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New Zealand is like most other countries in that male-to-female transgender inmates are confined to men's prisons.
Unlike most other countries, New Zealand has a government that is reviewing such a policy. This is a result of report from the University of Auckland's Equal Justice Project, which documented the danger of sexual assualt such prisoners face.
While the government's willingness to review the policy is laudable, Green Party Member of Parliament Jan Logue says that action is needed urgently because "when we lock someone in prison, we have an obligation to ensure that they are safe".
Whether or not one believes that the government should pay for the hormones, psychotherapy or surgery of someone in prison, I still think one has to agree that prisoners should be safe while they are in prison if one of the goals of incarceration is rehabilitation. Granted, prisons don't always achieve this goal, and perhaps not all prisoners are rehabilitatable. Still, the prison environment must be safe for anyone for whom there is any hope of change.
Also, while I believe that we are responsible for our actions, I know that having to deal with the ostracism, prejudice and even violence that many of us (as well as members of other "minority" groups) face is enough to drive some of us to desperation and rage--or to commit crimes or even violence in self-defense.
I hope that the New Zealand government's willingness to review their policy will result in changing it and that more jurisdictions--including those here in the US--will do likewise.
In 1999, Georgina Beyer became the first openly transgender member of any parliament in the world. She won election in a normally conservative district of Wairapa, in New Zealand, and served until 2007.
She was about to announce her campaign to be elected the mayor of Wellington when she was diagnosed with kidney failure. If Ms. Beyer, who is 55, doesn't get a kidney transplant, she will need dialysis four times a week for the rest of her life. She has not confirmed that she will no longer stand, but,she says, "I'm sure as hell not going to sit back and think 'woe is me'."
She had her gender-reassignment surgery in 1984, which definitely makes her a survivor of the Lost Generation of Transgenders. Before her surgery, she acted on stage, in Australia as well as in New Zealand. Before her surgery, she was also a radio host and was part of Wellington's gay club scene. However, she also fell into a line of work that claimed too many members of our Generation: prostitution.
However, she was not merely a "first"; she was one of those rare people who has managed to be a sort of visionary as well as a canny, shrewd politician. As an example, during a 2004 speech at the UniQ: Queer Students Association conference at Waikato University, she warned that gay and lesbian New Zealanders would face a turbulent time, in which rights they gained from the homosexual law reform of 1986 would be questioned and attacked. She also expressed her support for a civil-union bill, since she believed that gay marriage wouldn't become legal in New Zealand "for at least twenty years." At least that prediction didn't come true: her country passed same-sex marriage legislation last month.
I hope that Ms. Beyer gets all of the support and care she needs. We still need her.
Bellbirds live in New Zealand. They're about the size of a sparrow, dark olive-green with red eyes. (They're kinda cute, if you ask me!) The female has a white cheek stripe, but the male doesn't.
Staff at the Zealandia Eco-Sanctury have found a bellbird that has the stripe on one side, but the darker male plumage on the other. Also, this bird makes both male- and female- patterened calls, but makes the female calls at a higher volume and greater frequency than is normal for females.
"There's something we can't pin down," says Erin Jeneway, a conservation officer at the sanctuary. "We haven't seen anything like this before."
Although it is the first bellbird to be found with characteristics of both genders, it's not the first such bird or animal to be noted. And there are some species, such as the clownfish, in which members change their sexes. If a female clownfish dies, the largest male in the school will become female.
What do such animals do about their birth certificates?
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