Page 1377 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 12 May 2021
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young people who participated in the survey said they felt unsafe and uncomfortable at school due to their sexuality or gender identity and less than a quarter felt that they could safely use bathrooms at their school. Further, only 60 per cent felt that they could safely use their chosen name or pronouns and only 65 per cent felt that they could safely wear clothes that match their gender identity. Those stats are shameful. They show that the ACT government has more to do.
Encouraging schools to support students in affirming their gender will allow students to feel safe, supported and accepted in their educational environment. Supporting school staff so that they best know how to assist their trans and gender diverse students goes a long way to making these kids feel welcome. We need to continue ensuring that all our schools’ physical environments promote inclusivity and allow young people to feel comfortable at school because no child can learn effectively in an environment where they do not feel safe.
One Nation’s proposed bill being moved by Mr Latham would effectively prohibit supporting or recognising trans and gender diverse students in the New South Wales education system. It would put teachers at risk of losing their accreditation and their jobs if they were to even acknowledge that trans and gender diverse people existed. It would mean that school counsellors could be fired for having a conversation with a student experiencing gender identity issues. Where these counsellors could once help and comfort these students, they would now have to remain silent and turn vulnerable students away. Even sympathetic teachers would be forced into deadnaming a student, pretending that their identity does not exist.
Kids experiencing gender dysphoria would have nowhere to turn to for help, no-one to talk to and no-one to hear them. As Mr Latham stated in his second reading speech:
My bill outlaws gender fluidity teaching, course development and teacher training and ends the accreditation, and thus the employment, of any individual breaking that law.
What sort of behaviour would this encourage? If teachers are not able to acknowledge a trans kid’s identity, how would other students react? We have all been through school and we all know that school is not the easiest time for everyone, but it is particularly difficult and tough for LGBTIQ students. As legislators, as leaders, we have a responsibility to look out for these kids and support them where we can and speak out when others will not.
Mr Latham’s bill enables bullying, plain and simple. Our schools should be teaching kindness, respect and tolerant attitudes towards every student, regardless of their gender identity. The children who will be impacted by these horrific changes live so close to us, just over the border. Many residents of the ACT region move between the New South Wales and ACT education systems as they age. They deserve to be afforded the same respect and rights, regardless of the education system. But Mr Latham’s bill threatens that and should be called out for what it is: discriminatory and shameful.
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