Under the Rainbow

Everyone deserves to feel safe, welcome and included, especially in spaces that reflect their reality and lived experience. But what happens when the language of inclusion is used to erase the very people it once claimed to represent?

Equality Australia has sought to intervene in the Federal Court case Tickle v Giggle, opposing Sall Grover and the Lesbian Action Group as they defend the right of women and lesbians to maintain female-only spaces.

A national “LGBTQIA+” organisation is opposing lesbians who are simply defending their right to associate, to speak and to create spaces of their own. This strikes at the heart of freedom of association, a fundamental democratic principle and a right protected under international law.

Under the rainbow flag, organisations once dedicated to protecting the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people have shifted focus. Many now promote an ideology that denies biological sex and demands that same-sex attracted people redefine their identities to include members of the opposite sex.

Equality Australia’s actions exemplify the institutional erasure of homosexuality. The effect is not inclusion but control: redefining our language, silencing dissent and denying our right to organise on the basis of sex. This is not only a threat to lesbians. It affects all women and it sets a dangerous precedent that undermines the foundation of gay and lesbian rights: sex matters.

We commend Sall Grover for standing firm in defence of single-sex spaces, and we support the Lesbian Action Group as they assert the right of lesbians to meet, speak and organise in female-only environments.

It is not hateful or divisive for gay people to organise independently. Yet we are routinely branded as bigots for asserting the right to same-sex attraction and same-sex spaces. The real division arises when our boundaries are denied in the name of someone else’s identity.

We have long believed that the LGBTQIA+ sector no longer speaks for the LGB. Now it is actively works against us.

We stand with Sall Grover.

We stand with the Lesbian Action Group.

Let us be clear: “LGBTQIA+” no longer represents us. It now encompasses institutions that oppose the rights of lesbians, gay men and bisexual people, erasing our language, distorting our reality and mischaracterising our rights as hate.

If you believe that women have a right to speak, that children deserve safeguarding, and that same-sex attraction must not be redefined out of existence, then we invite you to join us.

Support Sall Grover’s campaign

Join us. Speak up. Support LGB rights.

Because no one else will.