Protection from Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Sex and/or Gender Identity - Erinyes Autonomous Activist Lesbians | Lesbian Feminist Network

The discrimination faced by lesbians is greater than the discrimination faced by heterosexual women because lesbians are discriminated against both as women and as lesbians. What distinguishes the human rights violations of Lesbians is based firstly on misogyny and then on homophobia. The combination of misogyny and homophobia results in an intensification of discrimination, harassment and vilification that is greater than that against heterosexual women, gay men and transgendered people. Lesbians’-born-female, raised as girls, rights are not protected under the umbrella term of GLBTI and will be seriously disadvantaged by the inclusion of gender identity. It is the experience of lesbians that the idea of ‘gender’ hides misogyny and lesbophobia and it is because of this that the authors of this submission, on behalf of Erinyes, focus specifically on ‘gender identity’.