Labour has a long history of looking out for Aotearoa’s LGBTQIA+ and takatāpui communities, and we’re proud to continue that legacy. Now, with a Labour Government, New Zealand’s Parliament has the highest percentage of Rainbow members in the world – and we’re doing more than simply representing Rainbow perspectives.
Here are some of the ways we’re advancing the rights of Rainbow New Zealanders:
Banning harmful practices and upholding dignity
We’re working to keep our Rainbow communities safe and supported. We’ve banned harmful conversion practices. We also supported legislation to wipe historic homosexual offences from criminal records, going some way toward addressing the tremendous hurt and stigma suffered by those affected.
Boosting mental health support
Diversity of identity or sexual orientation shouldn’t be a barrier to accessing support. We’re boosting our investment in mental health to make sure our tamariki and rangatahi have access to trusted support workers when they need to talk. We are also the first government to provide targeted nationwide funding for mental health services supporting Rainbow young people, to ensure they can access support when they need it.
Supporting transition
We’re helping trans people to access the care they need. To help reduce wait times for gender affirming surgery, we lifted the cap on the number of publicly funded surgeries and increased funding for the service, supporting the mental health of our trans whānau.
Keeping people safe and well
We want to make sure that HIV and STI prevention services in New Zealand are targeted appropriately, and that Rainbow people aren’t disadvantaged in terms of healthcare. That’s why we invested $300,000 in research updating behavioural information like testing rates, which will guide the improved design and delivery of prevention services in future.
We will:
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Ban conversion therapy
We will make practising, performing or enabling conversion therapy a crime to prevent this outdated and harmful practice from occurring in New Zealand -
Provide better access, support and treatment through our health system
This includes ensuring our healthcare system is responsive to the needs of trans, intersex and gender diverse people, and developing a rights based protocol to prevent unnecessary medical interventions on intersex children -
Improve the wellbeing of the Rainbow community, including more funding for mental health services
We will target $4 million of mental health funding for the Rainbow community, continue implementing the Suicide Prevention Strategy and continue our work to address homelessness including Rainbow homelessness -
Create more inclusive school and work environments
We will ensure schools apply guidance to create safe and inclusive school environments for all students, work with schools on providing gender neutral bathrooms and update New Zealand’s workplace gender and sexual diversity standards -
Reduce discrimination and ensure equal rights for the Rainbow community
This will include a review of adoption and surrogacy policies and laws and a review of the Human Rights Act 1993 to ensure discrimination on the grounds of gender identity is explicitly prohibited