Lesbian group claim they have legal right to exclude trans women, to prevent discrimination

A gender-critical lesbian group has said they have the right to exclude trans women under anti-discrimination law, for the goal of promoting opportunities for lesbians.

The Victoria-based chapter of Lesbian Action Group (LAG), an organisation associated with the Australian branch of anti-trans organisation LGB Alliance, is appealing a 2023 ruling handed down by Australia’s Human Rights Commission (AHRC) that refused them the right to exclude trans women from their events.

The group had filed a request to the AHRC for a five-year exemption so they could hold events exclusively for “lesbians born female”.

Under the Australian state’s 2010 Equal Opportunity Act, the state of Victoria can grant temporary exemptions to anti-discrimination laws if it can be proved that the exclusion would “help the act’s goal of promoting equal opportunity” and the proposed action was “a reasonable limitation on the right to equality set out in the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities”.

A notable example of such an exemption being granted in the past was in the case of Melbourne’s Peel Hotel, a gay venue which was given the right to refuse entrance to heterosexuals and lesbians. The exemption was later altered to include anyone who upset the “character” of the hotel.

At the time, the LAG’s request was condemned by other lesbian organisations, with Dykes on Bikes describing it as “nothing more than dangerous transphobic rhetoric and hate, causing harm and creating division when we should be united”.

In the end, the human rights commission ruled against the group on the basis that granting the exemption could lead to further exclusion of, and discrimination against, transgender women.

The group subsequently announced they would seek to overturn the ruling via a tribunal – which upheld the original decision – and so now they are appealing it in the Federal Court.

Co-counsel Megan Blake for the LAG, as quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, said the Human Rights Commission does not take issue with heterosexual and homosexual men being excluded from the group’s events and claimed trans women should be considered the same as biological men.

“[Lesbians] are united by one or more common features … mainly biology,” Dr Blake said.

By contrast, the counsel for the commission, Celia Winnett, said the aim of the legislation is to protect many people “on an equal footing”.

“There’s an objective of eliminating discrimination on the basis of gender identity just as much as there is an objective of eliminating sex discrimination,” Winnett said.

LAG spokesperson Nicole Mowbray said it was important for the group to be able to exclude trans women, in order to gain new members.

“Young and emerging lesbians cannot find their people because we’ve been underground in order to keep [biological] males out of our dating pool and our events,” she claimed.

Despite seeking to ban trans women from events, Mowbray said they “don’t hate trans people”.

Mowbray said: “We fully support trans people living their best lives and creating their own spaces and having their own events.

“There’s plenty of trans-only events and that’s fine. We would just like to be afforded the same right.”