Gender Identity/expression
New Zealand does not have specific transgender anti-discrimination laws, although New Zealand's anti-discrimination laws are now thought to cover members of the transgender communities. The Human Rights Commission in New Zealand said in 2005 that it considered transgender people to fall within the definition of sex discrimination, and would accept complaints from transgender people. Transsexual Member of Parliament Georgina Beyer had the Human Rights (Gender Identity) Amendment Bill ready for debate in Parliament as a member's bill in 2004. However, on 16 August 2006, New Zealand's Solicitor-General issued an opinion (reference below) to the effect that transgender people were covered under the 'sex discrimination' provision of the Human Rights Act 1993. Georgina Beyer said when withdrawing her Bill "that's good enough for me".
In 2007/2008 the Human Rights Commission published "To Be Who I Am", a report that came from the Human Rights Transgender Inquiry. In this publication, the Human Rights Commission recommended the clarification of the Human Rights Act in terms of gender identity, by specifically including "gender identity" under the Sex category of the Human Rights Act.
In 1994, the New Zealand High Court ruled that post-operative transsexuals could marry as their new sex.
Read more about this topic: LGBT Rights In New Zealand
Famous quotes containing the words gender, identity and/or expression:
“But there, where I have garnered up my heart,
Where either I must live or bear no life;
The fountain from the which my current runs
Or else dries up: to be discarded thence,
Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
To knot and gender in!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Personal change, growth, development, identity formation—these tasks that once were thought to belong to childhood and adolescence alone now are recognized as part of adult life as well. Gone is the belief that adulthood is, or ought to be, a time of internal peace and comfort, that growing pains belong only to the young; gone the belief that these are marker events—a job, a mate, a child—through which we will pass into a life of relative ease.”
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)
“Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)