Fri 21 Dec 2012 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
File photo The fallout continues over the jailing of a transgender woman in a men’s prison in Northland, with a vocal transgender rights advocate describing it as a “transphobic insult,” and a justice lobby group stating the woman’s human rights have been breached. Corrections policy to house pre-op transsexual New Zealanders based on their sex at birth has led to the case of Whangarei transgender woman Glen Cooper hitting the headlines. She has been jailed for two years and a month for hitting a man over the head with an unopened bottle of sparkling wine during an argument. While her lawyer and transgender advocate Kelly Ellis tried to push for her to receive a sentence that would allow home detention, a lack of family support meant a suitable address could not be found. Cooper has been sent to a men’s prison, and the concerned sentencing judge gave her a 15 per cent reduction in the length of her sentence because she will be the target of violence. Transgender rights advocate Allyson Hamblett says it’s disappointing that Cooper has been sent to a male prison. “It seems quite ironic that outside of Corrections trans people are encouraged and supported to live our lives as trans women or trans men, but that the state has the power to drag us back to our biological beginnings,” she says. “Current Corrections policy suggests that at the legal core of New Zealand society no one can really change sex. This is such a transphobic insult to those of us who are trans, and it must change.” The director of the organisation Rethinking Crime and Punishment, Kim Workman, agrees the current Corrections approach is wrong. "Certainly it's a breach of human rights and it just puts that prisoner at considerable risk but also they're going to probably be segregated which is not of their making, it's something that's imposed on them,” he’s told Radio New Zealand. Workman says a facility that caters for transgender people is required. Hamblett points out it’s encouraging the issue is being talked about. “One could argue that we need to be careful not to do anything wrong that could result in jail time. But this issue goes beyond that and is very clearly a human rights issue,” she says. “It’s time, once again, to call on our politicians to clarify the Human Rights Act in terms of gender identity, an issue that has still not been dealt with since its recommendation by the Human Rights Commission in 2008.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 21st December 2012 - 11:46am