CANBERRA, Australia, October 31, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The prime minister of Australia took a strong stance against “non-binary” public documents for the gender-confused Tuesday, as the opposition party vowed to press the issue if it takes power.
The country’s Labour Party has released a draft of a national platform that commits to supporting identification options “beyond binary male/female” on government documents such as passports, the Daily Mail reports. The party will hold its triennial national party conference in December, where a finalized platform will be voted on.
The proposal claims that letting “people with intersex variations” exercise “autonomy regarding sex/gender markers, and obtain identification options that match their sex characteristics and/or gender identities, as preferred,” is necessary for gender-confused Australians to achieve “equal enjoyment of human rights without discrimination.”
Liberal Party Prime Minister Scott Morrison disagrees, however.
“A Liberal National Government will never remove gender from birth certificates, licenses and passports – who are Labor kidding? Get real,” he said. “This is the problem with Labor, obsessed with nonsense like removing gender from birth certificates rather than lower electricity prices, reducing tax for hard-working families and small businesses.”
[1/2] A Liberal National Government will never remove gender from birth certificates, licenses and passports – who are Labor kidding? Get real. https://t.co/CLk70qL3rI
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) October 31, 2018
[2/2] This is the problem with Labor, obsessed with nonsense like removing gender from birth certificates rather than lower electricity prices, reducing tax for hard-working families and small businesses.
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) October 31, 2018
Independent MP and pro-LGBT activist Alex Greenwich responded by claiming Morrison “should focus on being Prime Minister for all Australians, stop spreading misinformation about the gender diverse community, and start uniting rather than dividing Australians.”
Maybe @ScottMorrisonMP should focus on being Prime Minister for all Australians, stop spreading misinformation about the gender diverse community, and start uniting rather than dividing Australians #didyoulearnnothingfromwentworth https://t.co/rH9dNPDifQ
— Alex Greenwich MP (@AlexGreenwich) October 31, 2018
The dueling comments follow a push by Labour and Green members to cut gender from birth certificates on the Australian island of Tasmania, The Guardian reports. They have introduced a series of amendments that would also bar the registrar of births, deaths and marriages from gathering information about children’s gender, let anyone aged 16 or older declare their “legally recognised gender,” and younger children to declare with the support of at least one parent.
“No other state or territory in Australia has taken the step proposed of removing gender from birth certificates,” Attorney General Elise Archer responded to the push. “For Tasmania to do so, in the absence of any proper consideration of the reform, exposes the state to a range of potentially serious unintended consequences.”