Equality Australia weaponises transphobia in fight for intersex kids

Dear Phoebe,

My name is Tony Briffa, and I am proudly intersex.

But it took me a while to feel this way. Throughout my childhood, doctors at a Melbourne hospital carried out medical interventions on my body - hormonal procedures and irreversible surgeries that I didn’t need, didn’t understand, and could not consent to.

It's so weird and discomforting to see argumentsm often used by detransitioners, the trans equivalent of the ex-gay political movement, used to fight for the rights of intersex people. Weirder still, Equality Australia chose the worst to send out to their own mailing list, chock full of trans people interested in defending and improving our access to basic healthcare. And yet, Equality Australia, for the most part, avoids doing so in pieces they've contributed to to the rest of the media.

Tony Briffa, an advocate for intersex people in Victoria, said the bill was about safeguarding every person’s right to make decisions about their own body.

^{Guardian Australia, "Victoria could become first Australian state to ban unnecessary surgery on intersex children", 2/12/2025 🔗}

I, for one, really don't appreciate the terminology used to attack the healthcare of trans kids being used to argue against cissexist medical interventions against intersex children.

If an intersex child seeks a binary existence, it is on them to, with appropriate education, take on their desired puberty with so-called "hormonal procedures" at an appropriate age. Honestly, I am unsure what "hormonal procedures" Tony, and Equality Australia by extension, is referring to in this regard. Pills could potentially be offered daily, injections weekly or longer depending on the formulation. My understanding of masculinising hormonal therapies, of which the email associates with Tony, discourages oral routes in favour of injections or gel applications in the modern era. Again, these would only be offered at an appropriate age for pubescence, as all children up to that point are androgynous. Again, an age where informed consent is appropriate.

As for "irreversible surgeries"...

Virtually all surgery that is not exploratory or diagnostic is irreversible, and I don't see the point in adopting the language used against affirmative treatments and interventions, when you want to discourage it's use elsewhere. At least I presume Equality Australia does, with the perception that Stonewall in the UK has overseen dramatic decline of the rights and medical access for trans people, some of its founders specifically attacking trans support, seeing Queensland Labor members at their state conference seek to add gatekeeping to trans healthcare, and even seeing people seeking election for the Mardi Gras board throw us under the bus under the Trojan horse of "inclusion," knowing full well it means our exclusion.

It came after a similarly fiery motion was debated and passed on Saturday, expressing support for young transgender people affected by the state government's pause on public doctors prescribing puberty blockers for new adolescent patients.

An amendment called for people diagnosed with gender dysphoria to be given counselling before accessing treatment, but that was ultimately voted down.

^{ABC News, "Queensland Labor conference passes motion calling on Commonwealth to take CFMEU out of administration", 30/11/2025 🔗}

Trans people shouldn't have to feel the creeping dread as Equality Australia use these divisive phrases, when they literally should be just talking about bodily autonomy and dignity instead, and to a lesser extent, bodily integrity, where it is undoubtedly only the perspective of the individual child. No doubt some have only heard bodily integrity as some creepy transphobe opining about unwanted "healthy" breast tissue being removed – the undignified way these fascists talk about people's bodies.

The right to keep or alter our bodies as we will, the information we need to accept and access affirming procedures at appropriate ages of development and maturity, and making allowances for life affirming procedures where there is a real physical danger to the child.

Fighting for the rights of intersex people is important, you never need to make others feel worse in doing so by adopting language of their oppressors, especially as our struggles and needs overlap, and dare I say, are potentially related.

It certainly feels to me as a lay person, that if Equality Australia wants to claim victory for happenings related to their activism, they should also accept the defeats, such as the Queensland trans kids who are now routinely denied medical treatment. Equality Australia are certainly not bridging that service gap while they adopt the language of our oppressors.