Boring outrage politics

“Definitions of a man and a woman” bill is boring, lazy right wing populism in action.

TW: Obligatory NZ First “Definitions of a man and a woman” transphobic bill content

Wow I did not want to have to write anything about this low effort ass transphobic bill. But you know, that’s a privilege. A privilege that I have as an international travelling trans person that’s somewhat detached from what’s happening back in Aotearoa.

So, let’s fucking goooo.

First let’s talk a little about how NZ politics works.

How NZ First came to rule politics

Politics in Aotearoa runs under a system called MMP. In order to govern, the major parties must form coalitions with minor parties in order to have a majority. At the moment, Aotearoa is governed by a right wing coalition of National, NZ First, and the ACT party.

The National party is your classic majority right wing economically conservative austerity party. ACT are libertarian types. NZ First is a party that typically appeals to older folks, and have swung left and right depending on the way the wind blows. They’re a populist party run by a New Zealand politics lifer called Winston Peters who is so old he remembers riding a horse to school.

NZ First have been the “kingmaker” in previous elections - because traditionally they have been the only party to swing left or right, when elections are close, Winston Peters effectively gets to decide the outcome of NZ elections.

Winston is a political chameleon and will do anything to win. So, knowing that he attracts a certain % of the vote no matter what he does, in recent years NZ First have looked to which other votes they can gobble up, and set their eyes on courting the fringe conspiracy parties to garner the last % of the vote to meet the minimum threshold for MMP (5% of the total vote).

This strategy proved effective for them, and as reported by Fox Meyer for Newsroom, NZ First have taken up a strategy of submitting and withdrawing members’ bills to parliament in order to generate headlines. You can take the spinoff’s handy quiz to find out exactly how much Winston peters hates you, from “soy boys” to “lanyard wearers” to “people who wear comfortable shoes“.

(Image above designed by one of our national treasures, the spinoff)

Many are boring well-trodden international culture war topics like their anti-trans bathroom bill, making “New Zealand” Aotearoa’s only official name, and to legislate that only the official flag of New Zealand be displayed on government buildings (as opposed to Tino Rangatiratanga, the United Tribes flag, or LGBTQIA+ flags). They claim they have 55 bills waiting and ready to go with only 18 currently in play.

In Aotearoa, all of the members bills’ go into the biscuit tin (literal biscuit tin, yes) and are drawn at random for MPs to discuss. The “first reading” is when parliament introduces and debates the bill, and then it will go to its’ second reading if it is supported by the majority. Often MPs will vote along party lines at the first reading, though may have a “conscience vote” (where they can vote individually) at later stages of the bill.

At the second stage there will be feedback from a select committee, and opportunities for the public to give feedback.

On May 20th, NZ First’s “definitions of a man and a woman” bill passed its first reading. The bill seeks to define, wherever mentioned in legislation, that man means “adult biological male” and woman means “adult biological female”.

It was supported by the entire caucus of National, NZ First and the ACT Party. The ACT party has happily aligned with transphobia in the past, and it suits the National party for the minor parties to make hay over this, because the National party has been the most unpopular first term government in over 40 years, and they damn well could do with a distraction so people aren’t talking about them.

It is an incredibly boring and predictable exercise in outrage politics.

How the bill works

Now, I’ve submitted on a few pieces of legislation in my time, and the first thing I thought was “hmmm, we barely mention man and woman in New Zealand law, we usually use gender neutral language”. You would be correct! A lot of New Zealand’s law makes no distinction between binary men and women, so this makes very little meaningful change to a lot of the law!

In fact, one of the major bad side effects is that “adult” is defined in NZ law as over the age of 20. Which means that this could open up new exclusions for cisgender women under 20, including their right to access abortion and healthcare. A transphobic bill claiming to protect cisgender women actually overtly harming them? I would have never seen that coming!

In terms of effects on trans people ourselves, lawyer Matt McKillop has done a deep dive.

The parts of NZ law that discern exceptions for single-sex based services and sporting areas, could lead to trans people being excluded from sport or say, a women’s-only hairdresser or men’s-only support group. It could introduce difficulties for trans people to access sexual health related services. Would it in practice? Perhaps not, because we are also protected under the Human Rights Act, but that doesn’t actually matter.

A dysfunctional bill still takes up all the airtime and makes political hay. If we have to debate our existence in the courts because it’s unclear whether a trans person can use the bathroom or the barber, that’s a sign of the system working to generate noise and distraction.

How to talk to your relatives and coworkers about the bill

So, as a trans person, while it’s lovely to have people reaching out to me to ask for talking points on how to defend our existence, I don’t think our right to exist is the most compelling argument out there. The most compelling argument is “don’t you think it’s a problem that this government is spending all its time talking about a small percentage of the population who hasn’t done anything wrong, when they should be talking about the economy/the climate crisis/healthcare/trains falling off tracks/housing/(insert fun relevant talking point here)” and “don’t you think it’s a bit much that your tax dollars are paying politicians to waste all their time on this?”

Us trans folks deserve to exist. We deserve dignity, and respect, and to live in peace. We don’t deserve to be a political punching bag. Fascists worldwide love it when they can waste everyone’s time prodding at trans people.

I might be writing this a bit cynically, but I think that increasing selfish political awareness will go a lot further than an appeal to empathy.

I don’t waste my own time trying to explain transgenderism to people, because it doesn’t actually matter. The information has been publicly available long enough, people know trans people exist. It’s a question of whether or not people care enough to do anything about it at this point.

Though yes, it feels bad for us! If you can reach out to support your trans friends in this trying time, we would greatly appreciate that, of course.

How to participate in the submission process (NZ folks)

Submissions on the bill are open until the 2nd July 2026. You can submit here.

It’s important to make sure your submission is original, short, to the point, and doesn’t use any swear words. They will throw your submission out if you call NZ First a bag of dicks, even if you want to (feel free to sound off in the comments instead).

The bill itself is extremely short and to the point as well, and requires very little prior expertise. If you need to read more than what I’ve just written, submission guides will be doing the rounds, but often it’s best just to do it straight away so you don’t forget and just speak from your own experience.

The trans community would greatly appreciate if you submit, so that whenever this comes up in the future, we can say what we know is true - the majority of New Zealanders don’t support this bill.

That might not even mean particularly defending trans rights! “The law as it pertains to sex and gender is fine how it is” would also be a valid reason to reject the bill. People don’t need to know anything about trans stuff to have their say.

Another good one is “this unfairly punishes transgender people while having no measurable positive impact to cisgender people“.

you know what to do. If you get stuck just google it.

There will be rallies on this weekend, June 13th, to come out in support of the trans community. Rainbow Action Tāmaki is organising in Tāmaki Makaurau, Queer Endurance in Defiance is organising in Pōneke and there are also rallies in Otautahi, Kirikiriroa and Whakatu (Nelson).

If you have time free, rallies are a great way to help show the trans community, especially trans young people who are exceptionally vulnerable, that people do care.

xo

Robbie “oh ffs they aren’t even trying to write an interesting bill about this” Webb