Month: Mar 2021

Petition Tabled & My Letter to the Attorney-General

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Today, my petition for LGBT+ recognition in QLD was tabled in Parliament, with an official total of 10,838 signatures. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but I’m so unbelievably proud of the community. The petition is in the top 30 most-signed e-petitions on the Parliament website, which just says so much, especially as we only ran it for a short time.

If you want to read more about the journey to BDMR reform so far, [1] [2] [3] [4].

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From here, the Attorney-General will be directed to table a response to the petition in the next 30 days, but as we already know the Government intends to review the Act this year I’ll be holding my breath on whether or not the response will have much concrete information on if they’ll be considering the specific suggestions for change in the petition.

I wrote and sent a letter to the A-G today and I wanted to share it here for everyone to read; it’s really about how language affects trans people and is a bit of a more emotional plea to back up the petition’s straightforward suggestions for change. I’ve asked her to meet with me in the hopes I can find more information on how the review may go and further encourage them to take a strong stance for LGBT+ recognition.

Read my full letter below:

I’ve been doing quite well lately and I’m keen to give an update on my non-political life in the next few days. Until then, take care – Esther

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Petition Articles and More

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I promised I’d post again when further articles about the petition that were in the works were posted, and here they are.

The first article is from The Advocate: 10,000 signatures paving the way for Transgender rights as Queensland falls behind. The second is from UQ’s student paper, Semper Floreat: LGBT+ rights – rapidly growing e-petition.

Both feature quotes from me and have different perspectives, so they’re worth checking out if you have the time. A reminder, the petition ends in two weeks now, the 23rd of March, so keep sharing and contacting the A-G before it ends. We’re nearly at 10,500 signatures.

When I last posted I had just gotten the job at QUT, and I’m glad to say it’s going well (two weeks of classes in)! I enjoy being able to help people with their writing, and it’s excellent motivation to improve my own screenwriting.

I’ve got a rough first draft of one short film, and I was just starting to work more on writing a TV-series pitch and create a bit of a framework for working and improving my writing when some news came out yesterday – Screen Queensland funding six shorts through their diversity program, RIDE. Naturally, I’ve now completely pivoted to work on an entirely new script and I’ll be trying to apply to this program.

It’s head-down, tail up for me, as usual. Until the next update, take care – Esther.