Thursday, 3 April 2025

Gender services

Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (09:51): Gender-affirming care is essential health care. It should be accessible and affordable, and despite desperate, hate-fuelled campaigns by fundamentalists and the far right recently, our inclusive Victorian community stands unwavering with the trans community. The Greens are calling on the government to commit to comprehensive gender-affirming healthcare services here in Victoria. At Monday’s Trans Day of Visibility, the call from the trans community could not have been clearer: visibility without support leads to violence. They deserve so much more from our government than simply waving the flag or wearing a corporate lanyard.

A report by the coroner into the deaths of five trans women in Victoria made clear that medical discrimination and a lack of investment in transgender health care were major contributing factors in these deaths. Gender-affirming care is life saving. These healthcare services are currently out of reach for so many people. That is why we are asking the Labor government to invest more in free public health clinics. It must be affordable, it must be accessible, and we need it now.