The newly-formed Lesbian Action Group in Victoria recently applied to the Australian Human Rights Commission for an exemption from anti-discrimination laws to host an event exclusively for lesbian bisexual women (i.e. exclusively same-sex attracted females).

Although the Victorian Pride Centre had initially accepted the lesbian group’s request to host an event, the Centre backpedalled when they learnt it was intended as a single-sex event, cancelling the request and providing a rejection letter to the group. The Victorian Pride Centre has previously hosted trans-only events.

In response to the exemption application, Equality Australia chief executive Anna Brown accused the Lesbian Action Group of sowing division, stating, “the lesbians I know and the parties that I attend include all women and their friends, including trans women and non-binary people.”

Equality Australia is a prominent national organisation that describes itself as seeking to “improve the wellbeing and circumstances of LGBTIQ+ people in Australia”. The attitude and derisiveness shown by its CEO towards lesbians shows the double standard, with lesbians unfairly discriminated against and disadvantaged by the same groups that purport to represent them.

In an interview with Sky News, Nicole Mowbray, member of both LGB Alliance Australia and the Lesbian Action Group, describes “the new homophobia” lesbians are experiencing. When asked for her thoughts on Anna Brown’s statement, Nicole responded,

“That’s great for them…have your mixed events. No problem with that at all. But respect that there are lesbians out there - and the vast majority of us, I’d have to say - we would like the option to have a single-sex event”.

LGB Alliance Australia, like other LGB Alliances around the world, was formed in response to large LGBTQ organisations failing to adequately represent the needs of LGB individuals due to the clash of rights and interests between same-sex sexual orientation and gender identity.

Although we support the continued existence of mixed-sex events for the LGBTQ community, that lesbians - unlike other groups in the rainbow alphabet - are unable to hold lesbian-only events evidences the dual discrimination lesbians are faced with. Lesbian women being unable to meet in a public event intended only for same-sex attracted women is the combination of sexism and homophobia, unfairly targeting lesbians. In comparison, gay men have successfully been granted single-sex exemptions, and trans-only events take place across the country.

As lesbians are exclusively same-sex attracted, denying them the right to gather in single-sex spaces forces lesbians into romantic settings with members of the opposite-sex. This make them targets for unwanted romantic or sexual advances by males, as well as harassment on grounds of their sexual orientation; at settings that should be deemed a ‘safe space’, no less.

You can find out more about the Lesbian Action Group here, including their statement of purpose and a historical timeline detailing previous exemption applications for lesbian-only events which have been denied.

Watch Nicole’s excellent interview with Rita Panahi from Sky News below, detailing the lawful discrimination lesbians in Australia are currently encountering.