LGBTQI Policy
LGBTQI Rights Under Capitalism
Capitalism is a system that relies on the exploitation of the overwhelming majority of the population to enrich a tiny minority. The fabulously wealthy know that if the working class unites and fights back then the capitalist system of oppression and exploitation will collapse. To prevent this, they create and inflame conflicts within the working class based on categories such as race, gender and sexuality. By creating relatively privileged groups and encouraging bigotry and discrimination, they have successfully divided the working class and kept it fighting amongst itself. LGBTQI people are targets of bigotry and discrimination in capitalist Australia. In parts of this country, the “gay panic” defence is still on the books as a legal justification for murdering gay and trans people. Although the South Australian government is set to finally abolish this principle, it is a stark reminder of discrimination in Australian society. Anti discrimination legislation has only recently been updated to protect LGBTQI people but still contains exemptions that allow private schools and hospitals to discriminate against students and staff based on their gender or sexuality. Under the guise of “religious freedom”, conservative forces are fighting to maintain this discrimination and spread bigoted messages.
Some religious communities force LGBTQI people to undergo “conversion therapy” where they try to suppress gender and sexual identities. Anti-LGBTQI violence and harassment is also a major threat. We support an end to all forms of discrimination, regardless of whether they are based on race, gender, sexuality or other categories. To this end, we propose the following immediate steps:
Seek elimination of discrimination against LGBTQI people.
Abolish existing laws that seek to protect discrimination against LGBTQI people on the basis of religious grounds, and oppose any attempts to introduce such laws.
Abolish exemptions within current anti-discrimination laws that allow private schools and hospitals to discriminate against LGBTQI people.
Propose legislation to extend anti-discrimination laws to cover and protect LGBTQI people.
Abolish legal defences that protect attackers in homophobic/trans-phobic assaults.
Ban “conversion therapy”.
Introduce anti-LGBTQI vilification laws.
Sound, non-judgemental medical and associated services for transgender individuals pursuing gender-affirming treatments.
Ban unnecessary medical interventions on infants born with intersex characteristics.
These are our immediate goals and although they are necessary, we recognise that they won’t fundamentally solve the problems faced by LGBTQI people, nor prevent capitalism from inventing new categories of people to discriminate against. The hard won rights of LGBTQI and other minority groups cannot be guaranteed in a capitalist system and are subject to being rolled back at any time. The exploitative ideology of capitalism will continue to poison the thinking of ordinary Australians and engender bigotry, to the detriment of both oppressed peoples and working class unity.
At the same time, radical liberals have appropriated the genuine struggles of LGBTQI people and attempted to use them to divide the working class in the face of the struggle against capitalism. They emphasise tokenistic efforts over practical work that really improves the lives of LGBTQI people. To these elements, it is more important to increase LGBTQI representation on corporate boards than to abolish corporations all together. In their minds, a corporation expressing “woke” messaging excuses its exploitation of LGBTQI workers. The ACP rejects these attempts and emphasises that the fight for LGBTQI rights must be united with the working class struggle to end capitalism.
Wiping out discrimination requires a new, non-exploitative, society that doesn’t promote discrimination: a socialist society. We believe that the best way to achieve and permanently guarantee the rights of LGBTQI people is to unite, organise and lead the working class to fight for and build a socialist society. In this way, all people who are oppressed and discriminated against in capitalist society will be liberated.
