Dear Christchurch City Council, please re-open your consultation on the women's swim session.

The passing of the sex self-ID law here in New Zealand on 15 June this year, clarified that service providers are not obligated to include men who say they’re women in female spaces. If they do so, it is by their choice, and not by legal obligation. I have had extensive communication with the Christchurch City Council on this matter - i.e. a thorn in their side - both before sex self-ID came into law, and after¹. Here is my latest letter to Nigel Cox, head of recreation, emailed to him today -

Hi Nigel – in light of the clarification supplied by the Dept of Internal Affairs on the obligations of service providers’ re: sex self-ID, I, and the women and men I represent, would like to request that the Christchurch City Council re-opens the community consultation about the women’s session at Te Pou Toetoe:Linwood Pool. This consultation would be to get community feedback on the CCC’s policy of including men who identify as women in that session, as that information was not available in the first consultation.

To reiterate my position, and that of the women and men I represent, in my correspondence with the CCC a woman is an adult human female, a man is an adult human male, and people cannot change their sex.  Most New Zealanders would take this as common knowledge, which is why it didn’t occur to those who provided feedback in the initial community consultation about the women’s session to ask how the CCC defined a woman.

The inclusion of men who identify as women in the women’s session was only implemented after the community consultation period closed, and, as OIA information showed, after the Christchurch City Council consulted solely with Qtopia about it. The community was not then given a fair chance to also provide their feedback on that inclusion, and what it would mean to them.

In previous communication, the CCC erroneously stated that they were legally obligated to include men who identify as women in the women’s session at Te Pou Toetoe:Linwood Pool. It’s now been established the statement was incorrect, and that service providers are still legally allowed to provide a single-sex service. If they don’t, then that is a choice they voluntarily make.

The Dept of Internal Affairs, when advising service providers in regard to the sex self-ID law, have clarified it is not compulsory to provide a sex segregated service based on gender identity. In the above link, the DIA has communicated that the words ’sex’ and ‘gender’ can be considered as meaning separate things. To not consider them as separate is a service provider’s choice.

In light of this new clarification, it’s ascertained that the CCC is not obligated to include men who identify as women in the women’s session at Te Pou Toetoe:Linwood Pool, but chooses to do so. We feel that re-opening the consultation to ask the community whether or not those men should be included, is a reasonable request, if not an imperative one. The public has a right to know the full facts when they give feedback, and the full facts weren’t known at the time of the initial consultation.

May I ask to be consulted on the construction of any new consultation.

Thank you for your time with this.

Katrina Biggs – women’s rights advocate

Deborah Horan – Women’s Rights Party: Canterbury-West Coast convenor

¹Sex self-ID in New Zealand has a 'get out of jail' card for service providers. (substack.com)