Australians have a long and tainted past of bringing things they shouldn’t into the country. In addition to invasive species and flora, for decades we have imported culture wars from the United States and the United Kingdom, each with its own particularly damaging impact on marginalised communities.
Attacks have once again been directed at LGBTQIA+ people under the guise of protecting children, with public libraries, school policy and curricula — as well as commercially available books — firmly in the crosshairs both abroad and locally. This can be connected to the rise of coordinated anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment by neo-Nazis and other reactionary groups.
In Australia, such sentiment can be traced to the hysteria surrounding the optional and opt-in anti-bullying program Safe Schools, which, when launched in 2010, served as a model for the fabrication of anti-LGBTQIA+ outrage and the widespread dissemination of misinformation. The program was created in response to teachers’ requests for additional resources to support LGBTQIA+ students — at a time when three in four students had experienced verbal bullying because of their sexual orientation, and more than 50% due to their gender expression.
A small number of parliamentarians, religious lobbying groups and media outlets attacked Safe Schools with such ferocity that it was defunded by the federal government in 2016, despite an independent review of the program’s appropriateness and efficacy concluding that all official resources were consistent with the program’s objective of making LGBTQIA+ students and staff feel safer by reducing homophobic and transphobic behaviour in schools.
In 2017, Australia finally achieved marriage equality following a voluntary, non-binding postal plebiscite, but not before inflicting harm on the mental health of LGBTQIA+ people through the highly divisive public discourse that occurred throughout the campaign. Exposure to homophobic campaigns and media messages was associated with increased levels of depression, anxiety and stress among LGBTQIA+ people.
A mere five years later in America, mainstream conservatives and an increasing number of politicians have echoed extremist rhetoric seeking to draw age-old, spurious connections between the LGBTQIA+ community and “grooming” and “paedophilia”. This transpired alongside the rise of right-wing reactionary movements in the West that have mobilised against LGBTQIA+ people, communities and culture.
In 2022, there were disruptions of Pride events, attacks on drag storytime and an increase in anti-LGBTQIA+ demonstrations across the United States. Australian extremists took note. An American media watchdog identified that a number of anti-LGBTQIA+ demonstrations were linked to a call-to-action from a far-right, anti-LGBTQIA+ social media account. Then came the anti-trans bills: in 2022, 33 US states introduced 174 anti-trans bills, of which 26 passed. In 2023, so far this has increased to 562 bills across 49 states, with 79 passing.
In Australia, local neo-Nazis and anti-LGBTIQA+ groups began formulating plans to put their rhetoric into action. In September 2022, they demonstrated and disrupted a family-friendly youth Pride festival in Moonee Ponds. They also threatened Stonnington Youth Services, which was planning a youth Pride event for the end of the year, resulting in the event’s abrupt cancellation in December.
In March 2023, members of the far-right Nationalist Socialist Movement gathered on the steps of the Victorian Parliament for an anti-trans rally. They carried a banner that read “DESTROY PEADO FREAKS” and performed the Sieg Heil salute, while Melbourne Activist Legal Support observed the neo-Nazis chanting “kill paedo freaks” at trans-rights protesters. In opposition to a sold-out drag queen story time event, they labelled a City of Monash councillor a “paedophile” and disrupted a council meeting in April 2023.
In Victoria alone, these groups have successfully disrupted at least 15 local councils and forced the cancellation of many Pride events around the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, employing the strategies and replicating the language used in the United States. Emboldened and with a blueprint in hand, they now have no reason to stop on their own volition.
As well as organised hate groups, this sustained pattern of discrimination is on the rise in national media coverage, with Australian media resorting to parroting their American counterparts when reporting on LGBTQIA+ matters.
On July 10 and 11 in 2023, a student-led initiative at a Melbourne secondary school involving the addition of small Pride and Aboriginal flags to a non-compulsory school puffer jacket dominated the news cycle. In coverage all too reminiscent of Fox News, outlets took turns manufacturing outrage, platforming views labelling the jacket “not right” (3AW) and “stupid and distracting” (Sky News); declaring that the jacket had “sparked scandal” (9NEWS); and suggesting that it was “forcing a political agenda” onto children (news.com.au), with local Melbourne radio presenter Neil Mitchell describing it as “an attack of woke“.
Wear it Purple Day, which occurs August 25, should be a moment of celebration for and of LGBTIQIA+ young people in Australia, but instead the LGBTIQIA+ community is preparing to feel the force of this rising tide once more.
I remember a ‘Thirties PG Wodehouse novel that took the piss out of Mosley’s Blackshirts by calling them ‘The Blackshorts’. In the novel, the British Fascists had run out of shirts and had to use black shorts at their rallies to appear fashionable and in uniform. Now, nearly a century later, life imitates farce.
None of this is surprising. We literally had adults running a national campaign advocating for the educational and societal rejection of boys that do not fit gender stereotypes. Never estimate how much conservatives hate boys that like dolls or wear dresses or dare to like anything “girly”
I remember reading a story about a grandmother who was looking after her grandson and he was playing with a doll in his stroller while she was at the supermarket. Some random stranger said something about how boys shouldn’t play with dolls. Grandmother’s immediate comeback was “How else is he supposed to learn how to be a good father?”
One would argue, for all the underlying foundations of anti-LGBTIQ etc. culture locally, the agitprop is clearly imported when e.g. social media influencers, political activists or ‘journalists’ use the same sources from the US (GOP) &/or UK (Tories), but presented under various guises, to inform far right and the mainstream.
One tactic or several related for this ‘Trojan Horse’ is to claim ‘freedom of speech’, harass education institutions, NGOs, centrist governments, anything informed by Covid and climate science, anti-LGBT is a strategic asset.
Good example is linking the ‘Free Speech Union’, The Daily Sceptic and access to Spiked, Spectator etc., Toby Young in the UK; prolific online repeating same or similar messages that complements RW media of old attitudes masquerading as (junk) ‘science’ for repetition and conditioning (of ageing voters).
Can we stop conflating same-sex attracted people and their issues with trans-identifying people? This concept of sexuality and gender being aligned is so lazy and inaccurate. There is a large cohort of lesbians and bi-sexual women who consider trans ideology as at best not aligned with lesbianism, and at worst misogynist and anti-feminist. Yes, there is an appalling increase (again) in RWNJs targeting queer events, but labelling any person who is gender critical, or even questioning gender ideology, as ‘neo-nazi’ is so far off base. This is exactly what Patricia Karvelas did in her 4 Corners piece. Plenty of LGB folk consider trans folk and gender ideology to be a threat to their existence but are as left as they come.
Conservatives are a far greater threat to gender nonconforming cis women than trans people are.
It’s unfortunate that you’re taking this view, it’s lazy, inaccurate and harmful to the community you apparently care for.
We are able to clearly see the negative ripple effect that the oppression of trans people are having on our collective rights.
We must stand with our community, to protect trans rights and kids – until we are all free, none of us free.
Indeed. It’s very hard to take this school of thought seriously. Gender oppression isn’t driven by trans people. The people that have tried for centuries to erase gender nonconforming people are not trans activists. I’d have far more sympathy of they were actually campaigning for gender free uniforms, advocating support for gender nonconforming people generally. it’s really disheartening to see some feminists resort to, “You’re not feminine enough!”
In the UK these people are in the “find out” phase as their T E R F ringleaders demand they be removed from birth certificates and applaud as Italy strips them of parenting rights.
Mixed race cis gender lesbian here. Anti trans people have always been part of our communities, just as White Supremacy and sexism have been. The recent activism around “LGB” is perhaps more organised than it used to be but it’s not novel. It’s really sad to watch parts of our communities align themselves with those that mock gender nonconforming people generally, let alone trans or non binary people. If your trying to liberate people from gender shackles, it makes no sense to align yourself with people who oppose gender free school uniforms and mock boys that like dolls, dresses etc
The whole debate is far more nuanced than it’s being presented in some quarters, and I agree that lumping anyone asking questions that seem even slightly outside the gender ideology playbook are quickly shut down.
that dude ‘saluting’ in the photo needs to stiffen his wrist, if he wants to stay sweet with his pals
Hitler had a serious limp-wrist salute. No joke, he looked like a Benny Hill gay stereotype by the end of WW2. Possibly having to do the Seig Heil salute all day to everybody for two decades gave him carpel tunnel.
These thugs are terrorists and a danger to our children and our society. They need to be tracked down and contained. They represent all that is a form of toxic masculinity.
“tracked down and contained” ?
Sounds vaguely like the modus operandi of the Third ReicH
No, what sounds “exactly” like the modus operandi of the Third Reich are these utter cowards doing nazi salutes and threatening violence, curtailing the freedom of others.
You’ve got things arse about, but I’ve heard that projection is a failure of the far-right.