Commissioner speaking notes Wear it Purple 27 August 2021
- Good morning and welcome to our Wear it Purple celebration
- I am the Commissioner for Equal Opportunity and my pronouns are he/him.
- I’d like to thank you all for coming today and acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we are on, the Whadjuk Noongar people and their elders past present and emerging.
- Wear it Purple was founded in 2010 in response to global stories of LGBTIQ teenagers taking their own lives following bullying and harassment because of a lack of acceptance of their sexuality or gender identity.
- This group are some of the most vulnerable in our community, especially the young intersex and transgender people.
- Not only because they are so often a target for bullying and harassment, and not only because the nature of their gender identity attributes does not guarantee support from family, but because the Equal Opportunity Act does not currently have a gender identity ground, only a gender history ground which can only be accessed by a complainant if they have a gender reassignment certificate issued by the Gender Reassignment Board.
- This means many of those transitioning gender, especially young people cannot be covered by our current Act in WA.
- The Law Reform Commission is in the process of reviewing WA’s Equal Opportunity Act and one of the Terms of Reference for the review is to introduce a ground of gender identity.
- Until the Act is changed there is no avenue for redress in Western Australia if they have been treated unfavourably because they are trans or intersex.
- In the meantime, transitioning and non-binary people in Western Australia can access the federal Sex Discrimination Act if they wish to seek redress.
- However, the Law Reform Commission is set to release a Discussion Paper soon, so I encourage you to follow the progression of the review on its website and make a submission when the paper is released.
- If you would like to donate to the Wearing it Purple cause, there are a number of online avenues:
- hwww.minus18.org.au has a donations page, as does www.wearitpurple.org
Thank you.
