You may have seen last week that a motion to establish a committee in the Upper House of SA Parliament into gender dysphoria was abandoned.
Debate on the motion was adjourned after all Greens and Labor members in the Legislative Council and Hon Michelle Lensink MLC (Liberal) said they intended to vote against it.
While it might come as a surprise initially, this is a motion we also strongly opposed – along with the South Australian Rainbow Advocacy Alliance who petitioned all members to vote against it.
But wouldn’t looking into gender dysphoria be a good thing?
We definitely have concerns around the welfare of trans young people and their ability to access safe and inclusive care – however this committee wasn’t setting out to look into this.
While introducing the motion, Frank Pangallo (who is a member for SA best) made a series of comments that indicated his intentions to platform harmful disinformation around trans people and change existing medical guidelines for gender dysphoria.
He repeatedly referenced medical gender affirming care such as puberty blockers and hormones as experimental, dangerous and permanent and cast doubt on current evidence-based models of care that have been developed by medical experts.
(Reminder: parliamentarians are not doctors – they are simply unqualified to weigh up the merits of any medical treatment)
It’s also worth pointing out that the way this was presented was incredibly infantilising to young people. Repeatedly centering the parents, and what they think and believe, rather than the individual is incredibly harmful. Family support is key to the wellbeing of trans and gender diverse young people and their transition is about them and happens in the context of medical evidence and guidelines. It should not be about politicians – it’s about trans and gender diverse people.
We are pleased to see that the majority of the Upper House agree that this inquiry was not only unnecessary, but dangerous.
