Radical Trans Movement Needs to Be Separated From Genuine Care: Senator

There is a clear distinction between the authentic needs for “gender-affirming care” and the radical transgender movement driven by politics and ideologies.

This is a remark by Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson at a recent Senate session, in which she raised concerns about the movement’s impact on society and the growing political support for it.

Citing a 2015 research paper, Henderson said there was a genuine need for “gender-affirming” procedures around the world within a very small portion of the population with special physical conditions.

“In America, about one in 2,000 babies is born with indeterminate sexual organs, requiring consultation with specialists,” she said.

“It’s impossible not to feel compassion for these babies and for these people, or for their parents, who often must make very difficult decisions. It’s also impossible not to feel sympathy for someone who feels they’ve been born into the wrong body.

“It’s understandable why such individuals may choose to dress as the alternative sex, or as informed adults exercise their free will to undergo surgeries to alter their genitalia.”

However, the senator noted that the decisions to undergo transgender procedures by informed adults are very different from what is forced upon vulnerable children.

“As we’ve seen in cases around the world, children have been prescribed hormone-altering treatments and permitted to have irreversible, life-altering, transformative surgeries,” she said.

“In some cases, treatments and surgeries have been foisted upon children by ideologically driven clinicians or parents.

“In other cases, children have imbibed ideologies and been allowed to proceed with treatments and surgeries against their parents’ will.”

The Impact of Gender-Altering Surgeries

Henderson also noted that such surgeries come at a cost to the mental health of children.

She cited a 2025 study, which examined over 100,000 patients who underwent gender-altering surgeries and found that these people were at a significantly higher risk for depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and substance use disorders compared to those without surgery.

“It’s no wonder there’s been lawsuits in Western countries against those who have prescribed such treatments and surgeries,” she said.

“[With] this context in mind, it’s important to draw a distinction between, on the one hand, people who are trans and simply want to get on with their lives quietly and with dignity, and on the other hand, the loud, politicised and ideological trans movement which is driven by something much more sinister.”

Describing the movement as dangerous and dogmatic, Henderson warned that it aimed to “infect vulnerable children with poisonous ideas, including in the classroom, and … wants social overhaul and everyone to kowtow to the religion of gender fluidity.”

The senator’s comments came as recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that young Australians were more likely to identify as transgender or gender diverse than other cohorts of the population.

In 2022, the 16-24 age group had the highest percentage of people who identified as LGBT (9.5 percent), followed by the 25-34 age group (7.5 percent), and the 35-44 age group (3.9 percent).

Political Support for Radical Movement

At the same time, Henderson raised concerns about growing political support for the radical transgender movement.

“Frankly, too many people in positions of authority have jumped aboard the politicised and ideological trans train under the false pretensions, pretences of compassion, tolerance, diversity, and inclusion,” she said.

Henderson gave the example of the state of Victoria, where the local government and the judicial system took a lenient approach to a convicted pedophile who commenced a gender transition.

Hilary Maloney, a court-imposed pseudonym for a Melbourne father, was convicted of sexually abusing his five-year-old daughter on multiple occasions and sending videos of the abuse to an American paedophile in 2023.

The person only received a reduced sentence of two and a half years—the maximum penalty for such crimes is 25 years, with a standard sentence of 10 years.

Henderson alleged that Maloney received such a short sentence because of his gender transition.

“The judgment was woefully inadequate and contemptible,” she said.

Damage to Society

The senator also highlighted the subsequent development where Maloney was sent to Victoria’s largest women’s prison because the state’s corrections policies allow criminals to be incarcerated based on the gender with which they identify, not their biological sex.

In addition, she noted that a lack of response from the Victorian government was very concerning.

“Premier [Jacinta] Allan looked the other way. Her silence was deafening,” Henderson said.

“Her inaction has ramifications for the safety of women.”

In another example, Henderson talked about how Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody recently said in a Senate Estimates inquiry that she didn’t understand the term “biological man.”

“Just think about that our Sex Discrimination Commissioner, which is meant to uphold sex based rights, refuses to acknowledge biological sex,” she said.

“It’s positively Orwellian, but we should not be surprised.”

She said Australians were already witnessing the damage the movement was causing, particularly to women and children.