As the United Nations independent expert on preventing violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, I have the privilege of working alongside LGBT communities and activists all over the world.

In every country I visit as part of my mandate, I am consistently moved by the courage and perseverance of local trans communities who face daily attempts of negation or vilification of their identities.

As I find this community all too often excluded in policy decision-making and discourse, I always strive to give the utmost consideration to the voices of trans people.

I believe that when the magnificent Argentinian trans activist Lohana Berkins said

We must continue to bear the audacity of our bodies, to display them to a society that fails to understand the fragility of our lives,

she captured well the dilemmas of a community which in the past few decades has made extraordinary progress in the furtherance of its human rights, but whose members maintain a reported life expectancy of just 35 years in some parts of the world.

This is why in light of recent attempts in the Australian media and public debate to paint transgender youth – and the doctors who serve them – as part of a new “social fad” or “ideology”, I wish to state in the strongest terms possible that such narratives are not only profoundly incorrect, but also perpetuate harmful stereotypes which delegitimise the identities of trans people and ultimately impede access to their human rights.

I sincerely hope that all persons interested in this issue would listen to the voices of trans persons and their families. If they listen to only a fraction of the stories that I have heard, they would no doubt recognise the struggle that is their everyday life, and that is worthy of respect and solidarity.

Gender diversity has existed at all times and across all societies. Trans people are by no means part of some new “idea” or “ideology” being brought to Australia.

Countries, including Australia, and which together comprise a quarter of the world’s population, recognise in both law and cultural traditions ways of being male or female with a different gender history and of course myriad identities of being neither male or female.

This includes yimpininni of the Indigenous Tiwi people in Australia’s Northern Territory, as well as fa’afafine in Samoa, two spirit in Canada and the United States, hijra in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, travesti in Brazil and Argentina, muxe in Mexico, waria in Indonesia, and countless other kinds of non-binary people valued in societies on every continent.

Unfortunately reliable data that would enable good decision-making on policies related to gender diverse people is extremely limited, an issue further compounded by the fact that policy makers rarely make the effort to engage with trans communities and gender diverse people.

From the limited data which exists we know that trans people experience disproportionate rates of violence and discrimination, as well as encounter difficulty in accessing a range of basic services.

The Australian Human Rights Commission, for example, reports that trans and gender diverse people report comparatively poorer outcomes across a range of social performance indicators, especially physical and mental health.

For my 2018 report to the UN general assembly, I highlighted public policy issues faced by trans people around the world and I am pleased to note that ahead of my 2019 report the submissions by the Australian government and the commission included best practices, lessons learned and challenges identified while implementing a number of trans-inclusive laws and policies.

Yet wherever there is progress there appears to be the risk of backlash. When trans lives achieve visibility, it is common that voices in the public discourse portray their very existence as a danger to a country’s social fabric, national identity, or even children.

I am of the view that some aspects of the public debate in Australia misrepresent the lived realities of trans people, particularly trans youth.

Australian trans youth are not being influenced by social media as part of a social fad, and classifying trans-inclusive healthcare as “experimental”, “gender engineering”, or as part of a broader political agenda is reductive and offensive to a deeply personal decision which is often made at great risk to a person’s own safety.

In this context, access to trans-specific healthcare, identity documents, or even bathrooms, are basic human rights and must be treated as such.

Trans lives are not sinful by definition, are not disordered by definition, and certainly are not immoral by definition. Stigma automatically associating trans people with sin, illness and crime must be dismantled.

Australia has made great strides on this front and I am convinced that rather than “othering”, demonising or scaremongering, the best way to continue this progress is through a public narrative that is evidence-based and respectful of human rights, and places the people most affected by public policy decisions, trans and gender diverse people themselves, at the forefront of the conversation.