The Victorian Commissioner for LGBTIQA+ Communities Joe Ball used the Higinbotham Lecture 2025 to make a call to Australians to stand up against rising authoritarism and demand more from our leaders.
Commissioner Ball opened by reflecting on the significance that he - a transgender man - was delivering the Higinbotham Lecture.
"I stand here, an unlikely person to be giving this speech, but I am also exactly the person [Higinbotham] intended the law to protect," Commissioner Ball said.
"The child of working-class parents, someone with no legal training and someone who is transgender.
"In Higinbotham's time, the only images of people like me might have been Harry Crawford, an Italian migrant who travelled to boat by Australian in 1875 and became known as the so-called 'man-woman murderer', or Edward de Lacy Evans, who was institutionalised and cruelly outed in the press.
"My standing here is, in its own way, the realisation of Higinbotham's legacy, even if it is a future he could never have given words to or dreamed of."
The prestigious RMIT event recognises the legacy of Victorian politician and chief justice George Higinbotham, who championed human rights.
During his speech, Commissioner Ball noted how far society had progressed, but that the LGBTIQA+ community, in particular transgender people, are still under attack.
"The oldest trick of power, the oldest fuel of authoritarianism, is disguise through inversion - to convince the majority that minority identities are the cause of their suffering," he said.
"The barriers to girls and women thriving on the field are well documented by Sport Australia and Victoria's Office for Women in Sport and Recreation.
"Nowhere in those reports is 'trans women' identified as a barrier. That debate is not about equality for women - it is another inversion of power. A convenient distraction."
Commissioner Ball argued that rising hostility against LGBTQIA+ communities is a misplaced reaction to public suffering, largely stemming from economic insecurity, which has been ignored by those in power.
"When suffering is ignored, it curdles into resentment. When resentment festers, it can be weaponised against those who are different from us.
"This is how we lose."
