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Petition Update: Legislative Council finalises consideration

The Legislative Council finalised its consideration of Petition No. 68 in August 2023, following State Government commitments to addressing five of the six issues raised:

  • Updating anti discrimination protections for LGBTIQA+ people under the Equal Opportunity Act (Project 111);
  • Abolishing the Gender Reassignment Board and acting on birth certificate and gender recognition reform;
  • Implementing comprehensive protections against conversion practices for LGBTQA+ people;
  • Creating equality of surrogacy access for LGBTIQA+ people, particularly men and non-binary people; and
  • Taking a whole of government approach to ensure government addresses social, economic, and health inequality of LGBTIQA+ people

We acknowledge the significant impact these changes will make for the LGBTIQA+ community in WA, and look forward to working with the government to progress them.

Despite this, there remains no action on ending deferrable medical interventions on people with innate variations of sex characteristics without personal informed consent, in line with the Darlington Statement.

Peter Foster, Member for Mining and Pastoral Region, receiving the petition in October 2022 from community and Rainbow Futures WA member organisations.

The Health Minister, who initially questioned the need to explore alternative pathways based on a lack of “robust evidence”, was unable to commit to further legislative change.

There is extensive evidence to support calls for reform, including the landmark Australian Human Rights Commission “Ensuring health and bodily integrity” 2021 report that details the lived experience of intersex people and their interactions with the health sector, and the recent passing of legislation in the ACT.

Rainbow Futures WA remains committed to legislative change for LGBTIQA+ communities in WA, particularly for intersex people at risk of medical procedures without personal informed consent, and will continue to provide updates as work in all of these areas progress.

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