Wed 22 Feb 2012 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
File photo Rainbow Wellington has asked Corrections Minister Anne Tolley to reverse a policy placing transgender inmates in the prison which matches the sex of their birth, unless the prisoners have had gender reassignment surgery. Chair Tony Simpson says the glbt lobby group is disturbed by Corrections’ refusal to reverse the policy, following a report by the Chief Ombudsman drawing attention to the undesirability of it. “This is not consistent with their human dignity and places them at severe risk of sexual violence and consequent risk to their health through the contraction of HIV/ AIDS,” he says in a letter to the Corrections Minister. Simpson points out the Human Rights Commission’s report To Be Who I Am dealt with the rights of transgender citizens and identified a number of areas in which they did not receive equality of treatment, and specifically identified prisons as an area of concern. “Now this has been emphasised by the Chief Ombudsman,” he says. “We have several times enquired as to progress with the implementation of the Human Rights Commission’s report and have been assured on each occasion, most recently by the immediate past Minister of Justice, that implementation has been proceeding as recommended. “In this instance this transpires not to be the case. We would therefore welcome your re-assurance that you will be reversing this departmental policy, or, if you are unwilling to do so, it would be helpful to us in reporting to our members to know your reasons.” You can discuss this New Zealand gay community news story in the GayNZ.com Forum.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 22nd February 2012 - 2:36pm