Scott Morrison praises campaigns to block trans people from single-sex sports competition
FILE PHOTO © Getty Images / Marc Atkins
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that he “shared” the views of women’s rights advocates Katherine Deves and Claire Chandler on whether transgender people should be barred from single-sex sporting events, commending their “bravery” at a Monday press conference.
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Morrison praised Deves, a Liberal candidate he has backed for a seat in Warringa, for raising the “very important issues,” and commended Liberal Senator Chandler for being “outspoken and brave on these issues,” in both cases referring to the pair’s efforts to allow sports organizations to legally block trans women from competing in women’s sporting contests.
The PM stopped short of explicitly revealing his own opinion, however, telling a reporter who’d asked if he would act to ban trans women from competing against cis women in sports that he felt he had already conveyed his “personal view” and that he would have “more to say about that another time.” He has also denied that the women’s campaign had “[any]thing to do with the broader gender debates,” arguing it was “just about common sense and what’s right.”
Morrison has previously expressed support for women athletes in the face of the trans lobby, backing a private member’s bill put forth by Chandler in February to change the Sex Discrimination Act to offer legal protection to sports groups that segregate on the basis of biological sex. He called the legislation “terrific” and boasted that he had given her “great encouragement.” Deves founded the group Save Women’s Sport, whose website states that while everyone has the right to play sports, “no one has the right to play in any category they choose.”
Existing Australian law prohibits discriminating against trans athletes who wish to compete in female sporting competitions, an issue that has grown more fraught as male-born athletes break records previously held by their female-born competitors and dominate school sporting leagues. Chandler’s legislation would allow sports leagues to ban transgender athletes.
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The culture war over LGBTQ athletes in competition is raging in Australia and elsewhere, with one in three voters who identifies thus considering changing their vote in the coming election.
However, advocates have warned against either pandering to the demographic or taking it for granted. Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown has urged political parties to “commit to governing for all Australians, and to ensuring that every person in Australia can live their life,” rather than use the LGBTQ demographic as a “political football.”
