Dear Mr Hipkins, our objection to men in women’s spaces cannot be dismissed as just a “culture war”, as much as you’d like to.

Politicians and councillors are still trying their damndest to belittle women's concerns about men in female spaces as just a "culture war".

We’ve got some politicians and councillors here in New Zealand who think the matter of men in women’s spaces is behind us now. They’ve stonewalled those of us who object to it, so have the illusion they’ve beaten us. Word has seeped out of the Labour Party, for example, that “none of that’s an issue anymore”.

Oh, really? Word of advice - think again.

To be fair, there are plenty of politicians in other political parties, too, who think the same as Labour. They just want women to accept our fate, and stop being a nuisance so they can get on with ‘more important things’. So what if a few men who say they’re women want to get into women’s spaces and sports? Can’t we just absorb them, and not complain unless we get hurt or assaulted? Naturally, if that happens, though, those things will require full documented evidence. Women and girls can’t have spaces free from men if we don’t get hurt or assaulted, and can prove it if we do. Meanwhile, men who say they’re women only need to have a ‘lived experience’ sob-story, if even that, to have the freedom to waltz on into women’s spaces.

The current Leader of the Opposition, Labour leader Chris Hipkins, thinks that objections to men in women’s spaces is just a culture war, and Shane Jones and Winston Peters of NZ First are only stoking the flames of it for shits and giggles. He appears determined not to believe the issue of men in women’s spaces is actually still alive, and of great concern to many women and men. Unlike Labour, and too many others in parliament, NZ First are actually hearing and acknowledging that. I’m not going to paint NZ First as purely altruistic angels, but, for whatever reasons, they’re not only listening to the TQ+ (who have their own select committee rainbow meeting room at Parliament) nor the experts who tell them that ‘trans’ must be granted all they desire otherwise they’ll be extremely sad. No, they’re – gasp – listening to ordinary women and men.

However, in a recent Newsroom article, Chris Hipkins brushes it all off as a culture war, and a war on transpeople. He goes on to infer that this is about not letting people be free to be who they are. Nobody so deaf as someone whose job depends on it, eh?

Although I don’t think it will make a scrap of difference, I wrote to him anyway -

Dear Mr Hipkins,

In reference to your comment highlighted below from the Newsroom article Labour’s message for 2026: Are you better off? -

“There’s nothing they want more than culture wars. Winston Peters and his war on trans people is another example of that. I saw Shane Jones put something on Facebook the other day where he said, ‘If you spend more time talking about woke identities than you do about creating jobs, you’ll never be government’ or whatever. The only person that I’ve heard talk about woke identities is Shane Jones. No one else is talking about it, everyone else is just embracing the view that you live and let live. People should be free to be who they are.”

Please do not equate “People should be free to be who they are” as being the same thing as allowing men (and boys) who claim they identify as women into:

· women’s spaces

· women’s sports

· women’s swim sessions

· women’s toilets

· women’s changing rooms

· women’s refuges

· women’s dating apps

· women’s scholarships

· girls’ schools

· breastfeeding groups

· menopause groups

· endometriosis groups

· boardroom positions

· women’s spas, massage, and beauty treatments

The above list is by no means complete.

Because it has to be said, women and girls are human females. Men who say they’re women have put in a huge amount of effort to decouple the word ‘woman’ from female biological reality, so they can use it themselves as desired, and as justification to go into any women’s and girls’ spaces with impunity. This is not acceptable. Even if there are some women and men who go along with this, many more understand what this actually entails, and don’t go along with it [NB: I should have also said “including some men who say they’re women”] - not just Shane Jones and Winston Peters, as inferred. Or, perhaps, as you prefer to believe?

People being free to be who they are is not licence for men who say they’re women to be in places where they negatively impact on women and girls. Neither does a small number of these men automatically equate to a small impact. This is not a culture war, this is about women’s and girls’ lives, and it is insulting to diminish our lives to just being a culture war.

I ask that you please refrain from doing that.

Thank you and regards,

Katrina Biggs

The reply I got was a standard template-reply from a staffer acknowledging my email. If anything further comes from Mr Hipkins himself, I expect it will be another template reply with lots of mod-prog (modern-progressive) buzzwords in it.

However, I’m now wondering exactly how many women-only spaces have been infiltrated by men who say they’re women? Let me know in the comments. Those in New Zealand would be particularly useful. I don’t need specific names of places and groups, if that kind of reveal will have repercussions, so in that instance just the type of women-only space will do. Not sports, though, as there are those already collating that information, and for New Zealand and Australia it can be given to Save Women’s Sports Australasia.

I hope I’m not unleashing too big a monster here - it could be way more horrific than many of us realise.

And I can’t believe I left women’s prisons off the list in my letter to Chris Hipkins. SMH!

Header image by Agata from Pixabay