Nicole Mowbray Puts Lesbian Freedom of Association on the National Agenda
Nicole’s piece, published by the ABC on 14 July, 2026.
LGB Alliance Australia would like to thank Nicole Mowbray and the ABC for the opinion piece "Why should lesbians need government permission to gather?", published on 14 July 2026. Nicole is a founding member of LGB Alliance Australia and the spokeswoman for the Lesbian Action Group, on whose behalf she wrote.
Since 2023, the Lesbian Action Group has sought legal protection to publicly advertise and hold events exclusively for lesbians. Ruling after ruling has left them unable to do so without an exemption from the Australian Human Rights Commission. Nicole's piece puts that question to the public.
The article opens with a proposition that ought to be uncontroversial: that women should be free to organise a public event for women, gay men for gay men, and lesbians for lesbians, and yet, as she notes, in Australia this last proposition has become surprisingly controversial. As Nicole puts it, the Lesbian Action Group is not trying to shut anyone out of employment, housing or essential services; they simply want to gather as lesbians and build their own community, and they have been told this requires permission from the state. Her article also returns to what Parliament actually legislated in 2013, correcting the common claim that the law redefined the meaning of "woman." Parliament added protections for gender identity, but it did not amend the Act to define males as women or to remove the ordinary sex-based meaning of woman.
We were amused to find the piece filed under Religion and Ethics. The photograph of the women accompanying the article is fabulous, and we're glad to see it given such prominence.
We appreciate the work it must have taken to get this piece published. It is not often that this issue gets a fair hearing in the national media, and rarer still that lesbians are permitted to state their own case, in their own words, before a national audience. A piece like Nicole's reaches lesbians across the country who may have felt unheard, while inviting others to think about what freedom of association should mean.
The Lesbian Action Group deserves recognition as one of the leading campaigners for sex-based rights in Australia. Thank you, Nicole, for putting this case before a national audience, and thank you to the ABC for making room for it.
Further reading
Nicole's piece in full: "Why should lesbians need government permission to gather?", ABC Religion & Ethics, 14 July 2026.
The Lesbian Action Group's statement: https://lesbianactiongroup.org.au
The Federal Court judgment: https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2026/2026fca0432
LGB Alliance Australia