NZ: ジェンダー・アイデンティティによる差別禁止法案、再び提案へ

Thursday, February 16, 2006
Beyer’s gender bill back again
GayNZ

Georgina Beyer’s Human Rights (Gender Identity) Amendment Bill appears to be back on the agenda, contrary to reports last year which suggested the private members bill had been removed from the ballot.

Beyer announced during a speech to crowds at Auckland’s Big Gay Out last Sunday that she intended to have a first reading of the bill in April this year.

She told GayNZ.com in November that support in the new Parliament for socially progressive legislation had been reduced. “The mandate from the voters was quite clear. They wanted a more conservative government, and I would have no support whatsoever to get this bill through even a first reading,” she said at the time.

It is unclear whether Beyer has the numbers now, either. She told GayNZ.com today that the Labour caucus hasn’t yet discussed the bill, and she hasn’t time to get an idea of numbers from the other side of the House, however Parliament only resumed this week. “It’s a very simple matter of affording clarity on the human rights of transgender people,” she says. “I can’t see what the problem with it is, but some people have difficulties with it.”

A petition is due to be tabled in Parliament supporting the bill soon, and Beyer is encouraging members of the public to write and talk to their local MPs, but she says at this stage she is no more confident than last year that the bill will make it through a first reading. “It is due to come back on the order paper for a first reading in April,” she says. “I’m going to take the risk, and we’ll either win or lose.”