Human Rights Commission releases report on Australian LGBTI issues

The Human Rights Commission has revealed the results of its investigation of issues facing LGBTIQ people in Australia in an extensive report entitled ‘Resilient Individuals: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Rights 2015’.

Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson conducted the research as a means to identify the “many other systemic issues and human rights challenges that urgently need to be addressed” in the LGBTI community and ensure these issues are made visible to the wider community and seek reform to alleviate discrimination.

According to Mr Wilson, “The legacy of State-sanctioned discrimination is significant in its legitimisation of institutional and interpersonal discrimination across society. Governments have had a leading role in creating this culture, and so must also take a lead role in undoing it”.

The report addresses a range of issues that affect the everyday lives of LGBTI people and other overlapping communities.  Mr Wilson identifies the magnitude of systemic discrimination in legislation and culture, with a focus on the workplace and other social arenas.

The report also shines a light on more specific areas of concern, including but not limited to domestic and family violence, religious freedom, LGBTI discrimination in healthcare, LGBTI Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues and conversion therapy.

“Many of the issues that impact on LGBTI people go to the heart of liberal individual human rights, including the dignity of the individual, personal freedom and bodily autonomy”.

To read Resilient Individuals: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Rights 2015 in full heasd to the Human Right’s Comission’s website.

Leigh Hill