Schools 'should let' children change gender

A ground-breaking inquiry by the Human Rights Commission is calling for law changes to recognise the rights of transgender people, including allowing children to change gender at school.

 

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Its report, released today, recommends the Human Rights Act be amended, adding "gender" to the grounds of discrimination to reinforce that transgenders are protected by law.

It also wants simpler procedures for changing sex on passports, birth certificates and other legal documents so they match a transgender's identity.

The 18-month inquiry, believed to be a world first of its type, found that four out of five transgender people had experienced discrimination - at school, work, in the street, and in daily interactions with shops, government agencies and health professionals.

Discrimination against transgender (or "trans") children at school came in for particular attention.

Some schools refused to acknowledge a change to a birth name, ignored bullying or got into conflicts with trans children about what they wore to school.

"There is a need for schools to think about how to be flexible with the rules to make sure that kids do participate," said Human Rights Commissioner Joy Liddicoat, who led the inquiry.

"Can you imagine your child going off to school in the morning and hiding behind a bush to change their clothes and then bracing themselves for a conflict with their teacher just about what they are wearing?" she said.

One person told the inquiry she legally changed her name when she was 16.

However, her high school refused to issue school reports under that name and required her to use the male toilets and changing rooms, where she was harassed.

The report says transgender children should be able to play sport and use appropriate changing rooms and toilets without fear, humiliation or embarrassment.

One positive initiative was a group set up three years ago called SS4Q (Safety in Schools for Queers) to improve safety by educating about diverse gender identities, it said.

A common-sense approach often worked in dealing with the needs of transgender children, said Liddicoat.

"We heard of two Christchurch schools that allow some of their young trans people to mix different elements of the school uniform.

"So they are still wearing the school uniform, but they are allowed to wear different parts of it," she said.

"It's practical Kiwi ingenuity, making things work so people can get on with it. Those sorts of things, with some goodwill, can be done reasonably easily."

The commission met 200 transgender people, their families, colleagues, community groups, health professionals, academics and government agencies.

The trans people were farmers, doctors, teachers, artists, tradespeople and office workers. An 11-year-old trans boy was the youngest, and the oldest were in their 70s.

They spoke of problems accessing health services and getting their gender status legally recognised in documents. At worst, trans people suffered constant harassment and savage assaults.

"It did make us feel sad that we've got this sector of the community that experiences such high levels of discrimination that they just come to expect it," said Liddicoat.

"They have come to expect that they are going to be treated badly by most people -- not all the time, but for at least some point on their journey. That needs to change.

"It is challenging, but there is a huge diversity of transgender people. They exist and they shouldn't be experiencing the huge levels of discrimination that they are."

The commission accepts discrimination complaints from trans people on the grounds of "sex", but questions have been raised by international case law on what would be considered as discrimination by New Zealand courts.

To avoid doubt, the inquiry recommended "gender identity" be added as a specific cause for complaint. The size of the transgender population is unknown.

However, in April last year almost 400 people had New Zealand passports that marked their sex as indeterminate.

Since 1995, 114 people have applied to the Family Court to change the sex details on their birth certificates.

While recommending improving the access of trans people to health services, including sex-changing surgery, the inquiry stopped short of suggesting more public money be used for this purpose.

The Ministry of Health funds a maximum of four operations every two years - three male-to-female operations and one female to male.

"Ninety per cent of transgender people actually go privately. They pay for it all themselves," Liddicoat said.

Transsexual former MP Georgina Beyer today welcomed the report and urged the Government to adopt its recommendations.

"What it would do is further assimilation into society of a marginalised group who tend to be forgotten, dismissed and given no particular importance as far as their life is concerned," she told NZPA.

"The majority of them end up becoming burdens on society because of the way we treat them and here is an opportunity to give them tools by which they can integrate and become positive contributors to our society."

Ms Beyer, who was herself a submitter to the inquiry, said many people were ignorant when it came to transgender people and that tended to generate fear.

When she was mayor of Carterton parents of children showing transgender tendencies would approach her.

In one case parents had decided to let their 11-year-old boy express his identity through wearing girls' clothes but bullying had forced a change of school and eventually adverse community reaction forced the family to move.

People needed to be educated about research that suggested transgender tendencies were a congenital issue rather than a lifestyle one, Ms Beyer said.

- with NZPA

- © Fairfax NZ News