Wed 1 Jul 2015 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Amy Brosnahan says the use of male pronouns has her blood boiling A transgender Auckland woman is questioning why her story was included in a report from an anti-lgbti group which is trying to "warn" schools and parents about growing acceptance and respect for diverse gender identities. Amy Brosnahan’s story of speaking up against discrimination from a modelling pageant is used in a section entitled “The boy/girl thing just got (unnecessarily) complicated” to warn about transgender people pushing down barriers “in public life”. The document was prepared for Family First by Glenn T. Stanton from American anti-lgbti group Focus on the Family. It refers to transgender people, including Brosnahan, by incorrect pronouns – calling the Auckland woman a “young man”. Brosnahan’s unhappy, and somewhat confused about why she has even been included in the report. She says some of the information, which has been entirely plucked from media articles, isn’t even correct, and nobody contacted her to verify it. She called Family First herself to ask where it got its information, and what its agenda was in using her in the piece, and says the person at the end of the phone was just blunt and rude. What she says has her blood boiling a little is the report’s use of male pronouns to describe her. “I’m not angry, because I’m not an angry person, but it’s just like come on, that’s just childish, that’s just pure hate. It’s just preaching hate.” Brosnahan is worried about the impact of the report if any schools do take it seriously, saying mental health is already a big enough issue for trans people. “We’ve already come so far, but there are so many issues which need to be sorted out in schools, and this could just bring that down even more.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 1st July 2015 - 1:15pm