Activist Jessica Hoyle is campaigning for the right to lesbian-only space – which, in an ironic twist of fate, is currently prohibited in Tasmania due to the Anti-Discrimination Act.
To Hoyle, these community spaces are a lifeline. “In Tasmania the lesbian community is hugely disadvantaged,” she says, “because we are female and we are same-sex attracted. Lesbian-only spaces matter because we need to feel free from the harassment of men. And to be able to freely associate with one another in a safe environment.”
Last year, on behalf of LGB Alliance Tasmania, Hoyle applied for legal permission to make the organization’s lesbian-only events single-sex. Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Sarah Bolt then banned LGB Alliance Tasmania from hosting lesbian events that exclude transwomen, claiming single-sex lesbian spaces violated equalities law.
But Hoyle believed this decision actually discriminated against lesbians, and contested the ruling through the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Sixteen months later, we have a verdict. The tribunal ruled against Hoyle, on the basis that there’s insufficient justification for lesbian-only spaces.
To Hoyle, this result is an attack on lesbian rights. “It is pretty clear from this ruling that lesbians and women have zero rights to freedom of association,” she says. “Nor [recognition of] belonging to a minority group. This ruling is misogynistic and lesbophobic in nature.”
Tribunal member Kate Cuthbertson also commented on the verdict: “While the applicants may not wish to comply with the [Anti-Discrimination] Act and find aspects of its application to transgender and transsexual women irksome, particularly in the context of the event they would like to hold, that is not a sufficient justification.”
Rose Boccalatte, of Equality Tasmania, welcomed the tribunal ruling. “This decision upholds the integrity of our gold-standard Anti-Discrimination Act and sends the message that trans and gender diverse people are equally protected by that Act.”
But as Hoyle previously pointed out, transgender people have the right to gather as a community. There are transgender-only groups and events within Tasmania. And lesbians are now being denied the exact same right.
Hoyle does not accept the result. “This decision erases the rights of women and freedom of association for lesbians,” she said. “It is harmful to everyday, average lesbian women and gay men, who just want to be able to meet one another in a safe environment, and not have members of the opposite sex harass us.
“I’m all for transgender and transsexual [people] having their own events, their own spaces, but not [to] force themselves on to anybody else’s rights. We are seeing in this country the erasure of women’s rights.”
Through decreeing that lesbians can’t legally exclude males from their spaces, Hoyle argues that “Tasmania has shown they are in support of state sanctioned conversion practices. These are deeply homophobic laws enacted under the guise of inclusivity. Lesbians have the right to their own spaces, and to have their boundaries respected and protected under law.”
Despite this defeat, Hoyle is determined to continue defending lesbian-only space. She’s now crowdfunding to mount a legal challenge through the High Court. “This whole process has shown me how homophobic Tasmania has become in more recent times, specifically towards lesbian women – who are exclusively same-sex attracted.”
