Trans woman Margot Fink says her identity is not up for debate. Photo: Supplied

Earlier this month, the Ethics Centre caused outrage when they announced the topic of their next debate. Originally titled 'A Trans Wo/man Can Never Be Fe/male', the debate raises a dangerous and harmful question about the legitimacy of trans identities.

Following widespread anger on their Facebook page at both the title and the very premise of the event, the Ethics Centre published a response, saying they never intended to "question the experience, validity or existence of trans people".

Furthermore, they said members of the trans community had been consulted, which gave the impression they had achieved community support for the topic.

I was one of those transgender people they supposedly consulted with.


When the Ethics Centre phoned me to speak about the event, I was presented with a series of inappropriate and disturbing questions, the worst being whether living as a trans women is truly as dangerous as advocates suggest. The event description supported this, with the opening line boldly claiming: "Transgender rights have never been more respected in Australia than right now."

To make it clear for anyone who is unsure, regardless of how rights have improved, it is still not safe to be transgender in Australia.

In the very same week as our conversation, Alexis Ozanne avoided jail time after violently assaulting a trans woman outside a Newtown pub. Stephanie McCarthy, the woman attacked, said she had previously been assaulted 11 times.

Stephanie's experience is far from unique. Last month marked Trans Day of Remembrance, an annual event that remembers trans lives lost, with the list this year including more than 70 transgender people around the world killed in transphobic violence. To suggest that advocates are embellishing the threats, violence and discrimination we experience isn't just offensive, it's wrong.

As my phone call with the representative continued, it became apparent what the debate was really getting at – that trans women aren't real women. It would pit trans people against the likes of Germaine Greer and Sheila Jeffries, individuals who have repeatedly denied the existence of trans people and transphobia.

My advice was simple – please don't approach it this way. For the trans people participating, it would result in them being made to explain why their experiences are valid and why their identities are real. The producer cut me off and argued Greer and Jeffries were simply defending their own gender.

People like Greer, Jeffries and those who seek to exclude and invalidate trans women have nothing to lose in a debate like this. Trans women, on the other hand, are starting on the defensive, placed in a situation where they are forced to prove they are really women. This is the struggle trans people endure every single day, and giving a platform to this transphobia merely perpetuates and validates these ideas.

It would be like putting a gay man on the stage and asking him how he "really knew he was gay". The existence of transgender identity – my identity – isn't up for debate.

Transgender women are women. Period. We have always been here and we will always be here, no matter how hard people like Greer and Jeffries put their head in the sand.

As the phone call concluded, I made clear I wouldn't participate in the debate in its current form. I recommended other ways they could explore gender identity and indicated I'd like to continue providing guidance to ensure the event remained respectful and sensitive.

I didn't hear anything more from the Ethics Centre.

When the Ethics Centre launched the event online, the backlash online was almost immediate, with dozens of upset, hurt, and outraged transgender people and their allies voicing concerns.

Worse still, in their Facebook response, the Ethics Centre claimed they had sought advice on the title of the debate. As one of the advocates consulted on the event, I want to use this opportunity to make clear I was never asked about the title. I was given no indication, warning or notice of what it would contain. I wasn't asked what I thought, I wasn't sent a draft, I wasn't given an opportunity to explain why it is so offensive.

The following day, the Ethics Centre deleted, then reposted the event with comments disabled, burying all community feedback - ironic for a debate forum. (The title now reads 'Sex, Gender & Identity (Title TBC))

While I advocate for marginalised communities to be given a platform where they can share their experiences with openness and fairness, that's exactly what my consultation, and this very debate, seem to lack: fairness.

This event will do more harm than good. There is no ethical way to have a debate in which one side's right to exist is called into question. My life and all trans lives are not and should never be up for debate.

Margot Fink works at Minus18, Australia's national organisation for LGBTI youth