PIAC provided a detailed submission to Member for Sydney Alex Greenwich’s public consultation on a proposed Equality Bill to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people in NSW.
This included a primary focus on reforms to the out-dated Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW) to ensure it adequately protects LGBTIQ people against discrimination, including:
- Replacing the protected attribute of homosexual with sexual orientation
- Replacing the protected attribute of transgender with gender identity
- Introducing a new protected attribute of sex characteristics
- Harmonising and modernising vilification protects, and
- Removing the ability of religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students and teachers.
The submission also proposed removing barriers to trans and gender diverse people accessing birth certificates and other identity documentation which reflects their gender identity, as well as the introduction of legal prohibitions on coercive surgeries and other non-consenting medical treatments on children born with variations of sex characteristics (intersex children). Finally, the submission supported introducing bans on sexual orientation and gender identity conversion practices (sometimes referred to as ex-gay or ex-trans therapy).
