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MEDIA RELEASE

13 March 2026

NEW PROJECT LAUNCH – DADS FOR GENDER DIVERSITY

Tasmanian family violence service, Engender Equality has launched a new project –Dads for Gender Diversity – to support Tasmanian fathers in affirming, celebrating, and advocating for their trans and gender diverse ‘children’ (of any age). 

Engender Equality CEO, Alina Thomas said, 

“We are delighted to roll out this programme in Tasmania.” 

“It is such an important area and there is so little research available to guide the formation of a framework of support for fathers of trans/LGBTIQA+ people. 

“In a society of ongoing transgender prejudice and discrimination, parental support is the most important factor protecting the health and wellbeing of trans and gender diverse young people. 

“However, evidence from practice and the limited research available, suggest that this support is primarily provided and led by mothers.  

“Dads face unique challenges to understand, affirm, and support their ‘child’s’ gender identity.  

“Challenges come from rigid ideas in our community about gender, and what it means to be a man and father,” Ms Thomas said. 

Our Watch’s Innovation Grant underpinning this project comes through their Violence Prevention Innovation Lab. The Violence Prevention Innovation Lab is designed and led by Our Watch and funded by Minderoo Foundation and has enabled us to pick up this significant work. 

Project Manager, Don Pitcher said, 

“Ideas about male independence, and social judgement and prejudice towards trans and gender diverse people mean that dads are often isolated.”   

“They do not get the chance to talk with other fathers about either the barriers they confront, or the joy they can experience in understanding and affirming their kids gender identity. 

“This social judgement of gender diversity, along with rigid gender stereotypes can even invite some men to feel like a failure as a man and father when their young person identifies as trans or gender diverse. 

“We are going to create a space where dads of trans and gender diverse people can come together to share their experiences and love for their trans kids, and to support, challenge and inspire each other. 

“More than that, we want to find a way to collect these dads’ stories and learning, and to make them available to others, so that all dads of trans young people know that they can do this,” Mr Pitcher said.  

For more  information email don@engenderequality.org.au, visit the Engender Equality website or phone (03) 6278 9090. 

Ends. 

 Media Contact: Alina Thomas  0438 788 291 

MEDIA RELEASE

11 March 2026

CALL FOR TASMANIA TO TRANSFORM THE SYSTEMS THAT CONDONE AND ENABLE VIOLENCE – NO TO VIOLENCE NATIONAL CONFERENCE, HOBART 

CEO, Alina Thomas will lay down the gauntlet tomorrow to Tasmanian institutions saying systems are built on social norms that privilege male dominance and female compliance. 

Speaking tomorrow at the 2026 National Conference: Ending Men’s Family Violence: From local practice to national strategy, the CEO of Tasmania’s specialist family violence organisation, Engender Equality said, 

“If we are serious about addressing gender-based violence, we must examine the actions of individual people who use violence alongside the institutional ecosystems that enable and sustain harm.  

“Systems that claim impartiality while ignoring structural power dynamics may inadvertently reinforce those dynamics of inequality.  

“Transforming institutional responses therefore requires honesty, and sustained commitment. 

“It requires listening to victim-survivors, following the leadership of specialist services, and confronting the structural biases embedded within our systems.  

“Ultimately, we need to eliminate men’s violence, but we will not do this until we are willing to redesign the system that condones and enables the violence.  

“If we want different outcomes, we must be willing to design different systems,” Ms Thomas said.  

Ms Thomas spoke to Engender’s latest publication entitled Systems abuse, patriarchy, and the institutional production of harm which explores how institutional responses to intimate partner violence can inadvertently produce harm. It outlines three interrelated forms of institutional involvement in abuse: systems abuse, systemic harm, and systemic collusion. It also situates these dynamics within the broader framework of patriarchal social structures and argues for systemic reform grounded in gender equity, relational accountability, and victim-survivor expertise. 

If you would like to engage a lived experience representative (case study), please see Advocates for Change – Engender Equality,  email advocates@engenderequality.org.au or phone: 0415 740 524.  

Ends. 

Media Contact: Alina Thomas  0438 788 291  

EXAMPLES 

• Police identifying discrete incidents of violence instead of ongoing patterns of coercive behaviour 

• With a significant proportion of male police officers reporting having used violence in their own intimate relationships, complex questions arise about whether institutional culture and accountability can protect women 

• Legal systems frequently require victim-survivors to provide extensive proof while people using violence benefit from institutional caution 

• Child protection systems sometimes interpret mothers’ inability to avoid violence as “failure to protect”, effectively penalising victim-survivors rather than holding perpetrators accountable 

• Family law processes may prioritise male parental contact over safety concerns, placing victim-survivors and children at continued risk.