Bill’s delay upsets transgender groups
A delay on gender selfidentification could affect the health and well-being of transgender people, advocates say.
Gender Minorities Aotearoa (GMA) national co-ordinator Ahi Wi-Hongi said the inability of New Zealanders to change their gender marker through a simple, self-identification process was part of ‘‘institutional bullying’’ that could lead to a higher risk of self-harm, depression and attempted suicide.
‘‘As a society, we can’t keep setting trans people up for a lifetime of heartbreak.
‘‘At the moment, trans people can’t even get identification documents,’’ Wi-Hongi said.
The comments come in the wake of Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin announcing a deferral of amendments to the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act to ‘‘deal with problems caused by the select committee process’’ by the introduction of selfidentification.
Those problems had been identified from the advice of Crown Law.
Self-identification was the process whereby people could change their gender marker through a statutory declaration.
This process is currently used when changing gender on passports and driver’s licences, but changing it on birth certificates required an application to, and the approval of, the Family Court. Self-identification aimed to streamline that process.
Wi-Hongi said GMA, which advocated for the rights of transgender and non-binary people, had confidence in the select committee’s ability to ‘‘do its job well’’.
On Monday, Martin said ‘‘significant changes’’ had been made to the bill regarding gender selfidentification and that it had occurred ‘‘without adequate public consultation’’.
But ActionStation director Laura Rapira O’Connell said further consultation was not required, as the changes were already endorsed by the Human Rights Commission, many LGBTQIA+ groups and the Privacy Commissioner.
‘‘We don’t need consultation with non-trans people on what trans people need. We just need to listen to what trans people tell us they need.’’
Opponents of the bill, such as single-issue group Speak Up For Women, which welcomed the deferral, had said the changes would have made cisgender (those whose gender assigned at birth aligned with their gender identity) women unsafe.
Those views had been labelled as ‘‘transphobic’’ or ‘‘trans-exclusionary’’ by proponents of the bill on a website titled ‘‘Right to Self I.D.’’.
Queer youth advocacy group InsideOUT board member Alex Kerr said the deferral was symbolic of the way transgender lives were ‘‘too often dismissed as a low priority’’.
‘‘This is an issue of human rights, and trans and non-binary need the means to be protected by the law to live with dignity and self-determination.’’