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Kia ora koutou. Ko Charlie Pratt. Um, I'm here with my very good friend Grace, and we're going to present a framework that we came up with to kind of think about how you progress trans rights in New Zealand. So, the background of this came from a confluence of two events. Firstly, I was a senior policy analyst at the time at Oranga Tamariki, and this really beautiful report came out called Making Ourselves Visible, and as the token, or one of the two token trans people at Oranga [00:00:30] Tamariki at the time, I was asked to feed into it, or review it. And what it showed to me was, while this report was really great, we needed a framework for policy, staff, and other staff to think about when we're talking about interventions and policies. For rainbow and trans and non binary people, how can we upskill policy makers and, um, civil servants to actually think about these? And Grace will just talk about the kind of other event that led [00:01:00] to this. Yeah, cool. Kia ora. So the, um, second one was Posey Parker's visit, um, to Aotearoa. As we all know, um, one of the things that that indicated was the real great strength, um, of our, uh, queer and radical movement. communities and the incredibly quick response, an organization, um, that was demonstrated to counter that presence and message very, very successfully, um, but it really demonstrated as well that prejudice remains that key problem for us, um, and [00:01:30] a question that was raised was, you know, the responses to those events like that when there is that breakthrough prejudice into the public domain, um, is the more reactionary. nature of those responses, as well as the kind of intermittent visibility that our communities have. Um, and we don't necessarily appear to have a very clear way to frame that discourse. And this is coupled with the context of ongoing growing issues. So, for example, the state not being the the right actor. to really respond to [00:02:00] those events, uh, it's very self interested, um, it's focused on its own security and it's constrained massively. Um, the prejudice that's been increasingly being imported from overseas, from the UK and the US, that's digitally as well as physically, um, and the influence on our, um, various communities across the country. Uh, the alienation that we have experienced, um, I think rightly so. Uh, from the state and the low trust in the state, state systems. Um, and the, uh, coupled with economic hardship and inequities that we face. [00:02:30] So the question really was, is it enough to just react in the face of these hidden webs and, um, causes of prejudice that become visible and break through, um, to be able to successfully and effectively counter prejudicial groups and grievances? So, the confluence of these two events really led Uh, question for me around when, we often see this phrase, right, is trans rights are human rights, but what are we actually, what are the trans rights that we're fighting [00:03:00] for, right? So, um, this, uh, this framework is really heavily influenced by the work of Nancy Fraser, an American critical theorist, um, and in particular her theories on justice, so she works at the New School. And her critique, um, focuses on how do we acknowledge difference, while also still effectively redistributing power. So it's, um, this is kind of a rift on her 1995 article, [00:03:30] um, in the New Leaf Review, and it focuses on her theories of redistribution and recognition. Um, and as part of that, the kind of key components of the framework and the background to it is the need to firstly recognise difference, that different groups have difference and we need to recognise that, and the specific needs in the trans and non binary communities is different than the rest of the rainbow community. While interlocked, one also, um, going along with [00:04:00] a lot of Fraser's work, it's simply Uh, polishing or diversifying the existing social order. It's around changing the hierarchies in the neoliberal order. Especially, um, as we'll go into, uh, around capital. So, a lot of this framework is around materialism and materialist access. So it isn't just around words and pronouns, it is also Fundamentally Marxist and, and [00:04:30] based in critical theory because it is based on the Marxist concept of having access and to capital and reshaping it. Cool. So, kind of. The question that stems from that then is, you know, what's the vehicle, the means by which we then make this a reality. And so really it's a need to think, be, and act strategic. Um, so there are just three points we're going to make here briefly. Um, the first is around thinking strategically, the [00:05:00] difference between theoretical and strategic unity. So I think we can all agree that we've got a high level of theoretical unity in our community. For example, that trans rights are human rights. That's an example of theoretical unity. But when it comes to strategic unity, it's not necessarily as explicit. And this is about an understanding of what our core pillars of change are and look like. So what are our objectives here that kind of guide and help thread through all of the different things that we're doing, which are really awesome, but need to [00:05:30] have some sort of unifying point or orientation to them and that that obviously in turn influences how we organize or maybe how we organize the tactics and the actions that we undertake. Um, and also as part of that in terms of being strategic, it's removing from the debates whether or not trans people exist. We exist. We need to not have those conversations. It is more when people bring those up, it's more being like Yeah, but what are the needs of trans [00:06:00] people that the state and wider society need to meet? So, not falling down the trap of debating our existence, but our needs. And then lastly, it's about, um, balancing that radical aspiration with the pragmatic necessities of living in a state run society, um, and looking at the mechanics of, uh, security, um, how our networks are formed, um, and, and generally we came to the agreement. that a general strategy really does that for [00:06:30] us, um, not necessarily to impose an authority that seeks to control and conform, but more in a way to have a, a durable, radical orientation for our efforts, um, that dismantles those systems of domination, um, and lays a groundwork for a more transformative, uh, society. Um, and this is the framework, so there's some key components of it. So, fundamentally the framework aims to, uh, create a general strategic [00:07:00] reference that recognises the common purpose, um, of acceptance. So, the three factors that lead of access, protection and recognition lead to the acceptance of trans people. So, what often happens is, we say, I accept trans people, without putting the method, the mechanisms in place for trans people to exist in society as themselves. Um, but there's also some other factors with this framework at which it centers its purpose. So, um, Fundamentally, it's [00:07:30] person centric, uh, so people before politics, as in it's around people and such, uh, materialistic flourishing, so again, it's that focus on capital and access to opportunity. It's also system wide, as we've talked about, and it's for long term outcomes. So now we'll talk about the key parts. of, um, the three elements of the framework that leads to acceptance. [00:08:00] So, uh, protection is best thought of as, um, safe to and safe from. So, it's around the equitable treatment of trans and non binary people in accordance with civil liberty and human rights. It's based on safe and security. Basically, nobody is discriminated against because of their gender. And, sorry, we're quite persuasive in our language to say gender because Because when you say gender identity, it is often something that just, it's, you only refer to gender identity [00:08:30] when you refer to trans people, right? Thus, when we say gender, we, it's encompassing of the trans umbrella. Yeah, and these definitions are, are based on our professional and personal experiences and practices, um, uh, some of it's, um, around some of the language that's used in government, but also, um, in the community as well, and so it's just. the blend of those, um, to try and, um, get to a general, uh, reference point. So when we talk about safe from, we're fundamentally talking about the issues of discrimination and prejudice, uh, in all its forms across all the [00:09:00] systems. So this is about safety, so looking at the conditions of being protected from harm, as well as security, which is the means that we use to protect from those threats and danger. Um, so there are some aspects in law that we can kind of point to and say, well, We might have protection technically under the law, um, but really the, the core issues around, um, forms of prejudice in society, so that's, uh, criminal, so it might, you know, hate crime, hate speech, and non criminal, which is more the hate incidents that may not have a criminal component to it, [00:09:30] um, but they're still motivated by prejudice and they're still harmful. Yep. And then SAFE 2 is fundamentally Again, access to capital. So, uh, riffing off Fraser, it is looking, making sure that, um, your gender doesn't limit your access to capital. For example, the counting ourselves, which is, uh, incredibly important for, um, What are the other parts we'll talk about? Um, they found that, uh, the, the participants of that [00:10:00] survey had an average income, sorry, a median income of 15 to 20, 000, which is about half of the median income of, um, cis people. So access is really around ensuring that trans and non binary people have access to the necessary resources, services, in a timely, safe and affordable way without prejudice or barriers. It's basically, it's enabling them to live as their gender. So this is quite broad. [00:10:30] So it's around um, informed consent, um, gender affirming healthcare, that is based on the needs of a person, but all healthcare, as well as not being scared to go to the doctor. Um, access to gender affirming clothing, access to bathrooms, so it's what the person needs to flourish as themselves. And then lastly, we have recognition. So, there's, there's two forms of this, so within a macro and a micro system. So, for [00:11:00] example, being referred to as your name and your gender, um, and your pronouns is recognition, being seen as yourself. And at a macro level, it's, it's twofold. It's within the legal system. So. being able to easily change your gender and your name and then having IT systems that accurately refer to your name and your gender and don't store your previous information so you can easily be misgendered. But it's also at a data level, um, in the form of making sure that we [00:11:30] are seen in statistics and research as well. So, um, also a big shout out to Counting Ourselves. And, um, the identify survey, because that meant that we could see ourselves in data for the first time and we could specifically see our needs. And there's a thing, especially as a policy maker myself, I can't develop policy unless I have research and data to do that, to see what the needs of my community is. Cool. So, um, [00:12:00] yeah, just in summary, um, the framework again isn't, isn't designed to, to make people conform to having to do one approach or one thing. And so it's this kind of idea of, um, being federalist, not fragmented. Um, so federalism, uh, just briefly, uh, is just about, there might be different groups doing their different things on different timelines. Um, but having a unifying authority, which is an agreed to reference point that kind of guides. and unifies us, um, when we might come together in various forms, and it leaves spaces for those [00:12:30] differences, because again, the, the visibility of those differences, the different shades that we have and, and the way in which we work, act, and relate, and be, very, very important, um, to preserve and make visible. Um, and it's, again, uh, I guess creating a resource to have some strategic solidarity there, um, which is a part of that revolutionary and transformative culture that we are and will continue to build. Um, and just lastly, we're very open to feedback on it. It is, um, a work in progress and we want it to be used by people. So it's both [00:13:00] for, in my mind, policy makers, activists, academics, just as a reference point, um, especially in my field of policy. Um, I think it's very important to have. Um, so that people, people don't know what they don't know, right? So you need to be able to give them reference points at the times of needs that this pocket, this group of people have that is different than cis people. Yeah, cool. So those are just some of our references. And thank you for listening.
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