Steve found a link at the salt shakers site stating that the Australian Human Rights Commission is doing a consultation to find if people can be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.
Anyone can take part in the consultation.
Here are the questions that are asked and what Steve has written. We encourage many Australians to go and comment at the consultation and have your say.
1. What benefit would there be in federal anti-discrimination laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and sex and/or gender identity?
There would be of no benefit to the majority of Australians. It would complicate the legal system even further and would all be based on something so trivial as sexual orientation. How does one even prove a persons sexual orientation? Does this mean that I can now take legal action if I don't get that job because of my sexual orientation?
2. What benefit would there be in federal law prohibiting vilification and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and sex and/or gender identity?
There would be no benefit. We already have laws which protect and provide compensation for those who are harassed or abused in any way. A person's sexual orinetation is generally an unknown quantity and can not be proven. If we create laws based on sexual orientation, why not create laws prohibiting harassment of those who are orientated towards a particular football team?
3. Can you provide examples of situations where federal protections from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or sex and/or gender identity are needed because state and territory laws do not provide adequate protections?
No, but society needs to be protected from sexual orientation laws. Lets imagine two men wanted to rent a single room together for the night but the hotel owner thought this was inappropriate since the room only had one double bed. Could the owner of the hotel be sued because he refused to rent the room to these two men? Anti discrimination laws based on sexual orientation would force the owner to either go against his conscience or be faced with court procedings.
4. Have you experienced discrimination because of your sexual orientation or sex and/or gender identity for which there is no legal protection?
No. How would people even know what my sexual orientation is unless I told them.
5. Have you experienced vilification or harassment because of your sexual orientation or sex and/or gender identity for which there is no legal protection?
No. How would people even know what my sexual orientation is unless I told them.
6. What terminology should be used in federal anti-discrimination legislation if protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is to be included?
Just as some people talk about people having a sex change we should also mention those who want to have a sexual orientation change. There are many who are same sex attracted but would like to have a sexual orientation change back to a heterosexual orientation.
7. What terminology should be used in federal anti-discrimination legislation if protection from discrimination on the basis of sex and/or gender identity is to be included?
Gender confusion is a term which comes to my mind.
What are the advantages or disadvantages of the terms used in state and territory laws, including: gender identity; chosen gender; gender history; a gender reassigned person; or a recognised transgender person; or transexuality?
Bodily compatibility is a term I'm thinking. A man and a woman's body is designed for sexual intimacy.
Should protection from discrimination be provided if a person has or appears to have the characteristics of any gender?
No.
8. What terminology should be used to ensure that people who identify as intersex are protected from discrimination in federal law? Should the term ‘intersex’ be used? Should protection from discrimination on the basis of ‘sex’ include people who are of ‘indeterminate sex’?
It's hard to take this question seriously.
9. What special measures designed to benefit specific groups based on sexual orientation and sex and/or gender identity should be allowed by federal anti-discrimination law?
I think those who do suffer from a same sex orientation should be offered help and programs developed to re assign their orientation to a heterosexual orientation if they so wish.
10. What other actions would you like to see the Australian Government take to better protect and promote the rights of LGBTI people in Australia?
All Australians have the same rights regardless of how they label themselves. Keep in mind that even those with a same sex orientation can get married they just can't marry someone of the same sex.
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8. What terminology should be used to ensure that people who identify as intersex are protected from discrimination in federal law? Should the term ‘intersex’ be used? Should protection from discrimination on the basis of ‘sex’ include people who are of ‘indeterminate sex’?
It's hard to take this question seriously
Why? Somewhere between 3-4% of all Australians are Intersex. Not all are indeterminate, Most who are have some form of surgical procedure forced on them as infants.
Pediatric gender assignment - where a child's genitalia are surgically reconstructed in the belief that so-called 'gender identity' is dependent on the appearance of genitalia, is routine - often with detrimental consequences.
These procedures have no medical value. They are conducted solely to enforce cultural conformity, exactly the reason female genital mutilation is performed.
Suggest you spend a little time finding out about your culture's attitude and treatment of Intersex.
You might perhaps gain some wider comprehension of the issues involved, and lose some white middle class catholic smugness at the same time!
Jo,
Thanks for setting me straight on this issue.
The science of biology tells us that males have two sex chromosmomes (XY), while females have two sex chromosmes (XX).
From what I understand you have been saying is that some new born males have been altered surgically to appear female. I assume that this type of surgery is conducted because the genitals are non existent or have not formed properly.
Kiaora Steve
This understanding is not quite correct. Here is the definition OII Australia/NZ uses in its official submissions.
The term Intersex was adopted by science in the 20th century, and applied to human beings whose biological sex cannot be classified as clearly male or female. An intersex person may have the biological attributes of both sexes or lack some of the biological attributes considered necessary to be defined as one or other sex. Intersex is always congenital and can originate from genetic, chromosomal or hormonal variations. Environmental influences such as endocrine disruptors can also play a role in some intersex differences. The term is not applicable to situations where individuals deliberately alter their own anatomical characteristics.
Until very recently it has been common-place for surgeons to feminise the genitalia of babies born with micro-penis (2.5 mm or less) and raise them as females.
The practice was only abandoned when they found that injecting testosterone directly into the organ increased its size.
The XX - XY model of maleness and femaleness overly simplistic. There are examples of individuals with XY chromosomes conceiving and giving birth by natural means!
Steve, if you would like to contact me via the email form on the OII-NZ site, I will happily provide you with some resources on this topic.
meantime you could do worse than read this:
http://oiiaustralia.com/10530/oped-neoeugenics-war-human-biological-diversity/
Cheers.
Thanks for the information Jo.
There are some things I was completeley unaware of.
The suggestion that human rights are somehow arbitrary, or subject to opinion polls and questionnaires, rather than self-evident realities derived from natural law is ludicrous.
Human rights are those things that are universal, held by every human being who ever has lived or ever will live.
The rights don't change. The rights are bedrock principles to be applied in changing times.
There is no credible, known record of intersex, transexuals or any other alternative to simply being male or female in the earliest recorded times. Therefore, the rights of individuals who identify themselves as anything other than male or female are exactly the same as the rights that apply to male and female.
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