Greens celebrate historic day for Rainbow communities

The Greens are celebrating conversion practices finally being banned in Aotearoa New Zealand, following the third reading of the Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill tonight.

“Today is an historic day in Aotearoa. It is the day where the decades of trauma experienced by Rainbow communities is recognised, and our right to exist free from torture, coercion and suppression is cemented in law.

“No one is allowed to force people to change because of their diverse sexualities, gender identities, or sex characteristics.

“We acknowledge the many years of tireless advocacy, multiple petitions and protests to achieve basic rights for our takatāpui and Rainbow whānau. This day is your legacy.

“Because People Power is how we got here today. Just 12 months ago, nearly 160,000 people signed our petition calling on the Government to urgently ban traumatic, unethical and harmful conversion practices.

“Those voices were impossible for the Government to ignore and they fast-tracked the introduction of legislation shortly after.

“However, we know the mahi is not over yet. We acknowledge the systemic discrimination of trans, intersex and non-binary people in the health system and realise this will not address all the issues they face. We will advocate for a Rainbow Health Strategy in our new health system.

“Labour committed to defining sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression in this Bill after its review of the Human Rights Act. They also committed to protecting the rights of intersex people with best practice guidelines for healthcare. We will hold them to that.”

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