National's justice spokesperson today expressed concern over cross-dressing, in the wake of the announcement by Labour MP Georgina Beyer that she would withdraw her private member's Bill that sought specific human rights protections on the basis of gender identity. Beyer is withdrawing her Human Rights (Gender Identity) Bill today, following a Crown Law opinion that found that current ‘sex discrimination' protections in the Human Rights Act would extend to issues of gender identity. “I think it is a hugely controversial legislation,” National List MP Richard Worth, told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report, “and when one contemplates what its implications might be, like cross-dressing by jail warders, like cross-dressing by school teachers in classrooms, like cross-dressing in the military…” “I welcome this shift of stance by Miss [sic] Beyer but I'm quite sure that there has been a degree of pressure applied to her and that's, I think, made clear by the fact that this Bill has just sat on the audit paper without having being advanced for many months.” Beyer has refuted Worth's summation, saying the Crown Law opinion “is good enough for me,” in that it removes uncertainty in terms of gender identity protections within the Human Rights Act, and she is sure the Bill would have passed anyway, should it have remained necessary to pursue it. Ref: Radio New Zealand (d)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 23rd August 2006 - 12:00pm