Labor must be clear on whether it will fund sex-change operations for minors

The so-called ‘Safe Schools’ program tells minors that they need not hold back from undergoing sex-change surgery if that is what they feel like at the time, prompting the Australian Christian Lobby to question whether the Labor Party’s policy to publicly fund sex-change operations would extend to children and teenagers.

ACL children’s spokesperson Wendy Francis said the All of Us resource, produced by the Safe Schools Coalition in partnership with Minus 18 and now contained on the federal government’s Safe Schools Hub, presents to minors, through the words of a minor transgender, Nevo, the need for sex change surgery to be provided to minors if that is what they want.

“This message is particularly harmful for teenagers going through a vulnerable period of their development,” Ms Francis said.

“The lesson, aimed at children as young as 11, gives advice on how to get a sex change and encourages children to rush into getting a life-altering sex change operation.

“It fails to inform students of the ramifications a sex-change will have on their ability to have children.

“One of the exercises asks students to imagine that genderless aliens have arrived in the classroom from another planet. On a video, a transgender minor speaks of dreams to have a child someday but fails to explain that transgender operations take away the option of producing a child without a third person’s involvement.

The transgender, Nevo, says in the video: “My parents always sort of say to me, and my family says to me, you have to wait until the whole family is together to make a decision about your transition and things like that. And I’m like, no I don’t. This is my life and this is something I have to do.”

“I like to be with girls, and I identify as male, just as other guys do.

“If I had any other medical condition, people wouldn’t say; ‘wait to get treatment, let’s just wait and see how bad it gets,’ they’d be like, ‘alright let’s rush you to hospital and let’s get you the surgeries that you need’ – and that’s what I need right now.”

Other material from the Safe Schools Coalition which is now available on the Safe Schools Hub encourages minors to undergo sex-change surgery even without parental consent.

Ms Francis said the Safe Schools resources fail any reasonable duty of care to minors.

“The Labor Party’s National Platform (ALP National Platform Page 109, para 73) states that: ‘Labor commits to removing, wherever possible, out-of-health expenses for transgender people incurred in relation to their gender identity’.

“The Labor Party must be clear as to whether or not they also endorse using Medicare funding to pay for sex change operations on vulnerable and impressionable minors.

“Will the Labor Party also endorse commercial surrogacy so that transgender minors like Nevo can realise their dream to have children in the future?

“To endorse commercial surrogacy would mean that children will be denied the right to be brought up by a father and a mother.

“This Safe Schools material continues to go way beyond an anti-bullying program, despite the changes that have been implemented by Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham.” Ms Francis said.