Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has defended a guide she created which guides people to make submissions to a Victorian parliamentary inquiry on the practices of cults.
Victoria’s Legislative Assembly Legal and Social Issues Committee is currently accepting public submissions to its Inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups.
Deeming’s guide focusses on making submissions that claim “transgender ideology” is an example of cult like behaviour that should be of concern.
The guide is being promoted by Binary, a group that argues against transgender recognition and rights.
They encourage their followers to develop submissions that include the three elements of manipulation, domination, and psychological harm, sharing Deeming’s six page document of “suggested answers”.
The instruction booklet includes a range of answers for each question in the inquiry’s cult and fringe groups survey. Among the suggested submissions are answers for parents, grandparents, siblings and former spouses of people who are transgender.
It also suggests how you can make the most impact to the inquiry by highighting transgender issues from the perspective of a sport coach, mental health worker, health professional or school teacher.
It suggests people should call for the inquiry to have specific outcomes including an investigation into “harm caused by the current sex education curriculum”, “protections in law for gender critical beliefs and protections for whistleblowers or conscientious objectors of gender affirmation practices” and the “removal and dismantling of transgender ideology from institutions”.
OUTinPerth asked Deeming if the inquiry could be relied upon if people were making submissions in which they’d been coached with suggested answers, and why her focus was specifically on transgender ideology rather than all examples of cult and fringe group behaviour in society.
“Many Victorians feel they were and continue to be- coerced, manipulated and harmed by government policies related to transgender ideology and pandemic mandates, exactly as described within the terms of the Inquiry. Upon request, I provided some simple guidance — based on the inquiry’s own published materials — to help people understand which of their experiences would be relevant to the Inquiry. Supporting constituents to make voluntary, truthful submissions to a parliamentary Inquiry is not ‘coaching’.” Deeming said.
Dr. Son Vivienne, CEO of Transgender Victoria, told OUTinPerth that parliamentarians had a responsibility to condemn the push for submissions about people who are transgender.
“Trans people have always existed across history and cultures. Instead of focusing on the genuine harm caused by cults, antagonistic groups like Binary choose to perpetuate unquantifiable harm to transgender, gender diverse and non-binary communities.
“Transgender Victoria calls for strong leadership from Parliament in condemning submissions that are as ludicrous as this.” Dr Vivienne said.
While Deeming cites transgender ideology and pandemic mandates as potential areas of focus for the inquiry, its set up came off the back of concerns within fringe religious groups.
In 2022 concern was raised about practices at the Geelong Revival Centre, a Pentecostal church. Former church members made claims of being forced into marriages, being encouraged to shun medical advice and treatments, and stories of sexual abuse, homophobia, and families being torn apart.
Writing in The Conversation researchers Jaime Simpson and Kathleen Phillips from the University of Newcastle discuss the landmark inquiry highlighting that LGBTIQA+ people have often been the victims of conversion therapy, change and suppression practices, in Evangelical churches. Something which is now illegal in Victoria in 2022.
OUTinPerth also contacted Ella George, the member for Lara, who is the chair of the Legislative Assembly Legal and Social Issues Committee running the inquiry but we did not receive a response.
Submissions to the inquiry close at the end of the month, the committee is due to hand down its findings no later than 30th September 2026.
