This is a list of LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) holders of political offices in Australia. [1] [2] Currently and historically there are no intersex parliamentarians, although Tony Briffa is known as the world's first openly intersex mayor [3] and "first known intersex public office-bearer in the Western world", [4] having served as Deputy Mayor of the City of Hobsons Bay between 2009–2011 and Mayor between 2011–2012. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Name | Image | Party | Seat | Term in Office | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Don Dobie [7] | Liberal | Member for Hughes | 26 November 1966 | 25 October 1969 | |||
Member for Cook | 25 October 1969 | 2 December 1972 | |||||
13 December 1975 | 29 January 1996 | ||||||
Neil Brown [8] | Liberal | Member for Diamond Valley | 25 October 1969 | 2 December 1972 | Came out in 1996 | ||
13 December 1975 | 5 March 1983 | ||||||
Member for Menzies | 1 December 1984 | 25 February 1991 | |||||
Neal Blewett [9] | Labor | Member for Bonython | 10 December 1977 | 11 February 1994 | Came out in 2000 | ||
Colin Hollis [10] | Labor | Member for Macarthur | 5 March 1983 | 1 December 1984 | |||
Member for Throsby | 1 December 1984 | 8 October 2001 | |||||
Bob Brown [11] | Greens | Senator for Tasmania | 1 July 1996 | 15 June 2012 | |||
Brian Greig [12] | Democrats | Senator for Western Australia | 1 July 1999 | 30 June 2005 | |||
Penny Wong [13] | Labor | Senator for South Australia | 1 July 2002 | incumbent | |||
Louise Pratt [14] | Labor | Senator for Western Australia | 1 July 2008 | 30 June 2014 | |||
2 July 2016 | incumbent | ||||||
Dean Smith [15] | Liberal | Senator for Western Australia | 2 May 2012 | incumbent | |||
Janet Rice [16] | Greens | Senator for Victoria | 1 July 2014 | incumbent | |||
Robert Simms [17] | Greens | Senator for South Australia | 22 September 2015 | 2 July 2016 | |||
Trent Zimmerman [18] | Liberal | Member for North Sydney | 5 December 2015 | 23 May 2022 | |||
Trevor Evans [19] | Liberal | Member for Brisbane | 2 July 2016 | 23 May 2022 | |||
Julian Hill [20] | Labor | Member for Bruce | 2 July 2016 | incumbent | |||
Tim Wilson [20] | Liberal | Member for Goldstein | 2 July 2016 | 23 May 2022 | |||
Kerryn Phelps [21] | Independent | Member for Wentworth | 20 October 2018 | 18 May 2019 | |||
Angie Bell [22] | Liberal | Member for Moncrieff | 18 May 2019 | incumbent | |||
Nita Green [23] | Labor | Senator for Queensland | 1 July 2019 | incumbent | |||
Stephen Bates [24] | Greens | Member for Brisbane | 28 May 2022 | incumbent |
Current:
Officeholders:
The Division of Calwell is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria.
The Division of Brisbane is an Australian electoral division in the state of Queensland.
Alexander George Hawke is an Australian politician who served as Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs from 2020 to 2022 in the Morrison government. Hawke has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mitchell since 2007, representing the Liberal Party.
Andrew James Barr is an Australian politician who has been serving as the 7th Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory since 2014. He has been a Labor Party member in the ACT Legislative Assembly since 2006, after being elected on a countback to replace former Treasurer Ted Quinlan, who resigned mid-term. Barr was immediately promoted to Cabinet upon his election. On 11 December 2014 he was elected as Chief Minister after his predecessor, Katy Gallagher, resigned and announced her intention to run for the Senate. In addition to being Chief Minister, he holds the portfolios of Treasurer; Climate Action; Trade, Investment and Economic Development; and Tourism.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Australia significantly advanced over the latter half of the 20th century and early 21st century, and are now ranked among the highest in the world. Opinion polls and the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey indicate widespread popular support for same-sex marriage within the nation. A 2013 Pew Research poll found that 79% of Australians agreed that homosexuality should be accepted by society, making it the fifth-most supportive country surveyed in the world. With its long history of LGBT activism and annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival, Sydney has been named one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Australia since 9 December 2017. Legislation to allow it, the Marriage Amendment Act 2017, passed the Australian Parliament on 7 December 2017 and received royal assent from Governor-General Peter Cosgrove the following day. The law came into effect on 9 December, immediately recognising overseas same-sex marriages. The first same-sex wedding under Australian law was held on 15 December 2017. The passage of the law followed a voluntary postal survey of all Australians, in which 61.6% of respondents supported legalisation of same-sex marriage.
The Australian state of Victoria is regarded as one of the country's most progressive jurisdictions with respect to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Australian state of Tasmania have the same legal rights as non-LGBT people. Tasmania has a transformative history with respect to the rights of LGBT people. Initially dubbed "Bigots Island" by international media due to intense social and political hostility to LGBT rights up until the late 1990s, the state has subsequently been recognised for LGBT law reforms that have been described by activists such as Rodney Croome as among the most extensive and noteworthy in the world. Tasmania imposed the harshest penalties in the Western world for homosexual activity until 1997, when it was the last Australian jurisdiction to decriminalise homosexuality after a United Nations Human Rights Committee ruling, the passage of federal sexual privacy legislation and a High Court challenge to the state's anti-homosexuality laws. Following decriminalisation, social and political attitudes in the state rapidly shifted in favour of LGBT rights ahead of national trends with strong anti-LGBT discrimination laws passed in 1999, and the first state relationship registration scheme to include same-sex couples introduced in 2003. In 2019, Tasmania passed and implemented the world's most progressive gender-optional birth certificate laws. In July 2023, the Tasmanian government officially included and also added "asexual or asexuality".
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Western Australia have seen significant progress since the beginning of the 21st century, with male sex acts legal since 1990 and the state parliament passing comprehensive law reforms in 2002. The state decriminalised male homosexual acts in 1990 and was the first to grant full adoption rights to LGBT couples in 2002.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Australia's Northern Territory have the same legal rights as non-LGBT people. The liberalisation of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Australia's Northern Territory has been a gradual process. Homosexual activity was legalised in 1983, with an equal age of consent since 2003. Same-sex couples are recognised as de facto relationships. There was no local civil union or domestic partnership registration scheme before the introduction of nationwide same-sex marriage in December 2017, following the passage of the Marriage Amendment Act 2017 by the Australian Parliament. The 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, designed to gauge public support for same-sex marriage in Australia, returned a 60.6% "Yes" response in the territory. LGBT people are protected from discrimination by both territory and federal law, though the territory's hate crime law does not cover sexual orientation or gender identity. The territory was the last jurisdiction in Australia to legally allow same-sex couples to adopt children.
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is one of Australia's leading jurisdictions with respect to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The ACT has made a number of reforms to territory law designed to prevent discrimination of LGBT people; it was the only state or territory jurisdiction in Australia to pass a law for same-sex marriage, which was later overturned by the High Court of Australia. The Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland are the only jurisdictions within Australia to legally ban conversion therapy on children. The ACT's laws also apply to the smaller Jervis Bay Territory.
Tony Briffa is a Maltese-Australian politician who is notable for being the world's first known intersex and non-binary mayor and public officeholder.
Terri Megan Butler is an Australian former politician and a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Butler formerly represented the Division of Griffith in the House of Representatives from the 2014 by-election to the 2022 federal election. She worked as an industrial lawyer prior to entering parliament.
This article provides details on candidates for the 2015 New South Wales state election, held on 28 March 2015.
The 2015 Canning by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives on Saturday 19 September from 8 am to 6 pm WST. The by-election in the seat of Canning was triggered by the death of sitting Liberal MP Don Randall on 21 July 2015.
Chanston James "Chansey" Paech is an Australian politician. He is a Labor Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2016, representing the electorate of Namatjira until 2020 and Gwoja thereafter. He is of Arrente, Arabana and Gurindji descent.
The history of same-sex marriage in Australia includes its express prohibition by the Howard government in 2004 and its eventual legalisation by the Parliament in December 2017. Although a same-sex marriage law was passed by the Australian Capital Territory in 2013, it was struck down by the High Court on the basis of inconsistency with federal law. The Court's decision closed the possibility of concurrent state or territory laws that would allow same-sex marriage where federal law did not. A law legalising same-sex marriage passed the Parliament on 7 December 2017 and received royal assent the following day.
A number of politicians, public figures, media outlets, businesses and other organisations endorsed voting either in favour or against same-sex marriage during the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey.
The Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017(Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia, which legalises same-sex marriage in Australia by amending the Marriage Act 1961 to allow marriage between two persons of marriageable age, regardless of their gender.
At the close of nominations a total of 1,624 candidates had stood for the 2022 Australian federal election, of whom 1,203 were House of Representatives candidates and 421 were Senate candidates.