We are living through a time in which questions of gender, anti-sexism and gendered violence are of the utmost importance. Scott Morrison’s government is set to introduce its Religious Discrimination Bill to Parliament by December this year, which aims to remove important protections for LGBTQIA+ people. Just last month, One Nation introduced an anti-trans motion in the Senate that condemned the use of lifesaving medical treatments for trans children, which was supported by a number of Coalition MPs. It is more important than ever for trade unions and the left to stand by trans people and take a hard and uncompromising stance against transphobia.

In light of this, it is deeply disappointing that in response to the pitched battle occurring on the University of Melbourne campus around transphobia, Socialist Alternative has chosen not to support but rather attack the campaign in defence of trans rights: https://www.facebook.com/100068914222417/posts/120008896972917/?d=n

Behind a smoke screen of academic freedom, a senior academic is prosecuting the vicious and demeaning argument that trans women are dangerous and a threat to cisgendered women. The academic’s transphobic website ‘No Conflict They Said’ exists to spread the idea that trans women present a threat in ‘women only spaces’ like bathrooms, change rooms and family and domestic violence shelter accommodation. In doing this, the academic in question echoes recent attacks on trans and gender diverse people from Scott Morrison and the Christian right, invoking old and familiar arguments around gender and sexual diversity: that LGBTQIA+ people are deviants, predatory, disordered and dangerous. This same academic, who openly promotes transphobia, also teaches a winter course ‘PHIL20046 - Feminism’ in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies which includes intellectually spurious content and materials, such as comparing the transgender experience to so-called ‘transracialism’.

In response, activists in the student union, the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) and the University of Melbourne Branch of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) have rightly mobilised against this transphobia on our campus, with a number of other university casuals networks passing motions in support of transgender staff and students.
 
Socialist Alternative have launched an attack on this campaign, making the strange claim that it has been about ‘shielding people from bigotry rather than arguing and fighting’. There is nothing wrong with seeking to ‘shield’ oppressed people from bigotry, indeed this is what activists and trade unionists do when they fight in their workplaces and on the streets against oppression, whether it is racist government policy, anti-worker laws or in this case, open transphobia. What’s at issue is how we go about that. But the notion that the campaign at the University of Melbourne avoided ‘arguing and fighting’ is incorrect. Staff and students mobilised twice at the beginning of this year in loud, militant demonstrations, some of the biggest demonstrations we have seen on campus since COVID-19 broke out. These demonstrations were aimed squarely at the university, calling for an end to transphobia in courses and tutorials and for the university to publicly condemn the transphobic website. Comrades in the NTEU also spent many hours discussing the issue within the union and arguing (successfully) for the branch to take a position that stood with our trans and gender diverse colleagues and students.
 
The crux of the issue it seems for Socialist Alternative is the university’s introduction of a ‘gender affirmation policy’ which they call  ‘reactionary and dangerous’. In fact it is a statement against transphobia, which suggests that the university would refuse permission to host transphobic events on campus. What Socialist Alternative fails to understand is that this is a response to significant pressure placed on management following the student and staff campaign.
 
Of course, the gender affirmation policy will not stop transphobia at the University of Melbourne. However, for those of us who are staff and students at the University of Melbourne, the fact that it will make it harder for transphobic events to be hosted in our workplace and place of learning is a win for those committed to the fight against transphobia. This is not merely an abstract question, the university has repeatedly been used as a venue to host transphobic events. Notably in 2019 when the Victorian Women’s Guild hosted a forum on campus to oppose the gender recognition reforms proposed by Andrews government. At the time, this event was rightfully met by protest from students and staff.

Socialist Alternative’s opposition to the Gender Affirmation Policy and criticism of the staff-led open letter in opposition to transphobia on the University of Melbourne campus seems to rest on the same ‘free speech’ arguments we hear time and time again from the right, from Liberal governments and the mainstream media. They quote the open letter which quite rightly states ‘academic freedom does not mean the freedom to spread misinformation and incite hatred’ and then go on to argue ‘This distinction between free speech and hate speech is extremely slippery...Who exactly gets to decide what constitutes hate speech?’ Does this mean that Socialist Alternative agrees with George Brandis’ infamous statement in support of the repealing of the Racial Discrimination Act that ‘people have the right to be bigots’? We would certainly hope not.

It is similarly disturbing to see Socialist Alternative downplay the significance of transphobia at the University of Melbourne. They argue:
 
“The radical feminist brand of transphobia has rightly been met with political opposition on and off campus in recent years. As a result it has been politically pushed back and marginalised….We also need to recognise that transphobic feminists are far from being the most virulent or powerful opponents of trans rights.”
 
This fails entirely to recognise an essential feature of contemporary transphobia, namely that transphobic feminists have played a significant role in leading targeted, conservative campaigns and attacks in opposition to trans and LGBTQIA+ rights. We have seen this most clearly in the United Kingdom around the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Since a review of the Act was announced in 2017, transphobic feminists joined the right in a fight against reforms that would allow trans people to self-determine their gender. Amidst a climate of moral panic and transphobia, the UK government has backed down on these important reforms. It is also entirely contradictory to argue that ‘political opposition’ has marginalised transphobia on campuses, and yet launch an attack on a campaign that is trying to do exactly that.

We, the undersigned, hope that Socialist Alternative will change course and lend its support to the fight against transphobia, both at the University of Melbourne and on other campuses.
 
Signatories

Geraldine Fela, NTEU delegate and branch committee member University of Melbourne

Amelia Bright, UMSU Queer Office Bearer

Laura Ehrensperger, UMSU Queer Office Bearer

Dr Hannah McCann, University of Melbourne

Pan Karanikolas, Casuals Network Member, La Trobe University

Rosie Joy Barron, NTEU member, University of Melbourne, CUPUW member

Andie Moore, University of Melbourne NTEU delegate

Ciara O'Sullivan, University of Melbourne

Kate Davison, Gilbert Postdoctoral Career Development Fellow, Faculty of Arts & School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, NTEU member.

Ashley Thomson, CUPUW, NTEU, ANU

Dr Marcus Banks, NTEU Delegate, RMIT

Hamish McIntosh, NTEU member, University of Melbourne

Dani Cotton, NTEU Delegate, University of Sydney

Hannah Krasovec, UMSU Education Public Affairs Officer, University of Melbourne

Judith McVey, PhD candidate, NTEU member, University of Sydney