Why I’m Sweating with Pride

The Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill has passed its first reading and will now be reviewed by a select committee, with submissions closing 2nd July 2026.

This Bill seeks to define across all New Zealand laws the words “woman” as “adult human biological female,” and “man” as “adult human biological male.”

This wording is not only harmful to trans and intersex people for obvious reasons, but may also lead to increased harassment and gender-policing of cis women with more masculine features. This has already been seen played out following similar anti-trans legislation in the UK and US, with multiple instances being reported on of cis women having anti-trans slurs yelled at them and having security called on them while trying to use public bathrooms.

Yet while these instances make headlines, what do not are the trans and intersex people who experience this kind of harassment on a regular basis. Harrassment which will inarguably get worse when anti-trans laws that encourage gender-policing such as this one are introduced. And with being a relatively small percentage of the population, they cannot fight bills like this off on their own.

This is why your voice matters - we need as many submissions against the Definitions of Woman and Man Amendment Bill as we can get to try sway the select committee to reject this bill.

There are resources below on what exactly the bill contains and how to make a submission.

https://sexualwellbeing.org.nz/what-the-man-and-woman-bill-really-means

https://qtopia.org.nz/news/submission-guide-legislation-definition-of-woman-amp-man-amendment-bill