Trans rights are under attack in the US. What does this mean for Australia?

Trans rights have come under sustained attack from right-wing culture warriors, who have exploited narratives about trans athletes and youth accessing puberty blockers to incite fear and moral panic. Well-funded and highly coordinated anti-trans activists are waging war on the most vulnerable members in order to open the door for attacks on the broader LGBTIQA+ community and women’s reproductive rights. It is important to understand that these attacks are not simply an organic backlash against LGBTIQA+ visibility, but rather part of a coordinated, and well-funded movement intent on weaponising fear to shape the social and political agenda. 

On the whole, Australia is very accepting of LGBTIQA+ folk. People travel from all over the world to party at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and report feeling safe here. As increasing numbers of same-sex couples felt secure enough to be visible, the public's perception shifted from one of ignorance and fear to one of growing acceptance as friends and family members shared their personal stories. However, few of us will personally know openly trans people, and their lack of visibility makes narratives of fear and vilification so much easier to take hold of the public imagination, especially as Hollywood has long portrayed the trans community through harmful stereotypes—either as dangerous and mentally unstable, like in Psycho and Silence of the Lambs, or as the butt of a joke. This narrative has flattened out and erased the nuance of trans people's lives, making it harder for the public to empathise with their plight. 

In reality, it is trans folk who are not safe, not at home, at work or in public spaces, such as in public bathrooms. According to a 2015 US report by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), 46% of trans folk experienced harrassment for being trans, nearly 1 in 10 experienced assault, roughly half had experienced sexual assault, 1 in 10 having experienced it in the past year, more than half had experienced domestic violence, 65% had experienced homelessness, and the statistics got even worse for black trans folk. These statistics reveal the terrifying lived reality for trans folk who are the most marginalised and vulnerable members of our community. The truth is trans folk are far more likely to be the victims of sexual assault or violence than to be perpetrators, despite what JK Rowling and her friends continue to imply. They face near constant discrimination from all fronts, within systems such as schools, healthcare, employment, and housing as well as from family and religious communities. 

But these lived realities are not nearly as attention-grabbing as trans women winning sporting events. The corporate media plays a role in sensationalising and flattening out the complexity of trans lives, by focusing on the outrage-generating stories of sports and puberty blockers, while failing to tell the stories of the majority of trans folk who just want to live free from fear, and have the right to make decisions about their bodies. 

While public ignorance and prejudice, combined with the profit-seeking of media outlets, have certainly added to the current hysteria, it is important to understand the disinformation ecosystem and political power and wealth that are behind the media headlines.

Who are the TERFs? Moreover, why did JK Rowling fall into the Far-Right conspiracy rabbit hole?

How did JK Rowling go from writing books warning of the dangers of fascism to connecting with and amplifying far-right voices calling for the extermination of trans folk? To understand how a liberal feminist found herself falling down a disinformation spiral leading to Posie Parker and friends, we must understand how these information ecosystems collaborate to pull new members in through gateway ideologies such as Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF).

Because TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists) has become a slur, those who adhere to the ideology prefer to call themselves Gender Critical Feminists, a movement particularly prominent in the UK. Proponents assert that sex is biological, immutable and binary, rather than accepting current evidence that sex exists along a spectrum (Ainsworth, 2018). TERFs believe one is born a woman, and they cannot change that fact, regardless of how they identify themselves, thereby rejecting the idea that trans women can ever be included within the category of ‘woman’. This opens the door to excluding trans women from ‘women’s spaces’ such as women’s toilets, shelters, and prisons, however they have little to say about the overwhelming evidence that shows trans women are not safe in male spaces.

While some TERFs argue that there should be ‘other’ non-gendered spaces created, in reality, the trans community is not large enough for public spaces to invest in building additional ‘other’ toilets. There are simply not enough athletes to build a league of ‘other’ athletes, and so this framing is often a means to exclude trans folk from public spaces and from participating in society. By framing trans women as men, and thus a threat to ‘real’ women, TERFs keep the public distracted from questioning why it is that trans women are scared to use men’s bathrooms. Because that would draw attention to the lived threat of violence trans women face from men, and place the spotlight on cis gendered men, who are overwhelmingly the perpetrators of violence against women. 

So, how do women who claim to be against gendered violence end up sharing space with and promoting conservative, far-right commentators, who propose a return to a traditional, highly gendered, patriarchal society? 

 I’ll use the term ‘far-right’ to encompass culture warriors, the religious right, christian conservatives, right-wing think tanks and conspiracy groups such as QAnon and Gays against Groomers. These groups coalesce around a shared distrust of government and government interventions, such as social welfare programs or diversity initiatives, as well as holding a more traditional, binary, or fixed view on social issues, including gender and sex. It is in this space that TERFs find their goals aligned, and why, when JK Rowling first wrote about her fears that trans women were a threat to women's spaces, the culture warriors of the far-right were quick to sense a gap into which they could take advantage of women’s fears in order to further their agendas. 

The far-right often uses culture wars as a tactic, amplifying polarising issues—usually those that sound scary and are poorly understood—to divide society. This strategy flattens the nuance of complex social issues, turning them into simplistic points of conflict. Culture warfare has been used devastatingly in Australia on issues such as climate change, immigration and Indigenous rights. 

Framing trans women as a threat to women and children makes them an easy target for conspiracy communities to latch onto, as they have already gathered their members around a perceived battle to ‘save the children’ from evil. Many of these conspiracy communities have grown to include many anti-vaxx, holistic therapies and crunchy mummy groups, as well as neo-facists. Anti-trans organisations like Genspect use these spaces to spread disinformation, misrepresent scientific research, and promote debunked theories to undermine support for gender-affirming care. The far-right aim to block young trans people from accessing medical care, often driven by religious or political agendas. Right-wing media channels then amplify this disinformation, giving a platform to prominent TERF activists. 

Far-right groups such as the Heritage Foundation often fund TERF organisations, and use the trans community as a wedge in order to further their agenda (Turner, 2022). A recent release of 2600 emails has revealed that anti-trans bills are part of a coordinated strategy to form alliances of conservative lawmakers and powerful lobby groups, including anti-trans medical misinformation groups (Kaladelfos, A., & Lixinski, L.). Progressive voices, such as JK Rowling, have been particularly useful in spreading fear and confusion because they cut across the traditional left-right political alliances and give legitimacy to and extend the reach of far-right organisations. 

In Australia, anti-trans campaigners have spoken at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), further cementing their alliance and utilising trans issues to further political gains (Turner, 2022). The far-right have used the anti-trans agenda to gain public attention in order to grow their base and further their agendas on things such as LGBTIQA+ and women’s rights, starting with women’s reproductive rights, as seen in the US. As religious groups further influence right-wing politics, those considered outside of traditional conservative norms will see their rights come under attack. This is why it’s important to place attacks on trans folk within the larger political agenda, led by and fueled by religious conservatives, who in attacking trans rights, seek to open the flood gates to further attack the rights of those they see as not conforming to their values. 

In 2025, the QLD government decided to block young trans people from accessing puberty blockers and cross sex hormones, a move widely criticised by medical and human rights experts and trans advocates as lacking credible medical expertise and the involvement of the trans community (Messenger, 2025). Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown (2025) has stated that “​​this will be catastrophic for young trans people and their families when the evidence on the benefits of hormone treatments is clear and well established”. The rolling back of medical care for young trans people comes off the back of the fear campaigns we have already discussed, and represents the tangible ways public fear is weaponised to override medical expertise and further endanger the trans community.

Then there was the 2022 Religious Discrimination Bill, which sought to protect religious groups' right to discriminate against others, such as LGBTIQA+ communities, under the guise of their religious freedom. Although it was defeated in Parliament, it reveals a disturbing power dynamics at play between right-wing politicians and Christian lobby groups. 

Australia’s political landscape differs considerably from that of the US in significant ways, we have compulsory voting and a preferential system, which steer our politics towards the centre rather than the fringes. As a result, anti-trans scaremongering hasn’t been as effective here as it has in the US. However, powerful, well-funded elites are building coalitions to attack trans people, and this narrative does reach and influence our politics and society, making it important to centre the very real struggles for survival that trans people face each day. 

In order to inoculate ourselves from furthering anti-trans rhetoric, we need to listen to the trans community, approach these issues not with fear, but with open-minded curiosity, which allows us to see trans folk as human, like us. We must see beyond the cultural framing of trans folk as an easy target for a joke, or as posing a threat to women and children, and show up for trans people by challenging these dangerous narratives. By listening, learning and amplifying trans perspectives, we become allies, we protect those currently under attack, and we resist those who seek to divide us in order to further their agendas. Trans folk deserve to live free from fear, poverty, and sexual assault, and to be allowed to seek the medical care they need to live. Whenever marginalised communities are under attack, we need to actively seek out their perspectives and centre their voices, resisting any temptation to oversimplify and lean on stereotypes when we do not have the lived experiences needed to understand their lives. 

Sources:

Ainsworth, C (2018). Sex Redefined: The Idea of 2 Sexes Is Overly Simplistic. Nature.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-redefined-the-idea-of-2-sexes-is-overly-simplistic1/

Davies, C, & Skinner, R (May 2025). Benefits of gender affirming care outweigh risks, experts say
https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2025/05/21/gender-affirming-care-benefits-outweigh-risks-experts-weigh-in.html#:~:text=Together%2C%20these%20published%20outcomes%20are,their%20future%20after%20starting%20hormones

Equality Australia (2025). Qld’s hormone ban for trans youth slammed by medical experts and human rights groups.
https://equalityaustralia.org.au/qlds-hormone-ban-for-trans-youth-slammed-by-medical-experts-and-human-rights-groups/#:~:text=January%2028%2C%202025-,Qld's%20hormone%20ban%20for%20trans%20youth%20slammed%20by%20medical%20experts,blockers%20and%20cross%20sex%20hormones

Kaladelfos, A. & Lixinski, L. (accessed 2025). Explainer: Anti-trans laws on the rise in the United States.
https://www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au/research/commentary/explainer-anti-trans-rights-bills-united-states

Lixinski, L. (2025). Explainer: What happened to the Religious Discrimination Bill?
https://www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au/research/commentary/explainer-what-happened-religious-discrimination-bill

Messenger, A. (2025, June). Queensland’s puberty blockers review panel criticised for lacking gender experts and trans lived experience.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/05/queenslands-puberty-blockers-review-panel-criticised-for-lacking-gender-experts-and-trans-lived-experience

National Centre for Transgender Equality (NCTE) (2015)
https://vawnet.org/material/2015-us-transgender-survey-report

Turner, J. (2022, March). Trans People Are Under Attack In The US. Here’s What That Means For Australia. Junkee. https://archive.junkee.com/trans-rights-us-australia/326213

Turner, J. (2023). The Anti-Trans Movement Framework. The Commons.
https://commonslibrary.org/the-anti-trans-movement/

Writer: Yuki Lindley
Editor: Teagan Marsh
Photography: Image by Thiago Rocha from Unsplash