Rainbow WGN wants action on trans issues

Posted in: New Zealand Daily News
By GayNZ.com News Staff - 20th February 2008

LGBT advocacy network Rainbow Wellington is demanding action by MPs to follow up on several recommendations set out in the Human Rights Commission's recently released report on transgender discrimination in New Zealand.

Rainbow Wellington chair Tony Simpson says "the trouble with reports of this sort is that they set out with the best of intentions, they involve a great deal of work and commitment, and when they make sensible and practical recommendations – as this does – they raise expectations that action will follow.

"Unfortunately there is likely to be a long silence with someone eventually asking: 'I wonder what happened to…' We don't intend to let the grass grow on this one."

The Human Rights Commission's report To Be Who I Am suggested a simple amendment to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Act that would allow trans people to obtain birth certificates and passports that reflect their gender identity.

The thought-to-be world-first detailed exploration to trans issues also targeted several other issues effecting the live of trans New Zealanders, attracting a mixed response from radio talkback callers and MPs.

"We are appalled by the knee jerk reactions of some politicians, and in particular the ignorant and bigoted statements of senior spokespeople for New Zealand First," says Simpson. "This shows they clearly have little or no understanding of the serious disability and disadvantages which transgender people can be subject to in this country."

There a tendency to regard these as small problems of little account, when they are anything but trivial in and to the lives of those affected, explains Simpson. "A transgender person of my own acquaintance just a few years ago applied for a passport, which should be a straightforward procedure activating a citizen right. Instead, she was subjected to abuse, accused of identity theft, and threatened with the Police.

"Even if you can get a passport, in these days of heightened international security travelling on a passport which shows you as male when you are patently not can have dire consequences. There is a recommendation to set that right in the report along with a raft of others, equally necessary."

Rainbow Wellington has written to a number of Ministers involved in implementation of Justice, Health and Internal Affairs. "We sought to know what steps are being taken at the official level to review and implement the Report's outcomes," says Simpson. They have also alerted the Minister responsible for the Human Rights Commission - Lianne Dalziel - and the Commission itself to their concerns. "They say they will be 'watching this space with interest.'"