A group of women wanted to ban trans people from their public meet-ups… their two-year battle has come to a ‘devastating’ end

A lesbian group has lost its battle to ban transgender and bisexual women from its public events following a two-year legal battle.

Lesbian Action Group wanted a five-year exemption under the Sex Discrimination Act and made an application to the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2023.

The Victorian-based group lost its bid and attempted to appeal the decision at the Administrative Review Tribunal before it was shot down again on Monday.

Spokeswoman Carole Ann told Daily Mail Australia the ruling was ‘devastating’. 

‘The lesbian community in Australia has been decimated over the past few decades,’ she said.

‘We’re a huge country so it is really difficult to find each other unless we can advertise publicly and the numbers of women who have been able to find each other has dwindled.

‘On dating apps there are men on there, anything else has to include the whole rainbow family plus whoever wants to go.

‘Without an exemption we are back in the closet basically.’

Lesbian Action Group wanted a five-year exemption under the Sex Discrimination Act and made an application to the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2023 

Ms Ann said that LAG had formed to challenge the Sex Discrimination Act and other laws that stopped lesbians from excluding non-biological women from their publicly advertised events.  

‘The cohort I came up with, we had lots of events in the 80s,’ she said.

‘We were able to do that and we weren’t being infiltrated and we weren’t being taken to court

‘Since we have had to go underground we’ve all grown older – those who come after us have no idea there is a lesbian community.

‘The younger ones in particular are very, very isolated.’

Ms Ann said there should be an allowance for lesbian-only meetings and events. 

‘Everything is under the LGBTIQ-plus umbrella that has include everyone,’ she said.

‘They have nothing in common with trans or queer or even gay men. We need our own spaces to be able to make connections and just feel that we are not alone.’ 

Spokeswoman Carole Ann told Daily Mail Australia the ruling was 'devastating'

Spokeswoman Carole Ann told Daily Mail Australia the ruling was ‘devastating’

In his judgement, Tribunal senior member Stewart Fenwick said the LAG sought ‘to actively discriminate against another group identifiable by their gender identity, a characteristic also protected under the SDA’.

Ms Ann claimed it was lesbians who were being discriminated against, ‘but they are twisting it to say we are discriminating’.

‘Any sensible thinking person would realise that’s the ridiculous thing,’ she said.

The LAG is considering whether it will appeal again, which could involve going back to the tribunal or taking the case higher to the Federal Court.

Ms Ann said the legal battle had been ‘draining’ and forced her to put life on hold for two years when she should be enjoying retirement, but insisted the fight was not over. 

‘We didn’t think we could beat the law and get an exemption, so our main aim was to raise awareness to put it out there as widely and as loudly as possible the insanity of it,’ she said.

‘A lot of people sit on the fence about men being women but when you say they are lesbians people go, “What? That doesn’t make sense”.

‘We are disappointed but not despondent. One way or another we are going to keep fighting.’

References to men and women, male and female were removed from the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 via amendments in 2013 under the Gillard Labor government in 2013 that removed biological definitions.

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