A lesbian group has lost its battle to ban transgender and bisexual women from its public events after a two-year legal battle.
Lesbian Action Group sought a five-year exemption under the Sex Discrimination Act and applied to the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2023.
The Victorian-based group lost its bid and tried to appeal the decision to the Administrative Review Tribunal before it was shot down again on Monday.
Spokeswoman Carole Ann told Daily Mail Australia the ruling was “devastating”.
“The lesbian community in Australia has been decimated in recent decades,” she said.
“We are a huge country so it is very difficult to find each other unless we can advertise publicly and the number of women who have been able to find each other has decreased.
“On dating apps it says men, everything else has to include the whole rainbow family, plus whoever wants to go.
'Without an exemption we are basically back in the closet.'
Lesbian Action Group sought a five-year exemption under the Sex Discrimination Act and applied to the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2023
Ms Ann said the LAG was formed to challenge the Sex Discrimination Act and other laws that prevented lesbians from excluding non-biological women from their publicly advertised events.
“The cohort I came up with had a lot of events in the 80s,” she said.
'We could do that, but we were not infiltrated and we were not taken to court
'Since we had to go underground, we've all gotten older. The people who come after us have no idea that a lesbian community exists.
'The young people in particular are very isolated.'
Ms Ann said there is a lack of lesbian-only events.
“Everything falls under the LGBTIQ-plus umbrella, which everyone belongs to,” she said.
'They have nothing in common with trans, queer or even gay men. We need our own spaces to make connections and feel like we are not alone.”
Spokeswoman Carole Ann told Daily Mail Australia the ruling was “devastating”.
In his judgment, Tribunal senior member Stewart Fenwick said the LAG was 'actively seeking to discriminate against another group identifiable by their gender identity, a characteristic also protected under the SDA'.
Ms Ann claimed it was lesbian women who were being discriminated against, 'but they twist it to say we discriminate'.
“Any reasonable person would realize that that's what's ridiculous,” she said.
The LAG is considering whether to appeal, which could mean going back to the tribunal or to the Federal Court
Ms Ann said it was 'exhausting' and forced her to put her life on hold for two years when she should be enjoying her retirement, but insisted the battle was not over.
“We didn't think we could beat the law and get an exemption, so our main goal was to raise awareness and highlight the insanity of it as widely and as loudly as possible,” she said.
“A lot of people question whether men are women, but when you say they're lesbians, people say, 'What? That doesn't make sense.'
'We are disappointed, but not despondent. Somehow we keep fighting.”
References to men and women, male and female, were removed from the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 via amendments in 2013 under the Gillard Labor government in 2013, removing biological definitions.
