There's a war happening over anti-discrimination laws

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While I’m sure all the cool kids hanging down at the malt shop are utterly obsessed with the Sex Discrimination Act (1984), I’m concerned that while conservative politicians like Pauline Hanson and Angus Taylor are doing their utmost and rabid best to attack it, normal folk are thinking about their taxes or the Hacks finale or a good dog they saw once.

Literally anything else. It may be the Sex Discrimination Act, but it’s not particularly sexy, you know, because it’s a law and not two hockey players smooching.

This is a problem because the Sex Discrimination Act protects the entire LGBTQIA+ community and women from discrimination. It’s foundational to our ability to live in Australia without unfair treatment just for being gay or a woman or trans, particularly in areas like work, education, accommodation. It protects people on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex status.

I’d personally be very suspicious and worried about the One Nation and Liberal parties and Christian Lobbies deciding en-masse to weaken those protections. Call me crazy, but I don’t always think they have our community’s best interests at heart?

In this newsletter there are a bunch of ways you can help fight to protect the SDA. And then as a reward, we can read Chloe’s review of the Hacks finale.

A new collective called Not in Our Name (NION) Women Australia has launched, alongside an open letter and campaign inviting women to publicly sign in support of the trans community and to defend the Sex Discrimination Act.

“The vast majority of women support trans people having the same rights and protections as everyone else, but a small minority are spreading fear and hate for their own political gain. We knew that something needed to be done,” says NION spokesperson Kylie Benton-Connell.

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by Patrick Lenton

South Australian Greens MPs walked out of state parliament during One Nation leader Cory Bernardi’s maiden speech to the Legislative Council, after comments he made about transgender people, gender-affirming care and Welcome to Country ceremonies.

During his speech, Bernardi criticised what he described as the “creeping hand of socialism” and said Australia’s “political class” had “squandered our golden opportunities with false ideology and promises”.

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by Patrick Lenton

More people can now donate plasma, including gay men, transgender people, and PrEP users.
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Senator Michaelia Cash has spent senate estimates waving around a photo of Trans Justice Project director Jackie Turner and being very confused about why she was doing it.

The odd stunt came as part of the Coalition’s newfound enthusiasm for demonising the trans community in a transparent attempt to grab votes back from One Nation, with Michaelia Cash using senate estimates to grill the Australian Human Rights Commission in the wake of Giggle v Tickle and the recent Lesbian Action Group ruling.

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by Patrick Lenton

Leviticus stole the show at Sundance. This Australian queer horror film tells the tale of two teenage boys who contend with an evil force that takes the form of the person they desire most: each other.
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There are very few shows that understand women, LGBTQIA+ culture, ageing, ambition, loneliness, creative obsession, love, friendship, and the deeply humiliating psychic damage of being a writer quite like Hacks.

After five seasons, HBO Max’s Hacks has wrapped up what I genuinely think is one of the greatest comedies of the modern television era — not just one of the best shows currently on TV, not one of the best queer comedies, but one of the sharpest, funniest, most emotionally intelligent comedy series we’ve had in a long time.

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by Chloe Sargeant