Wednesday 20 July 2016

research for debate

I tried to make this as succinct as possible for use in the debate but there's heaps more information around

Gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, intersex (etc) people
Although we may have marriage equality, that doesn’t mean that members of the LGBTQ+ community are treated equally in every way.
Gay and bisexual men are still banned from donating blood. There are still many homophobic and transphobic people in our society, both in New Zealand and in worldwide media which is extremely influential, and effects LGBTQ+ people’s daily lives.
Transgender people are one of the most discriminated against groups in New Zealand, especially when this intersects with race and gender. The Human Rights Commission Inquiry into Discrimination Experienced by Transgender People in 2006 found that transgender people face discrimination and harassment in many areas of public life, including employment and shared accommodation. Trans people are placed in the wrong prisons if they haven’t changed their birth certificates (an expensive and lengthy process), where they are highly vulnerable to sexual assault and violence, especially trans women in men’s prisons. New Zealand law also allows unnecessary and non-consensual ‘normalising’ surgeries on intersex infants, which can severely affect their adult life.
Some expanded info:
MSM can’t donate blood until one year after having sex with another man. This is discriminatory towards gay/bi men and creates stigma towards the group. There should be individual risk assessments rather than a blanket ban on gay/bi men from donating blood.
Although it’s possible to change gender markers on official documents, this is expensive and requires a lot of paperwork. Changing your birth certificate requires going to court, which is also expensive and requires a medical standard of permanent physical change – generally meaning surgery that’s extremely inaccessible in New Zealand, and not desired by all trans people.
Intersex (an umbrella term that covers a variety of types of sexual anatomy or chromosomes that aren’t the standard male or female) babies are often subject to genital surgeries to make them look ‘normal’ aka like what common male or female genitals look like. This can have both an impact on their health, and also being forced into a gender binary as a child that does not match someone’s gender can be extremely damaging.


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