NZ women, a chance to speak anonymously on air about your experience of encountering a man in your space.

In line with most other political parties here in New Zealand, the National Party won’t take a stand on protecting women’s and girls’ right to single-sex spaces and sports. I don’t want to bag the National Party in particular, as at least their Members of Parliament front up to talk on The Platform, an independent media site which doesn’t kiss up to radical wokery, unlike Labour and the Greens.

However, both the deputy leader of the National Party, Nicola Willis, and the shadow Minister of Police, Mark Mitchell, wouldn’t give a definitive answer when asked what their stance was about men who say they’re women being allowed in women’s spaces and sports¹. Although, the leader of National, Chris Luxon, has unequivocally said on The Platform previously, when asked, that a woman is an adult human female, one can’t help getting the feeling that instructions have been given to National MPs not to engage in any meaningful way about gender ideology.

Winston Peters, the leader of the New Zealand First party has no such coyness, though, and has publicly stated that “no one with a penis should be allowed into a women’s toilet, and no such person should be enabled to be in a sporting team which massively advantages them, and disadvantages women”², and has put this into the party’s commitments³.

When politicians who advocate to allow free and unfettered entry into women’s and girls’ spaces to any man who says he’s a woman are pressed for a comment about the impacts of that, they fall back on the disingenuity of saying that there is no evidence to show that there are negative impacts. This is despite the fact that no country anywhere in the world which implements this practise provides an official avenue for women and girls to supply evidence of the impacts on them. Neither will service providers who allow men who say they’re women into women’s spaces accept complaints about it, unless an actual physical assault takes place.

Bear in mind that the sex self-ID and conversion therapy bills were passed into law here in NZ on nothing more than feelings and stories. MPs from all parties were more than happy to vote for both those bills to be passed into law, despite no evidence of there being negative impacts if they weren’t. But ask them to hear why men who say they’re women shouldn’t be allowed into women’s spaces and sports, and they close up. I understand the fear they have about the backlash they’ll get and the risk to their careers if they dare not bow down to the radical trans agenda, or at least stay quiet about it, but it’s not something that gives confidence.

Today, Ro Edge, from Save Women’s Sports Australasia, was interviewed on The Platform by Sean Plunket about National’s refusal to take a meaningful stance on women’s sex-based rights⁴. Once again, I don’t want to bag National in particular, because, although their floundering on this matter is disappointing, at least they front up. During her interview, Ro mentioned the matter of Linwood Pool in Christchurch, and how after the community consultation process about having a women-only session was closed (men were also asked if they wanted a men-only session, but little interest was shown), the Christchurch City Council made a policy of allowing men who say they’re women into that session. It was established that the CCC only consulted about this with Qtopia, Christchurch’s neo-rainbow organisation, and not with the community.

Due to having had extensive engagement with the CCC on the matter of the women’s session at Linwood Pool, Ro’s mention of it gave me the springboard to ring up the platform after her interview to reiterate and expand on that⁵. I would have liked to have said more during my ring-in about the reasons women-only sessions work well for women, however, I am close to publishing something about that here, which will be freely shareable.

As per Sean’s promise of anonymity at the end of my chat with him, if there are any women here in NZ who feel that they could talk to him on air about their or their daughter’s uncomfortable and/or distressing experience of encountering a man in a female space, let me know by email. I will add that any unpleasant experiences of sharing unisex toilets with men and boys are relevant, too.

If there are also men out there who’ve been discomforted or distressed by this in some way, feel free to contact me, too, and we’ll see if it’s something Sean would want to talk to you about anonymously, as well.

¹Nicola Willis: National won't take stand on gender debate | The Platform

¹Mark Mitchell on his election resignation promise | The Platform

²New Zealand First | Facebook

³New Zealand First 2023 Commitments - New Zealand First (nzfirst.nz)

⁴Save Women's Sports' Ro Edge reacts to National hiding on gender issues | The Platform

⁵ Plunket Unchained Rewind | The Platform - go to 17^th August. Ro’s interview is between 0.59 and 1.13; my ring in is between 1.20 and 1.28