PROTECT WOMEN'S SEX-BASED SPACES

For generations, women have fought for the right to have spaces where they can feel safe, protected and free from male presence. These spaces did not exist by accident.

Women fought for them because biological sex can matter.

It matters in women's refuges.

It matters in prisons.

It matters in changing rooms and bathrooms.

It matters in women's shelters and support services.

It matters in sport.

It matters in healthcare.

And for women who have experienced male violence or sexual trauma, it can matter profoundly.

Australia has recognised in law that sex and gender identity are distinct grounds of protection, while also providing specific circumstances in which sex-based distinctions can be lawful. The Sex Discrimination Act itself contains provisions concerning services for members of one sex and other exemptions.

We believe those protections must remain meaningful. This petition is not a call for transgender people to be denied dignity, safety or basic human rights. It is a call for the Australian Government to recognise that women's rights and transgender rights can coexist without eliminating sex-based spaces for women. A woman's right to privacy should not disappear because society is trying to accommodate another person's gender identity. A woman fleeing domestic or sexual violence should be able to access a female-only refuge if she needs one. A woman should be able to access female-only facilities where sex separation is necessary for privacy, safety or dignity.

Female athletes should be able to raise legitimate questions about sex-based sporting categories without being silenced.

Women in prisons should not lose access to sex-based protections simply because the concept of biological sex has become politically difficult to discuss. And women should never be told that asking for female-only spaces makes them hateful.

It does not.

There is a difference between respecting an individual's identity and redefining every space, service and protection that was created specifically because of biological sex.

We can protect transgender Australians from discrimination. We can treat transgender people with dignity.

We can oppose violence and harassment against transgender people.

And we can still protect women's sex-based rights.  These principles are not mutually exclusive. The women who came before us spent generations fighting to make sure that being female did not mean being invisible, powerless or without a voice.

They fought for women to participate in public life.

They fought for equal treatment.

They fought against discrimination.

They fought for protections that recognised women's particular circumstances.

They fought so that future generations of girls could live with greater freedom and security than the generations before them.

We should not discard those protections without an open, evidence-based public discussion about the consequences.

OUR REQUEST TO THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT

We call upon the Australian Government to:

1. Protect the continued existence of lawful female-only spaces and services where sex-based separation is necessary for privacy, safety, dignity, safeguarding or fairness.

2. Ensure that women and girls can advocate for sex-based rights without being subjected to discrimination, intimidation or silencing.

3. Preserve meaningful legal recognition of biological sex in areas where sex is materially relevant.

4. Ensure that women's refuges, prisons, sporting categories, changing facilities, healthcare services and other sex-specific environments can establish appropriate female-only provisions where justified.

5. Ensure that policies concerning sex and gender identity are developed transparently, with women and girls meaningfully consulted about decisions that affect their rights, privacy, safety and equality.

6. Protect the right of Australians to discuss these issues respectfully and democratically without being characterised as hateful simply for raising questions about sex-based rights.

This petition is not asking the Government to take rights away from transgender Australians.

It is asking the Government to protect women's rights too.

Because equality should not mean that women's sex-based protections become optional.

Because inclusion should not require the exclusion of women's voices.

Because protecting one group should not require another group to surrender the spaces created for its safety, privacy and dignity. And because after generations of women fighting to have their rights recognised, women should not have to fight to have those rights remain meaningful.

Protect women's spaces.

Protect women's privacy.

Protect women's safety.

Protect women's right to speak.

Women deserve rights that remain rights.