Alex Greenwich ‘equality’ omnibus bill 2023

The ‘omnibus’ bill of Alex Greenwich will be tabled in the NSW Parliament tomorrow, Thursday 24 August, although he has still not released it for public viewing. On 22/08/2023 the House resolved to separate the 3 parts of his bill into the:

1. Variation in Sex Characteristics (Restricted Medical Treatment) Bill 2023
2. Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023
3. Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2023

The first bill is relevant to people with intersex variations, which CoAL cannot comment on as we have not seen the text of the proposed bill, so it may benefit that group of people and it does not seem to be about matters that would affect lesbians.

The second and third are of great concern to lesbians. They promote men’s rights, not those of lesbians or gay men., and certainly not equal rights.  They will legalise gender self-ID, ie, the legal acceptance and enforcement of the fiction that a person can change sex through claiming a ‘gender’ different from their biological sex. Gender is not sex and never can be.

Gender self-ID robs us of our sex-based rights. Gender self-ID allows men to claim to be women/lesbians and invade our precious male-free spaces. It has prevented lesbian-only events being held in South Australia and Tasmania. The Tickle vs Giggle case being fought in the Federal court is over whether men can access a women only online site that includes a lesbian dating facility. It allows men to coerce lesbians into having sex with them. It allows them to invade women’s and girls’ sports games, giving them an unfair advantage so they can rob us of our medals and competitive sporting achievements. It allows sexual predators to be housed in women’s prisons where they can carry out more sexual assaults.

According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, the proposed legislation will also allow courts to issue a parentage order for children born out of commercial surrogacy. It is currently illegal to carry out commercial surrogacy and this bill will open the gates for the overseas surrogacy trade that exploits women, especially poor women.

It robs us of free speech to say that we don’t believe that men can become women and results in expensive and drawn out litigation taken against us for speaking the truth and asserting biological reality and what used to be the basis of  our sex-based rights.

The gender conversion bill is a Trojan horse that uses horrific gay and lesbian conversion practices of the past to prevent medical and psychotherapeutic support for people who are suffering from the mistaken belief they are ‘born in the wrong body’. The reality is that this bill would promote conversion—the conversion of lesbians and gay men to facsimiles of heterosexuality.

ACTION YOU CAN TAKE!

1. Sign the petition: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/protect-the-sex-based-rights-of-people-in-new
2. Write to any/all of the following members of parliament register your concerns (the more we do this, the more they will pay attention). Michael Daly is a priority. See the sample letter below.

• Maroubra (Michael Daley, ALP, Attorney-General, Legislative Assembly Trustee, Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Fund—English, Aust, Chinese, Irish, Greek)
• Rockdale (Steve Kamper ALP, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Lands and Property, Minister for Multiculturalism, and Minister for Sport, English, Aust, Chinese, Greek, Lebanese))
• Kogarah (Premier Chris Minns, ALP—Chinese, English, Aust, Greek, Nepalese))
• Canterbury (ALP Sophie Kotsis, Minister for Industrial Relations, and for Work Health and Safety—reported electorate ancestry is Greek)
• Bankstown ALP (Jihad Dib, Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government, for Emergency Services, and for Youth Justice–Lebanese, Australian, Chinese reported ancestries)
• Auburn ALP (Lynda Voltz, –Chinese, Nepalese, Turkish)
• Fairfield ALP (David Saliba, –Assyrian Christians & other Iraqis, Latin American)
• Strathfield ALP (Jason Yat-Sen Li, –Chinese, Indian, English).
• Campbelltown ALP (Greg Warren, Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Premier, Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Early Learning, and Parliamentary Secretary for Western Sydney—Aust, English, Indian, Irish)
• Liverpool ALP (Ms Charishma Kaliyanda, – Aust, English, Indian, Lebanese, Italian)
• Cabramatta (Mr Tri Vo, ALP—Vietnamese, Chinese, Khmer)
• Macquarie Fields ALP (Anoulack Chanthivong (male). Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, Minister for Building, and Minister for Corrections—Aust, English, Indian, Irish, Scottish)
• Mount Druitt ALP (Edmond ATALLA, Parliamentary Secretary for Police and Counter-terrorism—Aust, English, Filipino, Indian, Irish)
• Blacktown (Stephen Bali, ALP, Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and Public Spaces–Indian, Filipino, Chinese)
• East Hills ALP (marginal seat) (Kylie Wilkinson, ALP—Aust, English, Irish, Chinese,
• Londonderry (Prudence Car, ALP, Deputy Premier, Minister for Education and Early Learning, Minister for Western Sydney, and Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education—Aust, England, Malta, NZ, Netherlands)
• Parramatta (Donna Davis, ALP, Temporary Speaker—Indian, Chines, Australian, English, Lebanese)
• Leppington (Nathan Hagarty, ALP—Aust, English, Italian, Chinese, Lebanese)
• Granville (Julia Finn, ALP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier, and Parliamentary Secretary for the Arts—Aust, India, Lebanon, China, Afghanistan, Phillipines)
• Riverstone (Warren Kirby, ALP—Aust, English, Indian, Filipino, Irish)
• Prospect – (Hugh McDermott, ALP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney General—Aust, English, Indian, Chinese, Maltese)
• Penrith (marginal seat) (Karen McKeown, ALP—Aust, English, Irish, Scottish. Aboriginal, Maltese)
• Camden (marginal seat) (Sally Quinnell, ALP—English, India, NZ, Philipines, Iraq)
• Monaro ALP Steve Whan (marginal seat)
• South Coast ALP Liza Butler (marginal seat)
• For other electorates in regional NSW where you may live—please let me know where your action will be.

Sample letter [modify as you wish–a short note posted in the mail is as important as a long letter/email]

Dear —

I’m a constituent/voter living in [suburb], and [(anything else about yourself that would appeal to the politician, eg, you vote/used to vote for their party and why]. I am concerned about the basic human rights for women and girls that are under threat from the so-called ‘Equality’ Bill presented by Alex Greenwich in the NSW Legislative Assembly.

No public consultation has been given prior to tabling of the proposed legislation; it’s all been done behind closed doors with only selected LGBTQ+ groups who do not represent lesbian (or gay men’s) interests.

This legislation would legalise the unfair and untrue belief that it is possible for a person to change their sex because it confuses biological sex with an unscientific concept of gender that has never been clearly defined. Gender is not sex and never can be.

The proposed legislation will legalise gender self-ID, ie, the legal acceptance and enforcement of the fiction that a person can change sex through claiming a ‘gender’ different from their biological sex. We do not know if the proposed bill will allow a person to choose a gender more than once. If so, will there be a limit imposed? Would the act of ‘affirming’ someone’s new gender identity be a criminal offence because it will constitute an attempt to change their gender identity from their old one?

Gender self-ID robs us of our sex-based rights. Gender self-ID allows men to claim to be women/lesbians and invade our precious male-free spaces that protect us from male harassment and violence. It allows men to coerce lesbians into having sex with them. It allows them to invade women’s and girls’ sports games, giving them an unfair advantage so they can rob us of our medals, and competitive sporting achievements, and weaken incentives to promote women and girls into sporting activity and a healthy active lifestyle. It allows sexual predators to be housed in women’s prisons where they can carry out more sexual assults.

It robs us of free speech to say that we don’t believe that men can become women and results in expensive and drawn out litigation taken against us for speaking the truth and asserting biological reality and what used to be the basis of  our sex-based rights.

Moreover, this bill allows courts to issue a parentage order for children born out of commercial surrogacy. It is currently illegal to carry out commercial surrogacy and this bill will open the gates for the overseas surrogacy trade that exploits women, especially poor women.

Yours sincerely