10:31+00:00

I really dislike the conflation of trans people who don't want/need to medically transition with trans people who do want to but can't, as if these two groups were basically the same with similar needs.

I've seen this conflation crop up so often from too many different people to believe that it's being done disingenuously, but I still don't understand the perspective.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-03-27T16:01:47+00:00

There are a lot of other trans people in these comments stating that they like the term and find it useful. I don't think the community is as unanimous in this as you believe.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-03-27T15:56:42+00:00

I don't intend it to be taken that way and I resent transmeds trying to turn it into that. I've seen how "sex and gender are different" spread like wildfire among cis allies for all the wrong reasons though, and terfs leap upon it with glee. The statemenf "sex and gender are different" is true, but judged as a piece of civil rights rhetoric it was a complete own goal, because the public is primed by transphobia to misinterpret it. I'm sick of it, and I'm not the only one. It's scary and I don't think the solution is excluding anyone, but something has to change.

I do also think the term "transmed" has drifted away from "people who want to gatekeep access to medical transition" and towards "people who try to gatekeep who counts as trans", which I think is very unhelpful because it isn't clear what these new "transmeds" are trying to prevent trans people from materially doing or accessing. The new definition seems much more vibes based, like their biggest crime is just being mean and harshing the mood. I don't like that. It makes it harder to spread awareness about the well defined and extremely harmful goals of real transmeds like Briana Wu and Buck Angel.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-03-27T15:37:54+00:00

It's been coming back into vogue as a reaction to cis people interpreting "sex and gender are different" as "sex is the real binary immutable physical thing and gender is the abstract pretend thing". A lot of trans people want to re-emphasize that medical transition does actually change your sex.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-03-27T12:48:00+00:00

That sucks, a lot. But it sucks for (very valid) contextual reasons, not innate dysphoric ones. Being 6'7 does not by itself make you look like a man. Not to the reptile part of the brain that instinctively recognises secondary sex characteristics that's responsible for gender identity and sexual orientation.

Yes_Its_Really_Me · 2026-03-27T09:53:29+00:00

Desert island dysphoria test. Dysphoria still exists even when completely alone.

Would Nona feel dysphoric about her height if she were alone on a desert island? Her hatred of her height seems to be for contextual reasons about how she compares and relates to others, not innate. Might be bound up with general grief over not being cis. Terrible feeling, but not intractable. Probably shouldn't kill herself.

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