The rights of transgender and gender diverse people are under the spotlight again thanks to the government’s proposed religious discrimination laws.
The proposal would have preserved the right of religious schools to expel students and staff based on their gender identity, despite providing protection for gay staff and students.
An amendment prohibiting discrimination against trans children passed the House of Representatives when five Liberal members crossed the floor. The government shelved the religious freedom bill in response.
For the transgender community, the idea that trans students don’t deserve the same protection under the law as their cisgendered counterparts has been another blow in their fight for acceptance.
School is a refuge for some
Carlie Henderson says her daughter Sunny was “a unique child” who “spent a lot of her preschool years wearing tutus”.
Carlie remembers finding a young Sunny crying while cradling a doll in their arms.
“I said, ‘Oh sweetheart, what’s wrong? And they said, ‘I just realised I’ll never be a mother.’”
Sunny “functioned for all intents and purposes as the young boy” until she turned 10 when she “found the words to let us all know we’d got it wrong, and they were a girl,” says Carlie.
“It was a light bulb moment, not only for me but for everyone – grandparents, aunts and uncles went ‘Of course!’. There was no opposition from anyone who mattered.”
Sunny now attends a local public high school that “is incredibly supportive and diverse,” Carlie says.
“Sunny has gone on to create her own circle of gender-diverse friends and connections, which is really important to her.”
Still, “Sunny is much more aware of her risks in society and the risk people perceive her to be than most 13 year olds should have to be,” says Carlie.
Most of the discrimination Sunny has experienced occurred before she came out as transgender.
“Her journey as a young diverse child was a tough one. She wasn’t included, she wasn’t part of the girls’ games, she wasn’t part of the boys’ games, she didn’t fit in anywhere, there was name-calling, there were slurs,” Carlie says.
Not all transgender children enjoy the same unwavering support from their families as Sunny.
“Unfortunately, there are many kids out there who aren’t as lucky, but it shouldn’t be about luck,” says Carlie.
For many young people who can’t come out to their families, school is a safe place that Carlie fears the proposed religious discrimination laws could take away.
For Sunny’s family, the debate has been exhausting.
“At the end of the day, this is our kid,” says Carlie.
“We’re going to bed each night knowing that people are debating our kid’s existence and their right to exist – and their friends’ and their peers’. That’s tough.”
'A retrograde step'
“Trans people have been demonised forever,” says Laura, a teacher at a single-sex school in Sydney who is gender diverse.
“I’m 58 years old, and I’ve only had the courage to be out for the last six years.”
For Laura, the debate about trans rights has dredged up memories of the intolerance she experienced as a young person.
“I grew up in a working-class area in the UK in the seventies and eighties. I buried this stuff so deeply just to survive,” she says.
“I thought the world had changed for the better.”
Laura says while freedom of religion is important, it shouldn’t be a licence to discriminate against certain groups.
Failing to protect the rights of transgender students “is a retrograde step, which is going to particularly hurt young people”.
'A corrosive debate'
Ernest Price, a transgender teacher who lives and works in a small town in rural Victoria, also experienced intolerance and discrimination in his youth.
Price, now 37, attended a single-sex high school in the nineties.
Growing up, he says, “the prejudice and fear that permeated my education definitely affected my mental health and my educational outcomes and my ability to live the carefree life we should want for our young people.”
The prejudice he encountered at high school is why he pursued a career in education.
He wanted “to try to create schools that are safe, accepting, diverse places for young people”.
Ernest says that while “it’s been great to see so many people and politicians speaking out in support of trans kids”, the debate has only served to harm an already vulnerable group.
“To have their rights discussed and debated in the media is incredibly corrosive.”
The path forward
Carlie believes the first step in creating a supportive school environment for trans children is to stop denying their existence.
“Trans people exist, trans people have always existed, trans people will always exist,” she says.
We must “move beyond the gender binary” if we are to reduce the harm to transgender children who grow up questioning their sense of self, she says.
“I get that it’s a challenge. I’m going to leave it to the younger generation to figure out,” says Carlie.
“I’m not going to question who someone believes they are, certainly if it’s not hurting anyone.”
