Victorian lesbian group cannot exclude transgender and bisexual women from events, tribunal rules
A Victorian lesbian group cannot exclude transgender and bisexual women from its public events as doing so would constitute unlawful discrimination, a tribunal has ruled.
In 2023 the Lesbian Action Group (LAG) applied to the Australian Human Rights Commission for a five-year exemption under the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) to allow it to exclude transgender and bisexual women from its public events.
The commission ruled against the LAG, so the group asked the administrative appeals tribunal, now known as the administrative review tribunal, to overturn the decision.
Exemptions carved into the SDA allow for discrimination in certain cases. The LAG argued that it should be treated similarly to the Peel hotel in Melbourne, wherean exemption under Victorian law enabled it to refuse heterosexual people on the basis that doing so would help gay men achieve equality.
But in his finding, Fenwick said the applicants identified as “a discrete minority within a group in the community that is already identified by their sex and sexual orientation, characteristics that afford them the protection of the SDA”.
