Page 1384 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 12 May 2021
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deeply bigoted views of people who did not seek to learn, understand or get to know them.
I am incredibly grateful for the comments from the Minister for Education about the work that is happening across our schools to support trans, non-binary and gender diverse people. I do not wish to compare the experiences of being LGB to being trans or gender diverse—there is a complexity in that that I do not pretend to understand—but I can empathise ever so slightly with being in places and spaces where everything you do, everything you say and the way you behave—the pitch of your voice and the flick of your wrist—is done with a resting case of anxiety, because at any point those things could be thrown back at you. They limit your contribution or your capacity to contribute. They limit what you say and what you try to achieve, and hinder your ambitions.
I want to give so much credit to the trans, non-binary and gender diverse leaders in our community who are doing all that they can to support Canberrans, because I know that on shoestring budgets—everybody in the community sector does what they do on shoestring budgets—they will look after a young person who buses in or takes a trip from Googong, Queanbeyan, Cooma, Wagga Wagga or Boorowa, to access these services. They always do. I am talking about organisations like A Gender Agenda. I would like to use this time to encourage every single member, if they have not, to go out and check out A Gender Agenda. Invite Sel to come and have a chat with you in your office. Learn about what that organisation does. Learn about the community that it serves. It will truly open your eyes and inspire you.
I really want to encourage everybody to support, in any way they can, the Friday Centre, in particular. The Friday Centre provides more than just supports for trans, non-binary and gender diverse young people. The Friday Centre provides a holistic wraparound service for the parents, siblings and extended family of the young person, and for the workplace or the school community in which that young person is experiencing and expressing varying forms of gender fluidity. It is a tremendous program. It is under-resourced, and I am optimistic that we will continue to do things in the future that embrace and support that particular program.
I want to take the remaining few minutes of my time to speak to the proponents of the New South Wales motion—the Pauline Hanson One Nation political party. Another perfect example of why I am so proud to be a Canberran is that that political party would not dare set up roots here. They know that what they stand for, and their ilk are not welcome in our city. Pauline Hanson knows that, Mark Latham knows that, and their ilk know that. I know that, by virtue of those same right-wing nut jobs making offensive phone calls during the ACT election campaign, trying to smear, disorient and confuse people about what amendments to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act would mean for trans, gender diverse and non-binary young people. I was proud that Canberrans showed them the door as well. I was proud that people in this chamber showed them the door.
I grow increasingly disturbed, and I know many even from the centre right, right through to us hard lefties—for those who want to use an arbitrary political spectrum to define us—grow a little bit frustrated with organisations like Pauline Hanson’s One
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