Populist party in NZ introduces Gender Bill

Less than a week after the UK Supreme Court declared that the term “woman” refers exclusively to biological sex assigned at birth, the populist New Zealand First party, which forms part of the country’s conservative coalition government, has introduced a bill to parliament to define men and women by their biology, preventing transgender people from being legally recognised.

Speaking about the bill, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said that events at home and internationally showed that “the pendulum is swinging back towards common sense and proving us right.”

According to The Guardian, the bill is a long shot as it has to first be selected at random from a ballot and then garner majority support in parliament. Furthermore, the bill was lodged by a member of parliament (rather than the government), making it less certain that parliament would allot time for it to be debated.

The New Zealand bill comes at a time when the transgender community is under sustained attack from conservative elements around the world. In addition to the recent developments in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, US President Donald Trump previously issued executive orders that included recognising two unchangeable sexes (male and female), moving transgender women into men’s prisons and barring transgender people from military service. In Australia, the Queensland Government banned puberty blockers and hormone therapies for new patients under 18 earlier this year.

Read the full story from The Guardian here.