Who are the Australian Christian Lobby’s transphobic “prominent Australians”?

In my last article I took at look at a letter sent by the Australian Christian Lobby(ACL) to the Prime Minister, in which they demanded that gender affirming care (GAC) cease, and that the proposed national review into GAC be conducted on stupidly restrictive, entirely unacceptable terms.

Now, let’s dive into some of the names on the list of signatories to the letter. Who are they – and are they what they claim to be?

First the politicians. There are no surprises here. The arguably most “prominent” politicians who signed the petition are a rogues’ gallery of some of the most anti-progressive representatives we’ve ever hard.

We have former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose opposition to reproductive rights is so vehement that he felt justified in violating women’s privacy by reading their medical records into Hansard.

Matt Canavan, who thinks renewable power is to blame for failing coal-fired power stations.

Moira Deeming, so transphobic that over half the Victorian Liberal Party voted to boot her out of the party room.

Renee Heath, whose transphobia is accompanied by anti-vax rhetoric and the kind of fundamentalist Christianity that thinks The Handmaid’s Tale is a how-to manual.

David Limbrick, who must the strangest libertarian in existence, since his belief in personal freedom appears to not extend to trans folk.

And, of course, Alex Antic, who never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t enthusiastically embrace, and who thinks we should just shut up and do everything Trump does.

So much for the politicians.

Some of the “doctors” trumpeted by ACL for opposing gender affirming care are, in fact, PhD holders with no qualifications to speak on medical issues at all. Their areas of expertise range from medieval history, to Shakespeare in performance, to musicology.

Now, I could be doing these academics a disservice. Perhaps medieval history really does have something to teach us about gender affirming care in the 21st century. Actors in Shakespeare’s time portraying female roles were – gasp! – in drag. And who knows, maybe Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture is “really” trans indoctrination via some sort of subliminal music code. But somehow I don’t think so.

The fact that ACL is including them as “doctors” is nothing short of deliberately deceptive. It’s calling padding the numbers, and hoping no one will look too closely at the actual qualifications.

What about the signatories with actual medical qualifications? Well, we have a few problems here, too, because these “experts” include a chiropractor, a dermatologist, two anaesthetists, and a radiation oncologist. None of them are qualified to speak to the efficacy and possible risks of using puberty blockers or hormone therapy. There’s exactly one endocrinologist on the list – Dr David Torpy, a Senior Consultant at Royal Adelaide Hospital’s Endocrine and Metabolic Unit, whose area of focus appears to be primarily concerned with diabetes.

The bulk of medically qualified signatories are, curiously, mental health professionals. Why is that curious? Because the ACL’s letter specifically calls for the cessation of medical and surgical GAC, yet they could apparently find only one person whose qualifications are even vaguely adjacent to that. Instead, they’ve padded the list again – and this time, it’s with some frequent flyers who are enthusiastic participants in the ACL’s rush to marginalise LGBTQIA+ folk right out of existence. Here are a few examples:

The very first name on the list is psychologist Dr Jillian Spencer, who’s notorious for her transphobia. She regularly misrepresents the truth about GAC in Australia, and is given to somewhat hysterical hyperbole about the “medical scandal” that she claims is occurring with the full knowledge and support of the wider medical community. Spencer was suspended from clinical duties at Queensland Children’s Hospital after complaints from parents about her behaviour towards their children who were receiving GAC. Since then she’s become the darling of anti-trans activists everywhere, receiving plaudits from activist groups and conspiracy theorists for her “bravery”. In September last year, she appeared on 7 Spotlight’s outrageous anti-trans propaganda special.

Also on the list we have gynaecologist Dr Elvis Seman. He’s an old hand at being involved with campaigns against queer and reproductive rights. Although affiliated with the discredited Liberty of Conscience in Medicine religious lobby group, Seman is present on this list as simply a medical expert endorsing a medical opinion.

Dr Petra Bueskens is listed on the petition as a “clinical psychologist”. Curiously, her own bio on her website describes her as “an academic, psychotherapist and writer”. Her academic credentials can’t be verified – the provided link to her alleged University of Melbourne bio is either private or does’t exist. It does rather look as though she – or the ACL – deliberately misrepresented her clinical qualifications.

And then there’s psychologist Professor Dianna Kenny. Her transphobia is virulent and heavily depends on the thoroughly debunked “social contagion” argument. She promotes lies about trans people and the medical profession, claiming some sort of wide-ranging agenda to “force” minors to go through GAC. Her religious bias is also blatant, as evidenced in her books.

Psychiatrist Dr Jacqueline Condon is equally committed to her prejudices. Not content with dismissing even the possibility of transness, Condon doesn’t even think that people can be gay or lesbian.

At least psychiatrist Dr John Warlow doesn’t attempt to hide his religious bias. In fact, he trades on it, creating his own therapeutic model for “God-centred” counselling.

Self-described “breastfeeding advocate” Jasmine Sussex has an axe to grind, after she was sacked from the Australian Breastfeeding Association for hatefully transphobic declarations.

Finally, there’s clinical psychologist Dr Sandra Pertot, and boy is she a walking contradiction. On the one hand, she’s violently opposed to trans women in “women’s only” spaces, going so far as to claim that they are simply “males” who wish to sexually assault women. On the other, she also claims that she’s not opposed to medical transition. So what is she even doing on this list? The answer might be that she was rightly called out for her transphobia, and was so upset about it that she ran over to hate group Binary Australia to get a platform for her lies.

There are many other signatories on the list with various claims to medical qualifications. I do not mean to suggest that they are all deceptive or mendacious; in a list riddled with with bad-faith ideologues, concealed religious agenda, or outright misrepresenters, however, their presence is at the very least tainted by association.

The petition also has three self-identified de-transitioners on its list of signatories. I will not speak to their personal journeys – that’s absolutely not my place. I’ll simply point out that these women were afforded the opportunity to explore their gender identity, but now would deny that opportunity to others.

And now we come to the grab-bag of liars, haters, and full-time persecutors.

Binary, which is an organisation that appears to run on pure hate. I receive their email newsletter, and it’s not exaggerating to say it’s a sewer. I won’t repeat their vicious claims here. This group is only “prominent” in its relentless attacks on trans folk, especially trans women. There’s not an ounce of truth in anything it puts out.

Genspect hides behind a carefully constructed façade of “science”. They even advertise themselves as “non-partisan” – but the language it uses gives away the ideological underpinnings. People aren’t trans, they’re “gender-distressed”. Its foundational belief is that GAC involving any form of medication is inherently Bad and Wrong, and every argument proceeds from that completely untested assertion. Genspect has a long history of misrepresentation to governments and media, and in what I’m certain must be a stunning series of coincidences, many of the names attached to this ACL letter also pop up on other Genspect documents.

There’s Anne Kerr of the Feminist Legal Clinic, an organisation established with the apparent aim of denying trans women’s rights. Kerr was thrown out of the New South Wales Greens for viciously transphobic behaviour and involvement in active harassment requiring police intervention.

Western Sydney University Professor John Whitehall is fond of mispresenting the Safe Schools program. He seems to have a problem with the idea of teaching schoolkids that their LGBTQIA+ peers shouldn’t be bullied (sometimes to the point of suicide).

And let’s not forget philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith, who cannot even bring herself to accept the reality of trans people, let alone comment with any expertise on the use of puberty blockers or hormone therapy.

This is just a representative sample of the people and groups attached to the ACL’s demand to immediately cease gender-affirming care and conduct a review on their terms.
The full list of those who signed this outrageous petition can be found either on the ACL’s X account, or – if you don’t want to give that company the hits – I’ve reproduced it here.

So there you have it. The latest attack on trans folk, exposed for what it is: hateful ideology and religious bias, thinly disguised as “science”.

The mere fact that the Australian Christian Lobby felt the need to perpetuate this deception speaks volumes about their good faith – i.e., they have none. Couple that with the truly ridiculous attempt to dictate the scope of the national review, and you have a document that is worth precisely nothing.

On second thoughts, it is worth something. It’s worth throwing into the recycling bin with the rest of the junk mail.