Women’s Suffrage flag rejected by NZ’s Speaker of the House of Representatives to fly outside Parliament, whilst multiple LGBTQIA+ flags fly there.

Why are flags which symbolise sexual identities more worthy than a flag which symbolises a historical achievement?

Sep 13, 2025

It seemed like a simple and uncontroversial request. I asked if the violet, green, and white striped Women’s Suffrage¹ flag could please be flown at Parliament on the 19^th September each year. That day in 1893 was when New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to enshrine the right for women to vote in legislation. It was kind of a big deal, and worth a fluttering flag in commemoration at the place it happened, I thought. So, I emailed the Speaker of the House at the Speaker’s Office, which is the place to send these requests, to ask for it.

Technically, NZ’s Suffragists didn’t have a flag, and the white camellia is used as a symbol here for their achievement instead. However, the UK’s Suffragettes’ violet, white, and green flag has been widely adopted in many places outside the UK as the flag which not only embodies Women’s Suffrage, but the spirit of determination, struggle, and achievement.

Previous to asking the Speaker’s Office directly if the Women’s Suffrage flag could be flown, I’d begun a Parliamentary petition for the same thing. The Petitions Committee required evidence that it was a legitimate request, which I provided, and I included that in my email to the Speaker’s Office. Of course, if the Speaker agreed to fly the Women’s Suffrage flag, I could withdraw the petition.

To put things into perspective about my request to fly the Women’s Suffrage flag, here’s a bit of context - between 2016 to 2021 the Rainbow flag was flown at Parliament to commemorate the passing of the Homosexual Law Reform Act in 1986. Why it stopped being flown on its own after that, I don’t know. Perhaps it was because since 2018 it had been included with the Trans, Bisexual, and Intersex flags flown for ‘International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia’ – i.e. IDAHOBIT Day. The Pride flag has also been added to that array since then, and is one of the four of those five flags which is flown for no notable achievement whatsoever.

Penny Marie from ‘Let Kids be Kids’ has a video on her Substack of all the above-mentioned IDAHOBIT flags being flown outside Parliament in May this year. With that in mind, it didn’t seem like a big ask to get the Women’s Suffrage flag flown for a day, as well, seeing as it was a notable achievement and something in the history books for NZ to boast about.

I was wrong, and my request was declined.

The above highlighted line was done by me.

Cleverly, the line “We normally fly country flags of visiting VIPs or overseas delegations who are attending meetings within Parliament Buildings” gives the Speaker’s Office the ability to go outside the norm sometimes. The criteria for that is unknown at this point in time, but flags denoting non-heterosexual sexualities clearly fit it, whilst the Women’s Suffrage flag doesn’t.

Naturally, seeing as our Public Service is riddled with both vocal and quiet transactivists, the thought did cross my mind that maybe someone amongst the Speaker’s staff told him the Women’s Suffrage flag was ‘anti-trans’. This is purely a guess, but not an unreasonable one, in my opinion, as sex-realist women also use this flag as a symbol of fighting for our rights against losing them to men who say they’re women. If my guess proves correct, what’s darkly laughable about that is it would take mere seconds for us to find pictures online of the trans flag being used as a backdrop for vile and violent messages against women. Yet, strangely enough, that doesn’t stop it from still being flown at Parliament.

Winston Peters, leader of NZ First, has objected to the flying of these IDAHOBIT flags outside Parliament, and introduced a Member’s Bill to ban flying all but the NZ flag on government buildings. If successful, and there’s no guarantee either way, it would also prohibit flying the Women’s Suffrage flag, but until such a time, and while the sexual identities’ flags continue to be flown, then there is no rational reason to not fly the Women’s Suffrage flag. Marking an achievement is surely more worthy than marking sexual identities.

Despite the Speakers Office declining my request, and NZ First’s member’s bill to ban all flags except the NZ flag on government buildings, I shall keep my petition open for signatures until it closes in January 2026. None of us know what the future holds, so until such a time the matter is truly dead in the water, it makes sense to press on and see what happens.

Anyone from any place in the world can sign, if you haven’t already. Thank you in advance 😊