‘Toughen up buttercup’: One Nation reacts to transgender bill warning
The transgender community has been issued a welfare warning to “steer clear” of a Parliament House protest today. One Nation’s SA leader has harsh advice of his own.
Adelaide’s transgender community has been told to avoid North Terrace’s Parliament House steps today as a rally is held to support a One Nation move to ban puberty blockers in South Australia.
The rally, hosted by the Australian Christian Lobby, will be held on parliament’s steps from 2pm Wednesday, in support of a vote on One Nation SA leader Cory Bernardi’s bill to ban health practitioners from prescribing puberty blockers or gender dysphoria treatment to those aged under 18.
SA Rainbow Advocacy Alliance (SAARA), the state’s LGBTQIA+ peak body, posted to Facebook on Tuesday afternoon telling followers to “steer clear of SA parliament”, listen to the debate “with caution” and to access support if needed.
SAARA CEO Varo Lee told InDaily today that “trans and gender diverse people have incredibly high rates of mental ill health and suicide”, and the group published the warning out of concern for their welfare.
“This is an incredibly vulnerable cohort who have been subject to significant mistreatment, discrimination, and hate in South Australia for years now… seeing messages and signs from people who don’t fundamentally believe you should exist is really damaging to our communities,” Lee said.
Lee said the move to restrict puberty blockers reinforces a “misconception that you can just walk into a doctor’s office and transition instantly, and that’s certainly not the case at all”.
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“To use the criminal law to threaten health practitioners for providing what most people describe as lifesaving, life-changing care that is evidence-based and backed by Australian medical colleges is pretty appalling,” Lee said.
Asked about claims that today’s demonstration was harmful, Bernardi said, “toughen up, buttercup”.
“So someone’s got a different opinion, and you think that’s going to be harmful to you. Well, welcome to the world of politics,” he said.
It comes after the SA One Nation leader was banned from Facebook after receiving “legal threats” over his posting of protest videos featuring school students in early August.
But Bernardi told InDaily today that he has been advised his Facebook page “will be reinstated, because there has been no breach of guidelines”.
About his puberty blocker ban, called the Health Practitioner National Law (South Australia) (Childhood Gender Dysphoria) Amendment Bill, Bernardi said it was about “the welfare of children”.
“If they’re adults, adults can make decisions for themselves. Children deserve the right not to be held back because of catastrophic mistakes that they make as younger people,” Bernardi said.
Bernardi said it was “total BS” that groups like SAARA claimed there were already extensive mental health checks in place for young people seeking puberty blockers, and pointed to news from April that SA’s gender diversity service did not refer 22 children to a psychiatrist.
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The Women’s and Children’s Health Network publicly apologised and ordered a review of the service.
Lee said the Women’s and Children’s Gender Diversity Service has a “rigorous” model that already involves mental health professionals and counselling, and it was “a big if” when it came to assessing whether medical treatment was right for young people.
“What we say when we mean gender affirmation is…ok, you might be experiencing some distress, we still love you, we support you, and we’ll help you work through it in whatever way is right for you; that is, to me, what gender affirmation is, rather than rushing medical treatments onto young people.”
The vote will be held in the Legislative Council on Wednesday afternoon.
InDaily understands Family First MLC Sarah Game, who is attending the rally, will vote in support of One Nation’s bill, as will Liberal MLC Ben Hood.
The Liberal Party is treating it as a conscience vote, meaning each member votes individually rather than on a policy position. The Greens and the Labor party are expected to oppose it.
Greens SA Leader Robert Simms said it was “disgusting that a health issue is being weaponised in this way”.
“Like many people in our community, I was appalled to see Cory Bernardi on the steps of parliament a few weeks ago filming young people and ridiculing them on social media. I can understand why people would feel concerned about going near the steps of parliament at this time.
“It’s a really sad indictment of our politics that people are being made to feel unsafe. Everyone should feel safe and included in our community, and safe and welcome at our parliament house.”
QLife: 1800 184 527 qlife.org.au
Lifeline: 13 11 14, lifeline.org.au
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