LGBTQ+ advocates are calling for stronger legal protections after the largest survey of transgender and gender-diverse Australians revealed harassment and violence towards the community is widespread and escalating rapidly.
In the past 12 months, one in two trans Australians have experienced some form of hate and one in 10 experienced violence, the report Fuelling Hate – put together by the Trans Justice Project and the Victorian Pride Lobby – revealed.
Compiling data from over 3,099 survey responses, including 1,309 people in the trans community, the report is the largest-ever project investigating anti-trans hate in Australia.
It also looked at the prevalence of anti-trans hate online, with nine out of 10 respondents saying they had seen hateful messages or comments online in the past 12 months.
Jackie Turner, the director of the Trans Justice Project, said the results were “harrowing” and showed violence towards gender-diverse Australians “was escalating”.
“This is a really clear snapshot of what our community is experiencing right now,” she said.
The report found that anti-trans hate is intensifying over time, with eight in 10 participants reporting an increase in online anti-trans hate in the past three years, with a spike directly correlating with the national tour of the anti-trans lobbyist Kellie-Jay Keen in March.
On top of seeing abusive language online, trans participants described experiencing real-life aggressions, from dirty looks and picture-taking to deliberate misgendering and, in some cases, violence.
One trans woman recounted an instance of an attacker beating her over the back of the head with a tree branch and breaking several ribs. Another recounted how an assailant repeatedly tried to run her down with their car.
Navindra Alexander, a trans woman based in Brisbane, said she and her friends were attacked when they were in Sydney for World Pride.
“This group of men that came over and instigated the fight,” she said. “They were recording us, and very intentionally trying to start something.
“It turned into a big thing where they were yelling Bible verses at us and trying to taunt us. It very quickly then unfolded into a full-on fist fight.”
Alexander said the attack in March was “definitely not an isolated event”, with an increase in violence directed at the trans community.
“That level of violence has always been there for our community,” she said.
“But because trans people and the LGBTQ+ community are constantly being put in the media under a microscope in a negative light, it’s creating a lot of confusion within the more widespread community. It’s causing a lot of misdirected anger being put towards us.”
Turner called on federal and state governments to introduce anti-vilification laws to protect the community.
She said they also wanted to see more work done to combat online hate and investigate community-led interventions to curb anti-LGBTQ+ extremism, as wellas de-radicalisation approaches.
Currently, there are no laws in Victoria, South Australia or Western Australia protecting LGBTQ+ people from vilification, which covers inciting hatred in the public sphere, whether online or on the steps of parliament.
Every jurisdiction in Australia has various degrees of anti-discrimination legislation based on sexuality or gender in workplaces, schools and service settings, but advocates say they are patchy and have broad exemptions, especially for religious organisations.
“Trans people deserve to thrive, to feel safe in our communities, and have the freedom to be ourselves,” Turner said.
“But right now our lives are under attack. The fuelling of hate by the anti-trans lobby has to be stopped.”
On Tuesday, Victorian attorney-general, Jaclyn Symes, revealed promised anti-vilification laws that include protections for sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability and HIV/AIDS status would not be before parliament until 2024.
Symes said changing the state’s anti-vilification laws was “incredibly complex” – pointing to criticism that existing laws prohibiting religious and racial intolerance are “not working” for multicultural communities.
Victorian Greens MP and the party’s LGBTIQA+ spokesperson, Gabrielle de Vietri, accused the government of “kick[ing] the can down the road for far too long.”
