Olivia Stewart knows the harm that can come from discrimination, having faced being bullied and ostracised after coming out as transgender at just 13-years-of-age.
But the 17-year-old is now concerned others like her will face more risk of prejudice, because of a lack of protections as part of the federal government's attempt to enshrine its religious freedoms bill.
The Coalition has made amendments to protect gay students from expulsion as it tries a last-ditch effort to gain support for the new laws, but this will stop short of protecting trans students.
Ms Stewart telling SBS News she has deep concerns about what this could mean.
“I feel like this bill is a blatant spit in the face to trans people across Australia, especially trans youth,” she said.
“We are a group of people only asking to be respected and to be allowed to be ourselves and to be authentic to who we are.”
Within the government's own ranks, moderate Liberals had raised concerns about protections for LGBTIQ+ students at risk of being expelled from religious schools, with some threatening to cross the floor.
They are also concerned around how the bill would act to infringe on existing anti-discrimination protections.
But a revised version of the bill gained support from a Coalition party room meeting on Tuesday, after discussing the amendments.
The proposed changes would include an amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act to prevent the expulsion of students on the basis of sexuality.
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham has confirmed these protections would not include the grounds of gender identity.
“It doesn’t go further than that,” he told the ABC.
“Those other matters as I understand it would still be subject to a relatively quick - within 12 months - review by the Australian Law Reform Commission.”
Advocates - including Olympian Ian Thorpe - have also warned the laws would amount to “” through its statement of belief clause and provisions allowing employers to discriminate when hiring staff to people who adopt the same faith.
But with only 10 parliamentary sitting days left before an election is held in May, time is running out for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to deliver on the 2019 election promise.
Mr Morrison told reporters outside a Greek Orthodox church service in Canberra to mark the return of parliament he remained determined to legislate the bill.
“I’m confident that this is a very important bill,” he said.
“I stand by it 100 per cent. I’m standing with the millions of Australians for whom this is such an important issue. I gave them a pledge and I’m honouring that pledge.”
Greens MP Adam Bandt later questioned the prime minister about whether under the government’s proposed bill would become a "trojan horse for hate" that would increase discrimination.
Mr Morrison responded saying the laws were aimed at providing “positive” protection that prevents discrimination against people of religious faith.
“I took this to the Australian people and they supported us,” he told Question Time.
“They supported at the ballot box those protections being provided to people of religious faith.”
He also conceded the laws would not overturn the existing legal ability to expel transgender students.
But with both parties wanting to keep voters of faith on side just months out from an election, Labor is yet to finalise its position.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese told reporters he supported "the idea of course that you shouldn't be discriminated against on the basis of your faith."
“It shouldn't be beyond the capacity of the parliament to deal with this in a way that builds consensus. But at the moment, we don't know what will come out of their processes," he told reporters.
"Everyone should be protected. That's the objective we'll have a look at what comes out of the process."
Ms Stewart said politicians needed to understand the “human cost” of protecting some from discrimination more than others.
“For a bill with anti-discrimination in the idea, it really only encourages it in its current state,” she said.
"Trans people, we don't really have that much of a voice so we're asking at least this time 'please consider and please listen.'"
