Te Kaunihera Wāhine o Aotearoa National Council of Women of New Zealand supports the peaceful protests against anti-transgender activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull. The events being organised in Wellington and Auckland will give a platform and legitimacy to her inflammatory hate speech which has no place in Aotearoa New Zealand.

NCWNZ recognises transwomen as women and affirms their rights to live free of discrimination from physical and mental violence. NCWNZ President Dr Suzanne Manning says, “We are concerned that Keen-Minshull’s rhetoric attacks transwomen’s rights to live their lives without gender discrimination. Her active promotion of prejudicial and stereotyped views of gender identity sends the message that transwomen should not be permitted to simply exist and that they should hide their authentic selves from the world. This goes against basic human decency, and infringes on transwomen’s human rights.”

NCWNZ believes that gender equality is a fundamental human right which applies to people of all genders and all expressions of gender and sexual identity. Transwomen and all people have a right to live without fear of physical violence and mental distress and the hate speech demonstrated by Keen-Minshull puts these rights at significant risk. We stand with those who support transpeople and their rights to live with the same freedoms as other New Zealanders.

For more information, or to interview Dr Suzanne Manning please contact 022 655 6512 or email us.