There is no greater example of the elites being out of touch with the mainstream than their views on gender ideology.

The Australian Human Rights Commission is now doing their best to prove it.

Just a week after the Sex Discrimination Commissioner told the Australian Senate she didn’t understand the term “biological male”, The Australian has revealed one of the nation’s most controversial gender paediatricians is up for a Human Rights award.

Professor Michelle Telfer, the Director of the gender clinic at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, is one of twenty finalists for the 2025 Australian Human Rights Award.

Professor Telfer is the author of the current “best practice” guidelines for treatment of gender-confused children in Australia. Earlier this year she was reprimanded by a Judge for giving misleading evidence about puberty blockers for children.

Writing in June on Telfer, HRLA explained:

These guidelines include “the administration of puberty blockers, ‘gender-affirming’ hormones and even double mastectomies for girls once they reach 16. Incredibly, Telfer’s Melbourne RCH accepts three-year-olds for treatment”.

But Justice Strum harshly criticised the guidelines, noting they did not have “have the approval … of the Commonwealth or any state or territory government, including any such government or minister … or department of health”.

“I do not accept that the child, at this age and pre-pubertal stage in life, can properly understand the implications, and potential risks, of puberty blockers”, he wrote in his landmark decision in the case.

HRLA told The Australian in relation to Professor Telfer’s nomination for the award that:

Dr Telfer’s “gender-affirming” guidelines for the Royal Children’s Hospital do not protect human rights. On the contrary, they undermine the rights of children to receive the best medical care, and conflict with the fundamental human rights of parents to make informed decisions, based on accurate medical advice, about the treatment of their children.

The guidelines are also out of step with where the rest of the world is heading, with many jurisdictions cracking down on these practices in the wake of the Cass Review in the UK which demonstrated how little evidence exists to support these treatments.

Australian parents are well aware of the dangers of this gender ideology and the damage it can do to children, but it seems the leaders and bureaucrats in government remain so clueless they are giving awards out to people who continue to push this agenda and undermine the rights of parents and children.

HRLA will continue to speak out on the damaging results of gender ideology and defend the rights of parents and children even while elites give themselves awards for chasing dangerous fads.