I agree, people say Australia is different but we ve seen how quickly countries can fall to fascism and bigotry with the support of judges as we ve seen in terf island.

The fact that a puberty ban was even allowed in the first place without evidence is a sign of this, not just in QLD but in NT now too so its spreading by the far right wackos parties

And Albo as we ve seen is just your generic centrist do nothing politician who doesnt have strong positions in such things

It’s right to be worried, we can’t just pretend that what’s happening in other countries won’t happen here.

But another thing to remember is that unlike America and the UK we have compulsory voting, meaning that these scare mongering political tactics to encourage people to vote is just not effective here. We all have to vote and these radical positions are kind of unpopular with the average Australian. Dutton tried importing the American culture war bullshit here and it not only cost the libs the election but also lost them a shit ton of seats in parliament (Including Dutton’s own seat). Most Australians don’t have a strong opinion on trans people specifically, but I would say that most Australians dislike culture war bullshit as it’s seen as another part of Americanisation (which many Australian across the political spectrum dislike).

Another thing to note is that in a poll run back in march of last year, almost 9 out of 10 Australians polled did not want trans issues used for political gain.

I personally believe that we are currently in one of the safest countries to be in regarding trans rights. This does not mean that we have nothing to worry about or that it can’t change mind you, but there is hope. I would encourage you to try and meet some other trans people irl if you can, I know that it’s hard especially in this day and age but connection is important and we need to support each other.

I'm a Queensland transwoman. If there is a bathroom law I will break it be arrested and go to jail. Bad laws deserve to be defied.

I’m worried about this as a trans American who just accepted a job in Melbourne- for myself and my kids. Though I do know Victoria is more progressive than NT and NSW…

It is worrying what’s happening here in QLD and the NT but mostly it’s just a flex of state power to grab what little support from right wing voters they can and just today it’s been raised to the high court in QLD I believe. We don’t have the same legal system/corruption like the US that allow for belligerent abuse of powers when it comes to rewriting legislation against minorities anti trans rhetoric is not popular here (yet and I doubt it will gain traction) due to Australia having a greater level of education unlike the US that has actively been defunding it for the past decade so the general population can see beyond the division politics of the topic. Albo is centrist but the labor party as a whole dosnt really sway the direction of division politics and can kind of be guaranteed to go against it or ignore it. While everyone with access to the internet is unfortunately exposed to the politics and divisional tactics of the US system I hope to believe that Australians can see that regardless of what they say it isn’t working for them and would prefer to not go down that path and as we are all required to vote I can’t see any party taking that route with out imploding think of Duttons final moments and the collapse of the coalition as they begun to try rub shoulders with trumps politics. Call it copeium but I hope the Supreme Court does something about this.

Our system of government and our electoral system are very different from the UK or US, and the two states where transphobia have taken hold have weird systems of government. We won't see federal changes because of that.

Yes, Albo's a centrist fuckwit, but a centrist fuckwit who doesn't give a shit either way is better than a conservative fuckwit. And our electoral system rewards centrism - everyone has to vote, and he has to beat out a lot of minor parties that better reflect what people on the edge of the political spectrum want. Remember that the UK and US systems are built so the favourite candidate wins, but our system has the candidate that everyone finds the most bearable winning.

And remember the LNP is absolutely floundering at the moment. They're genuinely powerless and on the verge of collapse. I'm from SA and we've got an election this year, and we've had some polls predict that the LNP will have two seats in the lower house. Two. And in our upper house the "opposition" is in reality the crossbench, not the LNP. Most people can't even name the leader of the LNP here, while Mali is ridiculously popular for being as centrist as he is. And part of the reason they're floundering is they tried to go the American conservative route and try some transphobia, and people resoundingly rejected it.

There's also cultural differences in play here too. People do often note that we're a more private culture than people expect, and we tend to react strongly when people try to pry or control ours or other's private lives. It's why we see things like "partner" as a common term here - you don't get to know whether or not I'm married, what are you, a cop?

I never expected the puberty blocker ban to happen here, but overall, I'm pretty confident we won't get quite as bad as America. NSW finally allowed gender markers to be changed without surgery.

I'm also upset at the centrist nature of certain members of the labour party, the ban on protests is gross and unwarranted. Also worried about certain parties run by redheads getting 1-2 more seats across Australia thanks to the rise in anti-immigration sentiment (and Bondi...) but I do think we're still heading in the right direction on trans rights at least.

The concern in Australia is that compulsory and preferential voting are acts of parliament not constitutionally mandated. True, it wouid require a conservative majority in the senate and lower house to change that system. But then I look at the UK, and the erasure of trans rights is being pursued by a Labor government. In Australia , Albanese’s cautious centrism sometimes resembles a potential “Keir Starmer lite” approach to LGBTIQ rights.

The second concern, even in a more progressive Victoria, is that so many advances / protections are legislatively state-based. Conservative election wins in the states (such as in Queensland and NT), can see those advances erased just as easily.

I live in hope. I have to because despondency makes it hard to face each day. And Australia is one of the safest nations as things stand. But the international tsunami of the far right anti+trans agenda looms like a shadow in the back of my mind. I try not to dwell on it. But some days………the news and social media make that unavoidable.

I guess just generally, the world seems a less safe, less certain kind of place these days.

Yeah, you should be worried, I am. Just gotta try and change things now while you can and prepare for the worst of things go further south.

I know I can't offer much here but I'm with you, I hope we don't backslide like the US/UK. 

I really do hope it doesnt get worse, but i have seen little things here and there over the last 6-12months, eg recently pathology results reverting to sex assigned and birth (even though all my dr records, pathology request with my updated markers and medicare being updated for years) which has then resulted in misleading pathology "out of range" recommendations. Life blood donation forms and questionaires being updated to sex (yes understand why its there but not ideal seeing it on all the documentation, especially as previously it had gender with sex recorded in the system) and the addition of all the additional sex risk questions.

I mean we should be less stressed about federal politicals and more for our respective states tbh. I meam Vic has some of the strongest trans rights and protections of any state. However, weve had a GC head of health pop up, and GC human rights commissioner come to and well eventually see them roll back our rights from positions that are supposed to protect us from being discriminated against.

What concerns me is that there are people like Moira Deeming. If they get put into government, who knows what they'll do for transgender people, both the youth and adults.

I am watching what happens here and if they try to stop me accessing my HRT through a pharmacy, I will be buying various HRT raws instead. I have the resources to make my own HRT and medicate myself.

My corrected birth certs legal sex doesn't matter. I will simply exist with an illegal sex. Fcuck 'em. Nobody and nothing is going to stop me.

Hi, I get your concern, I really do. There are, of course, quite a few steps between where we are in Australia and where the US and UK are. Be thankful, though, that for some of these arguments, the law (federal) has been more recently on our side, ruling that trans people are the gender they say they are. (https://www.fedcourt.gov.au/services/access-to-files-and-transcripts/online-files/giggle-for-girls-v-roxanne-tickle) This case has been appealed, but it is unclear whether the federal court or the high court will hear the case for appeal. Given the statements of the judge in the previous ruling, if it does a different outcome would be, I think unlikely. The other thing is Queensland and the NT governments can only not fund blockers for public patients, they can't stop private patients getting blockers, estrogen, etc. their is literally nothing they can do about that (otherwise they’d ban it for all women and that’s electoral suicide in Australia thankfully). Note their are gender clinics doing their best to get the public patients on their books and cover their care while the government does this, if you have some spare money would be great if you could send it their way. If you have been able to change your birth certificate (I think almost all states/territories now allow this) the law would be very much on your side as legally you are definitely a insert gender here. Doubt that could change easily. That being said this, might be where the bigots go next, so would be great idea to do this if you can asap. In terms of political parties, the Greens ran Tara Burnett a trans woman so they have that going for them; I know a number of trans members of Labor who are very much trying to get them more vocally trans positive; a number of independent and minor parties have vocally supported trans rights; surprisingly enough their are some even vocal voices in the liberal party but they aren’t as loud since the marriage equality debate.

It’s in the air atm sadly…

In the greater country it is harder to back track trans rights, with 6 of our nine parliaments being bicameral. The ACT, NT, and QLD parliaments can be more easily shifted to one political viewpoint because of their unicameral nature. Because if a conservative party gains a majority in their one house of parliament, there is no second house that can stop them.

While what is happening in QLD is worrying they can do a bathroom ban. That would violate the Sex Discrimination 1984 Act (Cth), which is a federal act and above QLD’s law making powers to change.

If they did enact a law that broke this act, a court case that could go to the High Court (and likely win) would have the law repealed.

We also saw in 2025 that the Australian populous do not want more Trump like leaders, with the Liberals and Nationals losing multiple seats in the election.

Hard political shifts outside the centre have a very hard time of getting multiple seats because of our voting system in which central parties are often ranked higher that parties that extremely shift towards the right or left.

Additionally because of how the law making powers of federal parliament are outlined in the Australian Constitution, the Commonwealth Parliament can never pass a law banning medicine for a specific group of people without the medicine actually being dangerous. Healthcare laws are primarily the purview of the states and territories.

So while things are scary now they will get better. It is also a matter of time before blocker bans are challenged in court for violating medical laws surrounding bodily autonomy and such, or like not having any evidence for them being harmful, or discriminatory if their only banned for one specific group of people.

TLDR The courts can strike down blocker bans for discrimination.

i can’t speak for qld because i don’t live there anymore (im a qlder) but victoria has been a champion for trans rights and now allows gender diverse people to change name/gender for free since about 3 months ago? as a nation i don’t think we will go backwards, qld im a little worried about (hence why i changed my details the other day, in case they try to ban it)

Just a reminder that Australia has very different jurisprudence than the UK or USA.

There is a long line of Australian High Court decisions going all the way back to 2002 that recognise medical and social transition as a change of sex, not just of gender.

That doesn't prevent some type of backsliding like puberty blocker bans or hostile prison policy.

But it does make some of the worst measures from the UK or USA like bathroom bans and ID reversions all but impossible.

And there's more to it than that. Australians for all the limitations of this country tend to believe in a "fair go" and object to laws and socially policies that clearly make life unliveable for minority groups.

Those social attitudes are why - in spite of great energy being expended by the anti trans lobby in Australia - they've mostly failed at taking away our human rights.