In Victoria “it is against the law to try to change or suppress someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity, even if they ask for help”.

Read that statement again.

“It is against the law to try to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, even if that person thinks they need help or asks for assistance.”

That is truly frightening. And dangerous.

No one earth has ever changed their sex. It is impossible to do so. No amount of name changes, dress ups, drug taking or body mutilation surgery can change a persons sex.

Yet in Victoria, it is illegal – against the law – to have a conversation about this truth. Even if an individual wants to, they are forbidden under law!

The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021  even goes so far as to encourage people to attempt to appropriate the opposite sex, even though they will fail every time.

What is allowed?

It is completely legal – and encouraged – to undertake activities that support or affirm someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including: 

• assisting a person who is undergoing a gender transition
• assisting a person who is considering undergoing a gender transition
• assisting a person to express their gender identity
• providing acceptance, support or understanding of a person
• facilitating a person’s coping skills, social support, or identity exploration and development.

Medical and psychological treatment – in line with professional standards – that are necessary (in the health service provider’s reasonable professional judgement) are also legal. This includes:

• providing a health service
• complying with the legal or professional obligations of the health service provider.

BUT it is illegal to discuss the fact that despite all their best efforts, a person cannot change their sex.

That is insane! And dangerous! Many, many people have changed their sexual orientation and are glad they did. Many, many people have changed their gender identity and are glad they did. How on earth did we get to the point where it is illegal to even ask for help to do this?

Other examples of illegal practices under the Act include:

• running a peer-to-peer support group designed to coach a person who is exploring their gender identity to accept the sex they were assigned at birth.

Read that again. It is illegal to help someone accept their biological reality. A person can never, has never, changed their sex. It is impossible. Yet under Victorian law it is illegal to discuss this fact.

Not even parents are allowed to speak with their own child about the reality of biological sex if the child is expressing any form of gender confusion. The following is an illegal practice in Victoria:

• a parent refusing to support their child’s request for medical treatment that will enable them to prevent physical changes from puberty that do not align with the child’s gender identity and denying their child access to any health care services that would affirm their child’s gender identity.

Puberty blockers can do irreversible harm to a child. They pause puberty – which means stunted genitalia leading to zero sexual function and sterility. Long term use is not reversible, and it almost always leads to cross-sex hormones which require life-long dependency and cause irreversible harm.

Yet parents are breaking the law if they stand in the way of their child being physically harmed at the hands of gender practitioners.

This is a very bad law and it will require some very good people to challenge it. Children’s lives depend on it.