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The state government has stripped back its definition of a woman to biological indicators, a question on notice tabled in parliament has revealed.
On Monday, Minister for Women Fiona Simpson responded to a question from Katter’s Australian Party state leader Robbie Katter asking her to outline the state’s definition for women, and whether transgender people were included in it.
Simpson said a transgender individual was someone whose gender identity was the opposite of their birth gender – which she said would be male or female.
Minister for Women Fiona Simpson said the state defined a woman as “an adult female human being”.Credit: Matt Dennien
A woman, Simpson said, “is an adult female human being”.
The former state government rolled out a wider definition in its women and girls’ health strategy – released in October last year – that included “all people who identify as a woman or girl” in the definition.
The strategy also applied women’s healthcare issues as well as intersex women and gender-diverse people, and distinguished between sex and gender in what it called a “gender inclusivity approach”.
“You may see the words ‘males’ and ‘females’ through this document,” the strategy read.
“These terms typically describe data or research that is categorised by sex rather than gender.”
The current state government has faced continued scrutiny from parents of transgender children and community and activist groups over its decision to ban puberty blocker treatments for under-18-year-olds in state hospitals earlier this year.
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On Wednesday, the mother of a transgender child took the state to court over the ban, claiming the bans had made gender-affirming care prohibitively expensive for many Queensland families.
The court heard the state had considered the impacts of removing its support for puberty blocker treatments with stakeholders over 22-minute-period on January 28.
While the stakeholders were consulted, the Health Minister was publicly announcing the ban.
While the government maintained its decision to pause, then remove, backing to puberty blocker treatments came from allegations of misconduct in Cairns, ministers have been criticised for borrowing anti-transgender terminology when discussing women’s healthcare.
“We cannot be distracted by internal squabbles and we cannot be captured by those who seek to divide us,” he said.
Crisafulli also controversially banned parliamentary discussion on abortion shortly after coming into power in late 2024, after Katter indicated he would introduce bids to wind back access during the state election campaign.
Queensland introduced the ability to change assigned sex on a person’s birth certificate in mid-2024, which could be undertaken by both adults and adolescents.
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