All I can say is that I am glad that I am not on the Australian Human Rights Commission, and having to work out all the twists and turns of stories like this one! Ah, I remember the days of the 1950s, when the world was simple and homogeneous, the commos were the bad guys over there, not next door, where we ate a nice high cholesterol meat pie with "dead horse" (sauce) for lunch, sometimes even a nasty pasty, washed down by a cold beer. Maybe two. Or three. Where did that world vanish to?
"A lawyer for a Victorian lesbian group that wants to exclude transgender and bisexual women from its public events has compared its request to a Melbourne gay bar that was granted the right to refuse heterosexual people.
But a lawyer for the Australian Human Rights Commission said the Peel hotel's exemption had been granted under Victorian state law to help gay men achieve equality, unlike the Lesbian Action Group's application, which discriminates against transgender women.
The Lesbian Action Group (LAG) has asked the administrative appeals tribunal to overturn the human rights commission's October decision preventing it from excluding transgender and bisexual women from its public events.
During hearings in Melbourne on Monday and Tuesday, the presiding member, Stewart Fenwick, heard the LAG maintains that transgender women are men and seeks to discriminate against them under provisions in the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) that carve out space for lawful discrimination for the purpose of achieving equality.
The LAG's seven members claim they need to hold public events – as opposed to private events that are not subject to the same laws – for the advocacy and wellbeing of lesbian feminists."
Ok, got it!