Reminder that Labor plays politics and would rather see more people homeless than work with the Greens who want to negotiate in good faith to fix the housing crisis.
After two weeks of backlash after dropping any gender/sexuality questions, Labor has gone back to its original plan: actually following its own policy platform.
Including LGBT people in the census helps provide valuable data to improve policy and service delivery to LGBT people.
While it's frustrating Labor showed willingness to drop LGBT at ease (and Albo's poor attempt at compromising by only including sexuality, not gender) it is at least good to show that enough public backlash can convince them to act better. Remember everyone: if enough people work together we can push the government into action.
Though intersex variations unfortunately still won't be included because the ABS deemed that to be too technically complex for high quality data to be gathered. The government said they'd work with the intersex community to figure out ways of gathering information in other ABS surveys. I hope they actually follow through with that so follow queer advocacy groups like Equality Australia to keep up to date with campaigns to push for better LGBTQIA+ policy so we know if they try and back out of that promise too.
To be recognised as a gender other than the one assigned at birth in Western Australia you require surgery or medical intervention like HRT. You then have to apply to a board, who judges if you should/shouldn't be legally recognised as your gender. This is, obviously, complicated and a harmful barrier to trans people. Also being non-binary is not a legally recognised gender identity in Western Australia - while almost everywhere else in Australia allows this.
Transgender rights groups have been calling for reforms like abolishing the Gender Reassignment Board for several years now. Thing is: WA Labor said they'd abolish the Gender Reassignment Board before the 2017 election. They won in 2017 then again in 2021 and have control of BOTH chambers meaning they could pass literally anything they wanted whenever they wanted but have chosen to ignore this issue.
WA is lagging behind on reforms and, unlike other states, there's literally nothing stopping Labor from acting. It's up to us to make it clear to them that this is not some issue they can casually ignore - it matters and it needs to be fixed this year.
If you live in Western Australia then contact the following Ministers:
Premier Roger Cook:
Attorney General John Quigley:
Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson:
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And also tell others to contact them as well! WA Labor CAN get this done!
Ah fuck I just realised a typo in "reassignment" on the meme... why didn't anyone tell me?
And also, have you sent an email yet? Have you sent a second one to follow up on the issue?
So many Greens policies are just Labor policies that Labor dropped. Getting rid of negative gearing? Labor under Bill Shorten wanted that just recently. Dental in Medicare? That's a Gough Whitlam policy he didn't have time to enact! The Greens are currently fighting for a massive amount of affordable housing to be built and protect renters - like John Curtin! Labor had more renter-friendly policies in the 1930s than it does now and in that vacuum of progressive policy comes the Greens to fix it.
The Greens aren't radical. Labor abandoning sensible ideas that help ordinary people is radical.
If you're progressive and like Labor - no you don't, you like the Greens and you're just pretending Labor is what it used to be before it gave up.
While we're campaigning for there to be better gender recognition laws in Western Australia by contacting and pressuring WA Labor to follow through on its promises from 2017 we should also remember that Sophia Moermond from the Legalise Cannabis party is a TERF who supports right wing radicals. While it is important to vote for a strong crossbench and we absolutely should legalise cannabis, you should check the candidates not just go "oh, nice party name." The Greens are already a good progressive alternative to Labor that also want to legalise cannabis while also protecting trans people.
