Anti-LGBTIQA+ organisation Binary, formerly the anti-marriage-equality lobby group Marriage Alliance, is running misleading ads about transgender people in a campaign against a proposed equality bill for New South Wales.
The bill, announced in March 2022 by independent member for Sydney Alex Greenwich, would seek to ban conversion therapy, allow people to transition without undergoing gender reassignment surgery, and put in place other protections against discrimination. Draft legislation is expected to be released by the end of the year. Organisations including Equality Australia, ACON, and Amnesty International Australia have come out in support of the proposed bill, calling it an important bill that would protect LGBTIQA+ people.
Binary’s ads, run on Facebook and other Meta platforms, link to a petition on the organisation’s website claiming the proposed bill “threatens to jail parents for daring to protect their children from gender transitioning”. It has gathered over 7000 signatures so far of a 10,000 signature goal.
The ads greatly exaggerate the extent to which the NSW government would be able to prosecute parents of trans children. In two of its ads, featuring hypothetical conversations between a gender-questioning child and their parent, Binary claims that what the parent says next “could be illegal in NSW”, comparing NSW’s proposed equality bill to Victoria’s Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021, which outlawed conversion therapy with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
The ads claim that the government would “jail parents for protecting their kids from harmful LGBTIQA+ ideology”, and that NSW may even outlaw “praying for someone you know in the hope they abandon their plan to transition”.
According to Equality Australia legal director Ghassan Kassisieh, “This is predictable fearmongering about a bill that does not yet exist, but which is desperately needed to bring NSW laws into the 21st century.”
“The truth is NSW has been lagging behind other states and territories in legal reforms for LGBTIQ+ people,” he said.
“An equality bill is desperately needed to address the real issues facing LGBTIQ+ people in NSW today, and consultations by the member for Sydney on what this bill should contain are both welcome and overdue.”
Many of Binary’s ads present the idea that children — and people in general, in some cases — should not be allowed to medically transition. The ads feature the stories of people who underwent medical transition as adults and are now prominent detransitioners who have aligned with right-wing anti-trans groups.
Detransitioners are people who decide to stop the process of gender transition or decide to no longer identify as transgender. Their stories are compelling to right-wing groups who use detransition stories to argue that children are being brainwashed into believing they have gender dysphoria and are then pushed into making irreversible changes to their young bodies.
Those that were included in Binary’s ads include Australians Ollie Davies and Jay Langadinos, who have both claimed that their medical transition occurred after psychiatric evaluations resulted in a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, which they both now believe to have been insufficient.
Davies, who once tweeted he was a member of the international anti-trans organisation Genspect, has cited anecdotal evidence when telling The Australian that he believes “a massive population of people” who are not gender dysphoric are being pushed into the “gender affirmative care pathway”.
Davies said he was not aware he had been used in Binary’s advertisements and that he had once tweeted that he was a member of Genspect but that the tweet had been taken out of context.
“When I said this, I was referring to the fact that I’d filled in a form on their website with my basic contact info and received a few emails from them with some helpful tips,” Davies said in a written statement provided to Crikey.
“This was after I’d exhausted every avenue I could think of in Australia – including organisations associated with the Pride Centre, my former trans health care provider, and support lines – and found nothing.”
Langadinos is currently suing her past psychiatrist for professional negligence, having detransitioned after previously undergoing a six-year medical transition that included hormone therapy, a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy.
Statistics show detransition is uncommon, with one meta-analysis from March 2021 finding that in nearly 8000 people, regret after gender reassignment surgery was at around 1%. Gender-affirming medical treatment has been proven to save lives, lowering suicidality, and studies have found that post-surgery regret is far rarer compared to other, non-trans-related surgeries.
Furthermore, there is often a misunderstanding about the reasons why people choose to detransition. In a 2015 US transgender survey with responses from more than 27,000 people from all 50 US states, the top reasons for detransition, whether long- or short-term, were external factors such as pressure from parents and discrimination against them as an out transgender person.
Only 5% of respondents who had detransitioned said gender transition was not for them, representing just 0.4% of the overall sample. Groups like Binary that focus solely on detransitioners who no longer identify as transgender paint a highly misleading picture.
In a recent report by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism examining Australia’s far-right and extremist groups, Binary was listed as a hate group alongside other anti-trans organisations such as the LGB Alliance.
Binary did not respond to a request for comment.
The organisation has also been campaigning in Victoria, claiming that Premier Daniel Andrews and others have “set their sights on brainwashing our toddlers and preschoolers”.
The organisation has most recently placed new ads through Meta platforms calling for a royal commission into Australia’s gender clinics, to “stop gender clinics destroying children’s bodies and lives”.
If you don’t believe that detransition is a real and growing phenomenon, just get on Twitter and look at all the accounts with lizards in their profiles. Follow the purple white and green hearts. ‘1% regret’ is absolute propaganda, no more true than the hoary old ‘puberty blockers are fully reversible’ (already being walked back by the NHS in favour of the actually accurate ‘we have no idea’) and ‘1.7% of people are intersex’ talking points.
This is nothing more than viral marketing for the gender industry. And I know there are people at this publication that know that
I don’t have twatter – what’s the deal with lizards?
I love lizards. I really don’t like seeing them get a bad wrap from the gender-basef hate crowd and other loons.
So it’s the new Pepe the Frog signal flag for the mob to abuse?
The blue tongues here are just coming out of their sodden hibernation here and keen to bulk up – they love banana, moistened dog crunchies and unwary snails & slugs.
Do you think the cause of detransitioners is best advanced by homophobic groups like the hastily rebranded anti-same sex marriage organisation that is Binary?
After the closure for well documented reasons of the Tavistock unit in London a better term for the GAHT advocates would might be DRASTIC – delusion reinforcing attention seeking types including children.
Gender dysphoria is the only mental-health condition in which the proposed treatment involves affirming the distressing thoughts inside someone’s head or trying to physically change their body.
The treatment for body dysmorphia or anorexia is not liposuction.
Yet, in the UK’s gender-identity clinics, ‘affirming’ a child’s chosen gender is considered the proper course of action.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) guidelines guidelines say there should be no age limits for irreversible transitioning, including cross-sex hormones, vaginoplasty and double mastectomy (meaning children as young as nine could receive this treatment).
Disturbingly, the guidelines formally recognise ‘eunuchs’ (who seek castration) as a new ‘gender identity’. They promote breast-binding and genital-tucking in children.
And they even say that parents’ wishes can be ignored, if deemed to be ‘unnecessary’ (sic!).
I know a few sets of parents of transitioning children, both directions. Whatever Dr Google said, they and their kids approached the process on the basis that the desire to transition was intense, there was a material chance of serious unintended consequences from the transition process and a material chance of painful regret even if it “worked” at a techical level. Quantifying “material” was not required. As it turns out they all proceeded, although to be fair, I doubt people talk much outside the family about decisions not to proceed. The biggest fear mentioned was “burn the witch” zealots.
A more recent study put detransition at 30%. Also if you consider that most take up to 10 years to acknowledge and accept their regret this is likely to become much higher. https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/107/9/e3937/6572526
That’s a much less comprehensive study than the one Stevie links (It only looks at trans people who transitioned through the United States military healthcare system!)
I read the study. It does not say this at all.
“Discussion: Our results suggest that >70% of TGD individuals who start gender-affirming hormones will continue use beyond 4 years, with higher continuation rates in transfeminine individuals. Patients who start hormones, with their parents’ assistance, before age 18 years have higher continuation rates than adults.” This means 30% discontinue use. Exactly as stated
How many people get a tattoo and then regret it. How many women undergo breast augmentation only to regret it and undergo further change latter. There will always be people who seek and secure something who latter regret doing so.This in no way discounts the majority who simply have no regrets around their choices. I do not dictate what my neighbor chooses to eat for breakfast and I certainly would not care about their opinion regarding my own choice.
Either you haven’t read this study or you are happy to lie about it.
Everyone who feels tempted to down vote this comment should actually read the article first. Of course, you may still chose to lie but at least you’ll know you’re lying and you’re not just be a patsy
Oh, you poor love!
You don’t seem to be able to read.
claiming that Premier Daniel Andrews and others have “set their sights on brainwashing our toddlers and preschoolers” – have these muppets ever set foot in a pre-school facility? met the the staff? seen the kids? … if there’s any “indoctrinating” going on, it’s stuff like trying to get the little terrors to wash their hands before eating
Agree, as some media research found in the US, the noisiest and most activist vs. school curricula, CRT, secularism, LGBT etc. are dominated by those with have had neither a linkage or insight into schools for a generation or two; existential fear mongering….
Thanks for this article. It’s been on my mind to research the stats around people who regret transitioning. Folks who can’t seem to tolerate other folks not conforming to a gender binary love to hyper-inflate the incidence. Don’t see them up in arms about protecting people from the possibility of regretting their knee surgeries. Wonder why..
I did see one piece a few years ago showing the rate of “genuine regret” to be less than 1%.
And similar to you, i wonder how groups like Binary therefore ignotre the 99% who are happier…but never mind logic and evidence over irrationality.
Because they don’t actually care about anyone.
If that were true then “…lowering suicidality…” would be well documented rather than, as is the case, the opposite.
Might want to google next time, I found this in 10 seconds
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawnstaceyennis/2021/12/14/gender-affirming-care-linked-to-less-depression-lower-suicide-risk-for-trans-youth/?sh=3efd44c75d25
Said Dawn Ennis Former Contributor I report on the fight for transgender equality and other LGBTQ issues.
Dr. Amy Green, vice president of research at The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning youth.
No confirmation bias there, totally convincing.
I recommend that posters here at least glance at the linked article above.
Typical ‘activist/advocate empire building & U$ medical $cam, pushing hormones – GAHT – “gender affirming hormone treatment”.
The organisation has also been campaigning in Victoria, claiming that Premier Daniel Andrews and others have “set their sights on brainwashing our toddlers and preschoolers”.
But they don’t see their own narrow, prejudice and uncorroborated claims which they no doubt spruik loudly and proudly to their kids as brainwashing.
This group is likely the first to stand up and scream if they thought others were telling them how to raise their kids… so they shouldn’t tell others how to raise their kids.