LGBTIQ+ community leaders warn the ongoing political debate prompted by Liberal candidate Katherine Deves' comments on transgender people is causing harm to trans and gender diverse people and inciting hate towards the community.
The controversial candidate broke her silence in an exclusive interview on Sunday with SBS World News, in which she over comments she made about transgender people, which she said have forced her family to leave Sydney.
"I have received death threats. I have had to have the police and the AFP involved. My safety has been threatened. My family are away out of Sydney because I don't want them to witness what I'm going through nor do I want their safety put at risk," she said.
Ms Deves agreed to do the interview. It was organised with her directly, not through Liberal Campaign HQ. Sources have told SBS News the Liberal Party wasn’t aware the interview was taking place.
In a statement to SBS News on Monday morning, NSW Police said that it has not received any reports of threats made against Ms Deves, while the Australian Federal Police (AFP) would not confirm whether it had received reports of death threats against the candidate.
"The AFP does not comment on matters that may be the subject of investigation," a spokesperson said.
Mama Alto, CEO of Transgender Victoria, told SBS News that while Ms Deves' comments had been harmful to trans and gender diverse people, no one deserves death threats.
"Ms Deves has spread dangerous and inaccurate misinformation about trans and gender diverse people and, when called out on that, claims to be silenced and casts our communities as the aggressor," Ms Alto said.
"That being said, if she has received death threats that is unacceptable - and I empathise because as trans people, we are often harassed, discriminated against and fearful for our safety."
Media coverage causing 'harm' and 'inciting hate'
Transgender woman Holly Hazlewood said the public platform given to Ms Deves was dangerous because it allowed her to spread "incredibly hurtful" views and emboldened others to do the same.
"A lot of her claims are just simply wrong … and incredibly hurtful," the exercise physiologist told SBS News.
"And they do incite hate, because it gives other people in the community a greater voice. They feel more emboldened because they see somebody who apparently thinks the way that they do.
"It's just more noise against an already really marginalised community that has been shown to have significantly higher rates of self harm, depression, anxiety and suicide than the normal averages."
Ms Hazlewood said her own mental health "had taken a sharp nosedive" as a result of the media coverage.
"You can't escape it. I've been so worn down".
Transgender woman Holly Hazlewood said many people need to find more empathy for those who are marginalised. Source: SBS News
"The constant media coverage about trans and gender diverse people is continuing to cause great harm, particularly for trans women," she told SBS News.
"Each and every time media draw attention to Ms Deves' views on this matter, there is further harm.
"Trans and gender diverse people are not political footballs, and conversations need to be led by experts in appropriate forums with care and understanding. The election campaign is not an appropriate forum. LHA is asking the media to work responsibly and in a more balanced way with our communities."
Trans and gender diverse people are not political footballs, and conversations need to be led by experts in appropriate forums with care and understanding.Nicky Bath, CEO of LGBTIQ+ Health (LHA)
Ms Alto also said trans issues should not be treated as fodder for election campaigns.
"Ultimately, trans and gender diverse lives should not be caught in the crossfires of electioneering when there are so many urgent and significant issues that our politicians and candidates should be tackling - rather than divisive fear-mongering that demonises a small and vulnerable segment of the population," she said.
Members of Community Action for Rainbow Rights hold placards and LGBTIQ+ pride flags as they participate in a protest against candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves at the Manly Corso in Sydney on Thursday 21 April. Source: AAP / BIANCA DE MARCHI/AAPIMAGE
In the comments, she called trans people "surgically mutilated and sterilised" and likened her lobbying to stop transgender athletes from competing in women’s sport to standing up against the Nazis during the Holocaust.
After apologising for the comments, Ms Deves told SBS News she is not transphobic and that her comments relate to "the rights of women and girls to have a dedicated female sports category for fair competition" and legislation "not doing its job" to create a level playing field.
But Ms Hazlewood said the argument is based on "people's biases", adding that Ms Deves "has a very small insight as to what it feels like to be a transgender person in 2022".
She said these biases would only become more dangerous as more people come out and live openly as transgender, and she urged people to try to empathise with those who feel marginalised.
"Ms Deves and other people who feel the same way as her, they're looking at the transgender experience through cisgender eyes. They really can't appreciate what it feels like to just have so much shame and guilt and denial for so many years as often is the case, because of the societal pressures that we are literally now seeing.
"But you can just have a shred of empathy. Just try and put yourself in the shoes of somebody else who is trans and has these lived experiences that you're speaking out against. And you might start to realise how much of an impact your words might be having."
Just try and put yourself in the shoes of somebody else who is trans and has these lived experiences that you're speaking out against. And you might start to realise how much of an impact your words might be having.Transgender woman Holly Hazlewood
'Incredibly hurtful': Zali Steggall says debate placing trans people at greater risk
Ms Steggall, who currently holds the seat of Warringah, told SBS News that while the reports of death threats against Ms Deves were concerning, families within the trans community were reporting higher rates of suicide attempts and calls to mental health helplines as a result of the issue.
She read a statement from the parent of a trans child, which described the "whole charade of using trans women in sports as an election issue" as "both disingenuous and incredibly hurtful and harmful."
"Trans kids and adults are already at far greater risk of self harm and suicide. And this has only increased that risk," the statement read.
The former Olympian said no one in her electorate had raised trans women in sport as an issue, with the focus more on inclusion in sport.
"In the three years of being in office with some 30,000 emails, other than Katherine Deves, no one has raised this issue. On the contrary, the issue that gets raised is a need for us to be a kind and inclusive society that ensures we handle mental health concerns of our young people."
Ms Steggall accused the prime minister of engaging in "nasty politics for an ulterior motive".
"I find it extraordinary that at a time of great geopolitical instability, war in Ukraine, unprecedented climate risk, integrity at an all time low ... and our political debate for the 2022 election is monopolised. Because Scott Morrison chose to make this about a divisive wedge debate. It is disgraceful. And many, many people in my community are disgusted."
Jewish leaders condemn Katherine Deves' Nazi analogies
In a joint statement, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Darren Bark and Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Peter Wertheim said Ms Deves' Nazi analogies were out of line.
"All of these Nazi analogies are historically inaccurate and fundamentally misconceived," the statement read.
"Next week the Jewish community will commemorate Yom Hashoah [Holocaust Remembrance Day], highlighting the contrast between the free and peaceful life we enjoy in Australia and the life of fear imposed on everybody who lived under the murderous rule of the Nazis.
"If the moral imperative of 'never again' is to have genuine meaning, it must begin with a deep understanding of the difference between the blessings of freedom and the horrors of tyranny.
"We repeat our invitation to Ms Deves to visit the Sydney Jewish Museum, to hear from survivors first-hand about what that difference consists of in real life, and to join the rest of the community in saying, 'Never again'."
Ms Alto said it is "inappropriate" to compare trans people to Nazis.
"It’s unacceptable to compare trans and gender diverse people - a small and marginalised group - with Nazis, and for [Ms Deves] to equate her anti-trans stance to anti-Holocaust resistance is offensive to many.
"For her to allegedly dismiss the disproportionate poor mental health and suicide risk within trans communities as 'blah blah' is reprehensible."
CEO of Transgender Victoria Mama Alto. Credit: Alexis Desaulniers-Lea
Issue continues to stoke division among Liberals
Ms Deves co-founded the organisation Save Women’s Sport, which aims to prevent trans women from participating in female categories in sporting competitions.
She also played a key role in developing legislation introduced to the Senate earlier this month that would allow sporting groups to exclude transgender people from single-sex sport.
, which aims to amend the Sex Discrimination Act.
But National LGBTIQ+ group Equality Australia has renewed calls for the Senate to oppose the laws, claiming they would “exclude trans and gender diverse kids and adults.”
The group’s CEO Anna Brown has labelled the bill "unnecessary, cruel and divisive", and accused the prime minister of once again making the lives of trans and gender diverse children the subject of “political and media debate” by outlining his public support.
Several Coalition MPs have also questioned the controversial bill, while a handful of moderates within the Liberal party including Trent Zimmerman, Dave Sharma and Warren Entsch have called for Ms Deves to be disendorsed as a candidate.
New South Wales Treasurer Matt Kean has described Ms Deves as “not fit for office”.
“This is a series of consistent positions held over a long period and in recent times,” Mr Kean told the ABC. “We need to continue to stand up and call out this kind of language, this kind of bigotry.”
Labor leaders weigh in
Speaking at a press conference in Darwin on Monday morning, Labor deputy leader Richard Marles said any death threats made towards Ms Deves are "totally unacceptable".
"Let me firstly say no one in public life should have to ensure death threats. And they are totally unacceptable," he said.
Mr Marles' comments come a day after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews attacked the federal Coalition for standing by Ms Deves after her history of transphobic comments came to light.
"Seems to me that the adults in this debate are altogether more cruel than the kids, and that's a damning indictment on those who are pushing this," he told reporters on Sunday.
"What's next? A trans girl can't play a female role in the school play? Like, is this the biggest issue in our nation today? I don't think it is.
"And I think only desperate people, who are into wedge politics, who are trying to deflect from the fact that they have been in power for almost a decade and they've done precisely nothing with it, would push this."
The premier argued sporting bodies already have established protocols for trans women competing at the professional and elite amateur levels, and suggested the school sports aspect was a non-issue.
SBS News has contacted the Prime Minister's Office for comment.
Readers seeking crisis support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 (for young people aged up to 25).
LGBTIQ+ Australians seeking support with mental health can contact QLife on 1800 184 527 or visit . also has a list of support services.
