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<\/p>\nQueer rights demonstrators say they won’t rest until a bill going through Parliament to define “woman” and “man” is stopped.<\/p>\n
Defy Definition protest organisers estimated 10,000 people across five cities marched yesterday to reject NZ First’s effort to define all women as adult human biological females, and all men as adult human biological males.<\/p>\n
The Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill passed its first reading in Parliament last month and is open for submissions until July 2.<\/p>\n
The demonstrations were co-ordinated by several rainbow groups, including Queer Endurance Defiance, Rainbow Action T\u0101maki and Qtopia.<\/p>\n
In a joint statement, they said the bill erased transgender and intersex people.<\/p>\n
“We argue there is no benefit to defining gender and sex into law,” the statement read. <\/p>\n
“All it does is punish already marginalised communities and undermine previously established cross-parliamentary consensus on self-ID, ignoring the expert recommendations of the Law Commission.”<\/p>\n
The bill was sponsored by the NZ First MP Jenny Marcroft, whose party leader Winston Peters took to social media last night to call the protesters “egotistical mouth-breathers”.<\/p>\n
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Foreign Minister Winston Peters. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
He said the bill was about “protecting women and girls’ rights, freedoms and safety”.<\/p>\n
The Minister for Women, National’s Nicola Grigg, has previously expressed doubts.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Parliament during the Bill’s first reading, she said: “I’m not convinced that this bill would advance the rights and opportunities or the wellbeing of women and girls in any way, shape or form in New Zealand.”<\/p>\n
She said National was supporting it “to ensure that New Zealanders have the opportunity to have their say” during the select committee process.<\/p>\n