An open letter to Aotearoa New Zealand on the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill
We are organisations that share the kaupapa ofsupporting, protecting, and advocating for our rainbow, takatāpui, MVPFAFF+ and intersex communities here in Aotearoa. We run the helplines and the youth groups. We create resources, education, and community spaces. We work to create a safer and more inclusive Aotearoa for rainbow and takatāpui communities. The people we serve are your neighbours, your workmates, your kids' friends, ordinary New Zealanders whose identities have meaning that runs far deeper than this bill acknowledges.
Diversity of sex and gender is not a western import of ‘woke’ ideology. Takatāpui and Ira Tangata have always been part of these islands. MVPFAFF+ identities have always been part of the Pacific world Aotearoa belongs to. These identities predate colonisation, and this bill, which imports the language and tactics of culture wars from countries like the US and the UK, does not acknowledge that history. It writes over it.
We oppose the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill. It passed its first reading on 20 May 2026 and is now before the Social Services and Community Committee. Submissions close 2 July 2026. We ask that it not proceed, and we ask you to say the same.
This bill stops asking who a woman is. It starts asking what a woman looks like and it cannot even say what that means.
The bill writes one fixed meaning for "woman" and "man" into every statute in New Zealand law, "an adult human biological female" and "an adult human biological male", “regardless of gender identity”, and this is deeply problematic on many levels.
Sex and gender identity is not unique to rainbow and takatāpui people, but is a critical part of what makes many people who they are. It reduces sex to a binary interpretation and erases the reality of intersex development. And it never defines what "biological female" or “biological male” actually means. Chromosomes? Anatomy? Hormones? A birth certificate? Each produces a different answer.
Define female and male by XX and XY chromosomes and every intersex person with a chromosomal variation is excluded. Define womanhood by a uterus and every woman who has had a hysterectomy is no longer a woman by law. Define a male by their testosterone levels and someone with hormonal imbalances becomes excluded. Every line you draw to fence people in leaves others standing outside it. The bill leaves the phrase undefined, which means in practice it defaults to whatever a stranger can see at a glance.
This bill does not achieve clarity but creates further confusion. It harms trans, gender diverse, takatāpui, MVPFAFF+, and intersex people directly and deliberately.
There will also be wider impacts. Let us show you how.
It makes no one safer and puts everyone under suspicion.
The bill is sold as protection for women. It is not. The Human Rights Act already allows refuges, changing rooms, sports, and services to be organised by sex where there is fair reason and that has not changed. This bill does not address the real threat to women’s safety, which is not trans and gender diverse communities, but instead threatens women‘s rights by reducing them down to their biology.
By its own logic, a trans man who has lived as a man for years would be directed into women's spaces, while a trans woman who is admitted to hospital would be placed in a man's hospital bed. This puts trans people at real risk while producing the very outcome its supporters say they fear. It doesn’t add any real safety but creates suspicion.
Think about who gets stopped at a bathroom door under a law that invites strangers to judge who looks female enough. Not only trans women — but the tall woman, the broad- shouldered woman, the woman with short hair. Overseas, cis women have been challenged and humiliated at bathroom doors for exactly this. This bill would give that suspicion the backing of New Zealand law.
Be woman enough, on sight, or be questioned. This bill would make that the law.
It breaks things no one has accounted for.
The words "woman" and "man" run through our laws, in legislation about abortion access, family violence, and the care of children. The word ‘adult’ means over 20 years of age, this could restrict young people from accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare. Immigration records and decision might rely of biological sex rather and strict a person of their self-identified gender upon arrival to Aotearoa. Change what those words mean, and you change it everywhere they appear. No one promoting this bill has articulated the ramifications of this change.
In 2022, Parliament made it unlawful to suppress a person's gender identity, recognising the serious harm that causes. This bill quietly does what that law forbids, writing gender identity out of every statute in four words. The government's own Attorney-General has flagged that the bill breaches the right to be free from discrimination. The Minister for Women has said it would not advance the rights or wellbeing of women and girls "in any way, shape or form." When a government's own officials oppose the bill, it can be set aside without anyone needing to win a culture war.
This is not who we are.
Aotearoa New Zealand has spent decades becoming one of the better places in the world to be a rainbow person — the Human Rights Act, marriage equality, the ban on conversion practices, the right to have your gender on your own documents. We did that as a country. This bill would undo part of that work, and it is not a New Zealand idea. We are being asked to borrow a cruelty we did not invent and do not need.
What we are asking?
To the Social Services and Community Committee: recommend that this bill not proceed.
To every Member of Parliament: when it reaches its second reading, vote it down.
To everyone reading this: you do not have to be queer or trans to stand with us. If this bill is not in your name, say so. Make a submission before 2 July 2026. The loudest voice in this debate should not be the one that wants to shrink who counts as a New Zealander.
We are not asking for anything we would not extend to you. We are only asking for the dignity of being left to know who we are, and the ordinary safety of being counted in.
Ngā mihi nui,
The undersigned organisations of Aotearoa New Zealand
GendAffirm
QueerSpace
Toitū Takatāpui
Ageing Proud
Auckland Pride
Burnett Foundation Aotearoa
The Charlotte Museum
Chinese Pride NZ
Disabled Queer Alliance
The Diversity Agenda
Diverse Church NZ
Ethnic Rainbow Alliance
Intersex Aotearoa
InsideOUT
Moana Vā
Number 10
People Against Prisons Aotearoa
Pride Pledge
Queer Student Association
Rainbow Action Tamaki
Rainbow Auckland
Te Wāhi Wāhine o Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Women’s Centre
Village Collective
Wellington Pride Parade
Wellington Pride Festival
