Gender identity bill introduced

Feb 9, 2005

Georgina Beyer introduced legislation on Wednesday to outlaw discrimination against transsexuals, transvestites and cross dressers, prompting one opposition party to label it a gender-bending bill.

Beyer said her Human Rights (Gender Identity) Amendment Bill would prohibit discrimination on the grounds of gender identity.

It is intended to bolster the Human Rights Act, which already bans people from discriminating against others on the basis of race and sex.

The bill is not likely to be debated by parliamentarians until May at the earliest.

Observers say it could run out of time to be debated before a general election due by late September, meaning it is unlikely the proposal will become law.

Beyer said if passed, the law would apply to the transgender community and to people who were of indeterminate gender at birth and were assigned the "wrong" gender.

"People whose identification with a gender different from that with which they are born, often known as transgendered people, are subjected to discrimination in employment, housing and in some matters covered by the law," she said.

Beyer said the bill was about protection for these groups.

"There may be those who consider we don't deserve to be given such status by way of protection, I don't know," she said.

Dail Jones, an MP from the right-leaning New Zealand First, said his party would not support the "gender-bending" legislation.

"If you're born a male, you stay a male. If you're born a female, you stay a female. If you want to start fiddling around and changing your body, that's a decision you make and you must bear the consequences that follow from it."