Equality passes the Senate, Trudeau Apologises and a Sobering Discovery Is Made

Today our queer news roundup is brought to you by our awesome new writer Ella! We're all super excited to have them on board.

These past few weeks have been full of triumphs and losses for the LGBTQIA+ community both nationally and internationally. We have seen advances surrounding same-sex marriage in Australia, transgender youth’s right to body autonomy and Justin Trudeu’s apology to the LGBTQIA+ community, but the continuation of hate attacks is still very much prevalent.

The same-sex marriage bill has passed Senate without amendment, forty-three out of forty-five senators voting yes. The bill will be continued to be debated by the House of Representatives, by whom it is estimated that the bill will be fully supported. It is fully possible at this rate for the bill to be legalised by the end of this year, and possibly Christmas. It was said by Senator Penny Wong that: “We are part of an act of acceptance, an act of inclusion, an act of respect and act of celebration – a day when this Senate declares our acceptance of our LGBTIQ brothers and sisters.”

It is commonly known that the process for transgender youth, or even adults in accessing hormone treatment or surgery is a long, difficult and controversial process. In Australia, dysphoric transgender minors who want to go on hormone blockers, or hormones themselves needed to go to a GP, who sends them to a psychologist, who if they decide you are ‘legitimate’ would send them to a psychiatrist. They would need to see this psychiatrist a few times, and then would be sent to stand in front of family court. In family court they would be questioned on how supportive their family is, and various other parts of their situation in order to see if transitioning would be too traumatic. However, the family court has now ruled that for trans youth, they no longer need to stand in front of a court to argue for their rights.

In late November, in the House of Commons, Justin Trudeu issued a lengthy and emotional speech to gay Canadians who had been fired from their jobs and the military during the Cold War, which is a huge step to ease the tension between Canada and Canada’s own LGBT+ community. In this speech Trudeu also proposed a bill that would erase the records of past Canadians charged with crimes relating to their sexualities, but emphasized that although they must make amends, Canada must not forget its past. “Today we acknowledge an often-overlooked part of Canada’s history. Today, we finally talk about Canada’s role in the systemic oppression, criminalization, and violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and two-spirit communities.”

​Despite all these recent triumphs for equal rights for the LGBTQIA+ community worldwide, the full extent of the discrimination that LGBT Australians faced in the past is still continuing to come to light, and its effects on gay Australians today is very prevalent. In 1988, 27-year-old Scott Johnson, an American mathematician, was found at the bottom of a cliff in Sydney. It was originally believed that he took his own life, however after 30 years of further investigations, it was believed that Johnson was the victim of a gay hate attack, and that his murders could still be living as a part of society today.

As a community, the LGBT community has persevered and overcome numerous obstacles, and made countless triumphs due to our incredible resilience and bravery as a whole. Everyday more progress is being made for equal rights for the members of the LGBT community of the past, present and future. With the actions being taken everyday, by individuals or groups, we have no-where to go but forward.

This week's news report brought to you by Ella.