Speaker 1: Sam the Knight, Donald Trump was elected. What were you
Speaker 1: seeing and hearing from the transgender diverse community.
Speaker 2: America's future will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and
Speaker 2: stronger than it has ever been before. God bless you
Speaker 2: and God bless them. Eric, Thank you very much.
Speaker 3: There was just absolute, widespread panic. People were really worried
Speaker 3: about things like upcoming surgery appointments that they had been canceled.
Speaker 3: People were worried that they weren't going to be able
Speaker 3: to get access to their hormones like testosterone or estrogen.
Speaker 3: People were talking about moving to Canada, like quite seriously.
Speaker 3: People were swapping information about where a safe country is
Speaker 3: for trans people to live. Yeah, it was really scary
Speaker 3: and I've never seen anything like it.
Speaker 1: As trans people in the United States had to escape plans.
Speaker 1: Sam Malcolm is preparing for what the Trump era will
Speaker 1: mean the trans people here in Australia. Just this week,
Speaker 1: Queensland has announced children will be denied puberty blockers while
Speaker 1: the state government launches an investigation and agenda affirming hormones,
Speaker 1: and some federal politicians have begun voicing their support for
Speaker 1: Trump's tactics. From Schwartz Media, I'm Daniel James. This is
Speaker 1: seven am today. He contributed to the Saturday paper Sam
Speaker 1: Alkin on what's behind Trump's obsession with trans people and
Speaker 1: whether his anti trans tactics will work. Here. It's Friday,
Speaker 1: January thirty one. Sam, thanks for speaking with me. We
Speaker 1: know Trump's been signing a hell of a lot of
Speaker 1: executive orders. Can you tell me about the ones that
Speaker 1: affect trans people?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, within hours of taking offers, he started signing
Speaker 3: these executive orders to a tail transigenderverse people's rights. So
Speaker 3: there was the first executive order that was called Defending
Speaker 3: Women from gender ideology extremism and Restoring Biological Truths to
Speaker 3: the Federal Government, which is a very cumbersome title, mouthful
Speaker 3: it sure is.
Speaker 2: As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy
Speaker 2: of the United States government that there are only two genders,
Speaker 2: male and female.
Speaker 3: Basically, that says that all US federal agencies have to
Speaker 3: focus on a very narrow, biologically contestable version of sex
Speaker 3: as an immutable biological classification as either male or female,
Speaker 3: which is determined at conception. Also, anybody who works for
Speaker 3: a federal department, they can only have their birth sex
Speaker 3: recognized in their identity documents and things like passports, visas
Speaker 3: and government records like that can only use a person's
Speaker 3: birth sex of male or female. So this executive order
Speaker 3: will of course require new legislation, but it's already having
Speaker 3: an impact on housing, health, education, every aspect of a
Speaker 3: person's life. This is going to impact.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me how that will work in practice?
Speaker 3: One thing that has happened is the Attorney General has
Speaker 3: been directed to ensure that trans women can no longer
Speaker 3: be housed in women's prisons and to reverse policies that
Speaker 3: allow trans people to access the bathroom of their choice.
Speaker 3: There are policies designed to protect LGBTIQA plus workers in
Speaker 3: the US at the moment from discrimination, they're going to
Speaker 3: be rescinded entirely, and teachers who make efforts to support
Speaker 3: their trans or non binary students by discussing things like
Speaker 3: gender identity could be terminated from their employment just for
Speaker 3: talking to their students about these issues. Gender affirming medical
Speaker 3: care to people under the age of nineteen has been restricted.
Speaker 4: In order states that the US will not fund, sponsor promote,
Speaker 4: assist or support the so called transition of a child
Speaker 4: from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce
Speaker 4: all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life
Speaker 4: altering procedures.
Speaker 3: And really concerningly, people detained in prisons and immigration detention
Speaker 3: centers will no longer have access to gender affirming treatment.
Speaker 3: And so for somebody who's in prison, there's nowhere else
Speaker 3: to go, right, you can't sort of rely on the
Speaker 3: community or use other services. And in a really concerning
Speaker 3: sign for trans people's ability to travel in the US
Speaker 3: or around the world, last week, the newly minted Secretary
Speaker 3: of State Marco Rubio has directed his agency to freeze
Speaker 3: passport applications that contain a request for an ex gender
Speaker 3: marker or for a change gender. White House Press Secretary
Speaker 3: Caroline Leavitt said US citizens will have to use their
Speaker 3: god given sex, which was decided at Perth. And there's
Speaker 3: been an executive order barring trans people from military service.
Speaker 4: President trump'sign an executive order calling transgender people unfit to serve.
Speaker 2: One part says being transgender is quote not consistent with
Speaker 2: the humility and selflessness required of a service member.
Speaker 3: So many people are members of the US military, and
Speaker 3: you know, for many people, it provides a kind of
Speaker 3: lifeline to accessing education and healthcare and things like that.
Speaker 3: So this issue actually impacts a lot more people than
Speaker 3: you might expect, but none of these has occurred in
Speaker 3: a vacuum. We're seeing anti trans legislation and anti LGBTIQA
Speaker 3: plus legislation going on all across the world. Ghana, Bulgaria,
Speaker 3: Georgia all introduced legislation in twenty twenty four, and of
Speaker 3: course in the UK the use of puberty blockers for
Speaker 3: those under eighteen has been banned until at least twenty
Speaker 3: twenty seven. So social conservatives here in Australia will have
Speaker 3: no doubt been paying close attention to what's going on
Speaker 3: in the US.
Speaker 1: Coming up after the break, Will Trump's anti trans tactics
Speaker 1: work here? Sam Or We've seen some Trump style moves
Speaker 1: in Australian politics. How luckily are we to see a
Speaker 1: tax on trans people's rights here in Australia.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've already seen that. This week, the Queensland government
Speaker 3: has announced that it's pausing gender affirming treatment for people
Speaker 3: in the public system under eighteen years of age, so
Speaker 3: young people, which is really really concerning.
Speaker 5: As parents, as communities, as a state, we owe it
Speaker 5: to children to ensure that care is grounded on solid
Speaker 5: evidence and that we act in this contested area and
Speaker 5: this developing area with caution.
Speaker 3: I read the other day that there's four hundred and
Speaker 3: ninety one people who were already on that wait list,
Speaker 3: and so instead of them getting to the front of
Speaker 3: the line, they're just no longer going to be able
Speaker 3: to have access to that. And gender affirming treatment for
Speaker 3: young people is so important because people not having access
Speaker 3: to that is going to cause immediate harm. And data
Speaker 3: from the Transjustice Project and the Victorian Pride Lobby has
Speaker 3: shown that antitrans hate has increased over the last few years,
Speaker 3: and this I think is a direct result of the
Speaker 3: fact that the media spotlight is so often upon us.
Speaker 3: I think it's really likely that we're going to see
Speaker 3: a lot of victriolic coverage about transigender verse people in
Speaker 3: the lead up to the upcoming election.
Speaker 1: And if there is an uptick in victriolic coverage, as
Speaker 1: you say, what do we know about the positions of
Speaker 1: the major parties and whether they'll buy into this.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, last week prominent Nationals MP's Barnaby Joyce and Matt
Speaker 3: Canavan voiced their support for Donald Trump's moves to recognize
Speaker 3: only two sexes, and in a sky News interview, Nationals
Speaker 3: leader David little Proud said he wants to stop trans
Speaker 3: women from participating in women's sports. So I think the
Speaker 3: Nationals have made their position clear on this for the moment.
Speaker 3: It seems that Federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton doesn't appear
Speaker 3: to see explicit attacks on the trans community as being
Speaker 3: an election winner. In response to Little Proud's comments, Dutton
Speaker 3: said that the Coalition had no plans to change our
Speaker 3: position in relation to that issue. Prime Minister Anthony Albanzi,
Speaker 3: I'm sure is also keen to avoid discussing transgender issues.
Speaker 5: The Prime Minister has confirmed a back down on the
Speaker 5: controversy surrounding the census.
Speaker 1: The Albanezy government quietly pulled the lgbt QI census questions
Speaker 1: an attempt to avoid what it said could be a
Speaker 1: divisive debate.
Speaker 3: He was then forced to reverse his decision to remove
Speaker 3: gender and sexuality questions from the census. So he's made
Speaker 3: it pretty clear that he doesn't really want to touch
Speaker 3: lgbt IQA plus issues at all, and I'm sure he
Speaker 3: doesn't want to talk about them or be embroiled in
Speaker 3: a debate in the lead up to this election.
Speaker 1: In Australia, what are the rights that transigender diverse community
Speaker 1: is still trying to achieve.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we're obviously in a much better situation here
Speaker 3: in Australia than we are in the US at the moment.
Speaker 3: We've got, you know, some really important protections under the
Speaker 3: Sex Discrimination Act, and it's various state based equivalents, and
Speaker 3: you know, for that, I'm really really grateful. You know,
Speaker 3: in most states and territories now you can change your
Speaker 3: birth certificate without first undergoing sterilizing surgery, and you can
Speaker 3: update your gender mand on your passport without having had
Speaker 3: a surgical intervention, which is really important. There's also stuff
Speaker 3: like conversion therapy to change or suppress a person's sexuality
Speaker 3: or gender identity that's been prohibited in some states and territories.
Speaker 3: But yeah, there's still so much that we need changed.
Speaker 3: Access to healthcare can be incredibly difficult for transgender diverse
Speaker 3: people of any age, but particularly young people to access
Speaker 3: gender affirming healthcare in rural areas, regional areas, and very
Speaker 3: much remote areas. So that's still something that we really
Speaker 3: really need to change. And street harassment continues. Trans women
Speaker 3: and trans women of color in particular much more likely
Speaker 3: to be harassed, victims of assaults, and so on. And
Speaker 3: this continues and is probably only going to continue when
Speaker 3: there's a vitriolic media debate about us. You know, being
Speaker 3: somebody who is in the trans community, obviously I know
Speaker 3: a lot of trans people, but I am aware that
Speaker 3: we form a very very small minority, less than a
Speaker 3: percent of the Australian population, and the fact that there's
Speaker 3: just so many articles constantly about trans issues is disturbing.
Speaker 1: So Sam, like he said, trans people are a very
Speaker 1: small proportion of the overall population. What do you think
Speaker 1: there is such a focus and obsession even on your
Speaker 1: community from people like Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we're very much in the middle of a
Speaker 3: moral panic around this issue. And I don't think that
Speaker 3: Donald Trump necessarily cares about transigender diverse people either way.
Speaker 3: He's using us to divide and distract the broader US population.
Speaker 3: This is part of Trump's broader attack on what he
Speaker 3: calls the quote unquote woke agenda. But all of this
Speaker 3: is just a smoke screen to help Donald Trump to
Speaker 3: prosecute his agenda, which is to further cut living standards
Speaker 3: to ordinary people engage in mass deportations, cut back the
Speaker 3: public service and give massive tax breaks to the rich.
Speaker 3: At the moment, we're up as the people being focused
Speaker 3: upon to curtail our rights. But I'm sure we won't
Speaker 3: be the last. You know, whenever a tiny subsection of
Speaker 3: the population is being targeted, everybody's rights are up for grabs.
Speaker 1: Sam, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: You can read Sam Malcolm's reporting and tomorrow's edition of
Speaker 1: the Saturday Paper. Sam was a co editor of Nothing
Speaker 1: to Hide, Voices of trans and gender Diverse Australia. Also
Speaker 1: in the news. There's been widespread shock in our cry
Speaker 1: as Donald Trump signed an executive order to reopen on
Speaker 1: Tonamo Bay as a migrant detention center. The Navy base,
Speaker 1: which became infamous during the so called War on Terror
Speaker 1: for torturing inmates held in indefinite attention, will be repurposed
Speaker 1: to hold up to thirty thousand immigrants. The President of
Speaker 1: Cuba is among the critics of the order, calling the
Speaker 1: move quote an act of brutality on a legal occupied
Speaker 1: Cuban territory. ANASA Caesar will not lift the terror threat
Speaker 1: following the discovery of a caravan filled with explosives on
Speaker 1: Sydney's outskirts, alongside a list of Jewish targets. It follows
Speaker 1: as both Prime Minister to Anthony Alberisi and New South
Speaker 1: Wales Premier Chris Mins have condemned the discovery as an
Speaker 1: anti Semitic terror plot. ASIO Director General Mike Burgess says
Speaker 1: the threat level last raised in August last year, has
Speaker 1: unfortunately involved almost exactly as expected. Seven Am as the
Speaker 1: daily show from Schwartz Media and The Saturday Paper. It's
Speaker 1: made by Adigus Bastow, Shane Anderson, Chris Dangate, Eric Jensen,
Speaker 1: Ruby Jones, Sarah mcveee, Travis Evans, Zoltefecio and me Daniel James.
Speaker 1: Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan
Speaker 1: of Envelope Boudier. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.