Around The World Right-Wing Conservatives…

… Are pushing their bigotry against us. Case in point New Zealand where they are trying to change their birth certificate laws.

Bill on transgender birth certificates creates big issues
Stuff
By Martin van Beynen
November 22, 2018


Transgender people are a tiny part of the population but they occupy a big space at the frontier of minority rights.

As societies move beyond the normalisation of gay relationships and greater inclusion of diverse groups, transgender (gender identity doesn't match the sex people are born with) issues have gained a new prominence.
[…]
In this climate of sensitivity and inclusion, a piece of innocuous proposed law called the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill (the Bill) has created a sometimes fraught catalyst for transgender issues.

For both practical and philosophical reasons, transgender people want official records to match the gender they identify with. Passports and driving licences are relatively straightforward. Authorities require a simple self-declaration to change the documents or issue new ones.

However, as the law stands under the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995 (the Act), the process for changing a birth certificate to the desired gender is more cumbersome and expensive. Transgender people must apply to the Family Court and satisfy it they have "taken decisive steps to live fully and permanently in the gender identity of the nominated sex". Expert medical evidence "that the applicant has undergone medical treatment to acquire a 'physical conformation' that accords with their new gender identity" must be supplied.

The Bill will change all that. As it has emerged from the Governance and Administration select committee, the Bill will remove the Family Court and the medical evidence from the equation.

And three guesses on what this push back is about.

A birth certificate, opponents say, is unlike a passport or driver's licence in that it is a foundation document and cannot be revoked.

Opponents' main fear is that the definition of transgender women (biological males who identify as female) as female will erode the protections and allowances for women. Self–declaration means any male can be female, they say.

The worries range from granting transgender women access to women-only spaces like changing rooms and refuges to lumping transgender women into female health funding and statistics. Scholarships designed specifically for females, equal opportunities provisions and sports teams are other minefields. Predatory males will game the new system, they say.

Hey does this find familiar?

Bathrooms! Locker rooms! Bigotry around the world looks the same as here; in Massachusetts the voter shouted down that argument loud and clear. Let’s hope that the New Zealand legislators see it the same as Massachusetts’ voters.