LGBTQIA+ advocates back Green Party's call for a ministry for rainbow communities

Friday, 18 February 2022

Hopes for a proposed rainbow ministry fade as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern dismisses the idea. (First published March 12, 2019.)

On Thursday, The Green Party launched a petition calling on the Government to create a ministry for rainbow communities.

Dr Elizabeth Kerekere, Green Party spokesperson for rainbow communities said “a dedicated ministry would address the legislative barriers and institutional discrimination they still face on a day-to-day basis.”

Kerekere said “it took us until 2022 to ban conversion practices. We should not be willing to wait any longer to give our rainbow communities a real voice in Government”.

Dr Elizabeth Kerekere said that there is no natural home for any of the Government investment needed to improve the wellbeing of rainbow people. (Image description: Dr Elizabeth Kerekere at the 2021 Wellington Pride Hikoi wears a rainbow lei and holds a purple placard that says “Mana Takatāpui”. Behind her, someone holds a colourful hand-drawn sign that says “BE GAY DO CRIME”.)

When Green MP Jan Logie first called for this ministry in 2019, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern believed that setting up a ministry, agency or department was not the best way to pursue the work that needed to be done on behalf of the LGBTQIA+ communities.

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Phylesha Brown-Acton says a rainbow ministry is needed. (Image description: Phylesha Brown-Acton wears a matching yellow foufou and kahoa, and a pink blazer with a New Zealand Order of Merit pin. She is smiling at the camera.)

* Kiwi transgender and non-binary people at higher risk of suicide - survey

* Greens' petition to fast-track ban on conversion therapy presented to Parliament

At the time Ardern said: “I wouldn’t want there to be a sense that that responsibility didn’t sit across Government simply by having one agency.”

On Friday, a spokesperson for the PM said, “The Government is committed to, and is delivering on, issues affecting rainbow communities which can be seen through examples such as banning conversion therapy, being the first government to provide targeted nationwide funding for mental health services supporting Rainbow young people, reducing wait times for gender-affirming surgery, lifting the cap on the number of publicly funded surgeries and increasing funding for the service and supporting legislation to wipe historic homosexual offences from criminal records.”

When asked whether the prime minister had changed her views on a ministry, Ardern’s spokesperson restated that responsibility should continue to sit across Government, rather than in one agency.

“That’s an avoidance tactic,” Phylesha Brown-Acton, the executive director of F’ine Pasifika, a Pacific LGBTQI+ rights organisation, said.

“It can get lost in the bureaucracy of other ministries to deny or to create other systems and processes that continue to ignore, or to provide rainbow communities with open-ended answers or no action … What we need is a ministry that can hold other ministries [accountable].

Ahi Wi-Hongi, organiser of Gender Minorities Aotearoa, says a rainbow ministry would make sure that government agencies properly understand rainbow issues. (Image description: Ahi Wi-Hongi has long pink hair and is wearing a black leather jumpsuit. They are smiling away from the camera in front of a rainbow tino rangatiratanga flag.)

“We’re sick and tired of hearing that it should be the [responsibility of other ministries]. We wouldn’t be calling for a ministry for rainbow communities if there were so many dark realities that are showcasing at every point of every government”.

In 2021, the Government allocated $4 million in targeted rainbow mental health, which Auckland Pride executive director Max Tweedle said was “fantastic”, but not enough to tackle rates of depression and attempted suicide that were almost four times higher for rainbow peoples, while rates of psychological distress among trans and non-binary people were nine times higher than the general population.

Brown-Acton added, “It’s not just the Government that should be making these decisions alone. A ministry for rainbow peoples would really help in the way in which it connects communities so that they can have buy-in, but also a say to things that are developed for them and about them.”

Rainbow Wellington co-chairperson Craig Watson said the organisation “has always supported the need for a ministry for rainbow peoples”.

Not being able to access adoption and surrogacy, not being able to donate blood as gay men, and poorly resourced mental health for the rainbow community “are just a few of the major issues that require specific attention from a community resourced group”, Watson said.

“The ministry group can also support other government agencies like Oranga Tamariki to support LGBTQ children in their care, or MBIE with investment and major event opportunities.”

Ahi Wi-Hongi, the national co-ordinator of Gender Minorities Aotearoa, said, “Much like the Ministry for Women, a rainbow ministry would not be stopping other government agencies from doing the work. Its job would be making sure that government agencies properly understand rainbow issues, so their policies can be effective.”

The 2019 Counting Ourselves Survey on national transgender health reported that 37 per cent of participants had attempted suicide, 32 per cent of participants were raped from the age of 13, and that 83 per cent of participants did not have the correct gender marker on their birth certificate. Rainbow communities face a higher risk of homelessness.

Over the last three years, Rainbow Path, a peer support and advocacy group for rainbow asylum seekers and refugees, has been making submissions and writing to ministers and government agencies about how hard it is for trans, non-binary and intersex asylum seekers and refugees when they have no official New Zealand ID with their correct name and gender marker.

Rainbow Path said that when identity documents have an old photo, name and gender marker, they make it unsafe or impossible for an asylum seeker or refugee to do things like open a bank account, show a Vaccine Pass, rent a home, get a job, travel, or access health services.

“No-one joins the dots and makes it a priority to find solutions,” said Rainbow Path committee member, Amur. 'A ministry for rainbow communities could shine a light on issues like this that require co-ordination between different agencies.'

Fellow Rainbow Path member Jack Byrne said that past rainbow representation in government 'had no teeth [and] no minister or ministry with the power to create action plans or co-ordinate cross-agency responses.

“This isn't about taking responsibilities away from other government agencies,” Byrne said. “It's about visibility, leadership and co-ordination – having officials whose job is to ask themselves and others, ‘How will our work reduce the barriers that rainbow communities face, and enable rainbow people to flourish?’”