Australia’s rising tide of anti-LGBTIQA+ sentiment has a clear history

Australians have a long and tainted past of bringing things they shouldn’t into the country. In addition to invasive species and flora, for decades we have imported culture wars from the United States and the United Kingdom, each with its own particularly damaging impact on marginalised communities. 

Attacks have once again been directed at LGBTQIA+ people under the guise of protecting children, with public libraries, school policy and curricula — as well as commercially available books — firmly in the crosshairs both abroad and locally. This can be connected to the rise of coordinated anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment by neo-Nazis and other reactionary groups.

In Australia, such sentiment can be traced to the hysteria surrounding the optional and opt-in anti-bullying program Safe Schools, which, when launched in 2010, served as a model for the fabrication of anti-LGBTQIA+ outrage and the widespread dissemination of misinformation. The program was created in response to teachers’ requests for additional resources to support LGBTQIA+ students — at a time when three in four students had experienced verbal bullying because of their sexual orientation, and more than 50% due to their gender expression.

A small number of parliamentarians, religious lobbying groups and media outlets attacked Safe Schools with such ferocity that it was defunded by the federal government in 2016, despite an independent review of the program’s appropriateness and efficacy concluding that all official resources were consistent with the program’s objective of making LGBTQIA+ students and staff feel safer by reducing homophobic and transphobic behaviour in schools.

In 2017, Australia finally achieved marriage equality following a voluntary, non-binding postal plebiscite, but not before inflicting harm on the mental health of LGBTQIA+ people through the highly divisive public discourse that occurred throughout the campaign. Exposure to homophobic campaigns and media messages was associated with increased levels of depression, anxiety and stress among LGBTQIA+ people.

A mere five years later in America, mainstream conservatives and an increasing number of politicians have echoed extremist rhetoric seeking to draw age-old, spurious connections between the LGBTQIA+ community and “grooming” and “paedophilia”. This transpired alongside the rise of right-wing reactionary movements in the West that have mobilised against LGBTQIA+ people, communities and culture. 

In 2022, there were disruptions of Pride events, attacks on drag storytime and an increase in anti-LGBTQIA+ demonstrations across the United States. Australian extremists took note. An American media watchdog identified that a number of anti-LGBTQIA+ demonstrations were linked to a call-to-action from a far-right, anti-LGBTQIA+ social media account. Then came the anti-trans bills: in 2022, 33 US states introduced 174 anti-trans bills, of which 26 passed. In 2023, so far this has increased to 562 bills across 49 states, with 79 passing.

In Australia, local neo-Nazis and anti-LGBTIQA+ groups began formulating plans to put their rhetoric into action. In September 2022, they demonstrated and disrupted a family-friendly youth Pride festival in Moonee Ponds. They also threatened Stonnington Youth Services, which was planning a youth Pride event for the end of the year, resulting in the event’s abrupt cancellation in December.

In March 2023, members of the far-right Nationalist Socialist Movement gathered on the steps of the Victorian Parliament for an anti-trans rally. They carried a banner that read “DESTROY PEADO FREAKS” and performed the Sieg Heil salute, while Melbourne Activist Legal Support observed the neo-Nazis chanting “kill paedo freaks” at trans-rights protesters. In opposition to a sold-out drag queen story time event, they labelled a City of Monash councillor a “paedophile” and disrupted a council meeting in April 2023. 

In Victoria alone, these groups have successfully disrupted at least 15 local councils and forced the cancellation of many Pride events around the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, employing the strategies and replicating the language used in the United States. Emboldened and with a blueprint in hand, they now have no reason to stop on their own volition.

As well as organised hate groups, this sustained pattern of discrimination is on the rise in national media coverage, with Australian media resorting to parroting their American counterparts when reporting on LGBTQIA+ matters. 

On July 10 and 11 in 2023, a student-led initiative at a Melbourne secondary school involving the addition of small Pride and Aboriginal flags to a non-compulsory school puffer jacket dominated the news cycle. In coverage all too reminiscent of Fox News, outlets took turns manufacturing outrage, platforming views labelling the jacket “not right” (3AW) and “stupid and distracting” (Sky News); declaring that the jacket had “sparked scandal” (9NEWS); and suggesting that it was “forcing a political agenda” onto children (news.com.au), with local Melbourne radio presenter Neil Mitchell describing it as “an attack of woke“.

Wear it Purple Day, which occurs August 25, should be a moment of celebration for and of LGBTIQIA+ young people in Australia, but instead the LGBTIQIA+ community is preparing to feel the force of this rising tide once more.