It is against the law for an employer, school, or service provider to treat you badly or unfairly because of your sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status.
What the law says
Commonwealth and state laws say that it is wrong to discriminate against someone because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status in certain areas of public life.
Sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination includes:
- an employer refusing to hire someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity
- an employer insisting on misgendering a transgender or gender diverse employee
- an organisation refusing to provide a service to someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, or providing the service in a way that disadvantages people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity
- a school refusing to allow a student to bring a same sex partner to a school event where other partners are welcome
- a school insisting on a transgender student wearing the uniform or using the bathroom of the gender they were assigned at birth.
For more information see Discrimination and victimisation.
Other support
Find out how you can get other support for discrimination.
We can help you understand your rights, learn more about whether you can make a discrimination complaint, and help you to take action. We have highly skilled lawyers who specialise in discrimination law and can help you to take action to stop discrimination against you and others.
Most of the time you don’t need to go to court to get results. You can get a positive outcome and help change things for the better by writing a letter of complaint. If you are eligible for our help we can help you to negotiate a result or take your matter to court if necessary.
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