Kelly Ellis says the type of nonsense in the report won't fly in NZ A transgender advocate says a new report Family First has commissioned from an American author on gender identity is a brand of hate which is not welcome in New Zealand. “We've got enough religious nuts, without importing hate speech from the USA. I guess with marriage equality having swept the land, haters are starting to turn their attention on us,” Ellis says of the “Boys Girls Other – Making Sense of the Confusing New World of Gender Identity” document the group has released today. It was prepared for Family First by Glenn T. Stanton from American anti-lgbti group Focus on the Family. It refers to transgender people by incorrect pronouns, including describing an Auckland trans woman who entered a beauty pageant as a “young man” and an eight-year-old trans boy as a girl and “gender confused”. A young trans girl in the UK is dismissed as “clearly a deeply troubled child”. Among its many claims are that there are no more than two genders, and there is a clear and universal male and female nature, and says sexuality and gender are not different things Family First’s National Director Bob McCoskrie says it will be sent to every school and politician in New Zealand. He claims our children are being “indoctrinated with the message ‘gender refers to how you identify, someone can identify as male, female, in between, both, or neither.’” Kelly Ellis says nobody wants to know what McCoskrie thinks about gender identity – nor are they interested in the views of the report’s American author. “This hater, who is unwelcome in most parts of America, has been adopted by Family First to spread his ugly messages. Listed in his credentials, Glenn Stanton claims that his appearances on Dr Phil somehow add to his the credibility of his views. "Specifically, this nutbar would have us turn back the clock on marriage equality, stop trans health care and force trans people to use bathrooms that don't reflect their gender. "This kind of nonsense has found no traction in his native America and if he thinks it’s going to fly here, he's as deluded as McCoskrie.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 30th June 2015 - 9:43am