Transgender pioneer, the last surviving member of Hillary’s Everest team, and one of the world’s greatest travel writers – Jan Morris, who died this week aged 94, was one of a kind. Just as international travel has become a vicarious pursuit, one of the great travel writers has passed away. Jan Morris wrote about the … Read more
In the latest episode of On the Rag, we asked three people from the transgender community to share how their relationship with their chests has changed over their lives. Lexie Matheson, academic I would get out of the shower and I would look down at myself in the mirror and there was always a hint … Read more
Opinion: Why is JK Rowling so mad about periods, and why are so many people mad at JK Rowling? Alice Snedden waded into the volatile waters of Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism for the latest episode of Bad News. After the horrible year we’ve had, the last thing anybody needed was for JK Rowling to make … Read more
He’s an industrial designer, a social justice campaigner, a former national softball player, and an activist member of the Filipino rainbow community. Now based in Wellington, Julian Tanaka talks to Tessa Guest. Five years ago, Julian Tanaka stood on a TEDx stage in Manila, the Philippines, and shared an excruciatingly personal part of his life … Read more
Based on their study of trans wellbeing Aotearoa, the research team at Counting Ourselves find six data points that highlight the strength of our trans and non-binary community. Last month the first comprehensive national survey on transgender health and wellbeing in Aotearoa was published by the academics and researchers at Counting Ourselves. Exploring the lives … Read more
Alex Casey goes on a journey to find out all there is to know about what a “normal” vulva looks like. Spoiler alert: there are many, many versions of normal. The funniest and most embarrassing thing anyone has ever said to me in my whole life happened during my very first smear test. I was … Read more
Kassie Hartendorp (Ngāti Raukawa) has been looking to Māori stories and storytellers to learn more about our gender identities before colonisation. There’s a lot to be read between the lines, she writes. Te ao Māori can be a very gendered place to be. In some settings, your gender can tell you where you stand, what … Read more
Researchers say the first comprehensive study on the health and wellbeing of trans and non-binary New Zealanders reveals serious health inequities. RNZ digital journalist Murphy reports. Warning: This story discusses suicide, self-harm and sexual violence. In New Zealand, trans and non-binary** people suffer from high or very high psychological distress at rates nine times higher … Read more
Ahead of debuting her solo show at New Zealand Fashion Week, Korean-NZ couture designer Cecilia Kang talks about growing up ‘feminine’, being influenced by the LGBTQ+ community, and why an ‘administrative error’ at Fashion Week left her so shaken up. ‘I like something big,” says Cecilia Kang, gesturing to the giant nest of tulle protruding … Read more
Two Sketches is a webseries featuring Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris chatting and drawing with a selection of New Zealand illustrators, artists, comic artists, cartoonists, sketchers and doodlers. In episode 3, Toby sits down with activist illustrator Sam Orchard. The Spinoff’s chill-out, slow-form web series Two Sketches returns with another draw and a chat hosted by … Read more
In the latest episode of On The Rag, based on the podcast of the same name, watch as Alex Casey, Michele A’Court and Leonie Hayden wrestle with the positives and perils of being a woman online. In episode three of our On the Rag web series, we explore the ways that the promised utopia of the … Read more
How a singer’s revelation about their identity gave Openside their purpose – and New Zealand’s most intense pop fans. Images by Ravi Chand. He looks mid-fifties, skinny jeans, grey hair cropped close. Not exactly out of place but not in his element either. “Have you seen my daughter? She’s about this tall,” he asks no one … Read more
Internal affairs minister Tracey Martin has announced that legislation that would allow transgender people to more easily change their sex on birth certificates will be deferred following concerns around changes made by the select committee which, said Martin, ‘occurred without adequate public consultation’, creating ‘a fundamental legal issue’. The decision, widely deplored by the trans … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: More defections shake British politics, massive hole in NZ’s biosecurity defences revealed, and Privacy Commissioner makes intervention in self-ID debate. We’re going international today, because there have been hugely significant developments in British politics overnight. The established party system in Britain is imploding, with MPs from both … Read more
In the debate around the right to self-identify, the dignity of the individual should be a cornerstone, writes NZ Privacy Commissioner John Edwards Should transgender people have the right to change official documents to record their sense of identity? This question is attaining increasing prominence, following the recommendation by a parliamentary committee that a statutory … Read more
The Monday Extract: “Stevie”, who works in the sex industry as a self-described “trans boy”, talks to social historian Caren Wilton. Photographs by Madeleine Slavick. I was born in a housebus in the early 1980s. On Dad’s side I’m Ngāpuhi, and on Mum’s side Ngāti Maniapoto, in the King Country. We travelled around lots when I was … Read more
Amid the misinformation and anger, Kylie Parry, parent of two beloved transgender children, serves up the important facts. And her kids pitch in, too. As a parent of two transgender children I try really hard not to read the opinions of people who have issues with transgender youth (and with transgender adults). I couldn’t avoid … Read more
Alex Casey spends a few hours with some rainbow volunteers shining a light on the trans community. It’s a sunny Friday on Karangahape Road, and rainbow activists Sam Orchard and Toni Duder are nervously waiting outside adult store Peaches and Cream. “Can you do the talking?” Orchard asks. “Sure,” says Duder. Wielding armfuls of colourful … Read more
Scout Barbour-Evans is pregnant and will be a dad. Here at The Spinoff Parents they share what it has been like so far. I am a boy. A pregnant boy. There is a foetus in my uterus. Yes, that’s possible. It was a planned pregnancy. I’ve desperately wanted to have a child since I was … Read more
Trans academic Lexie Matheson on her community’s complex relationship with the police. It seems cop cars seem have always played a part in my life, and, since my coming out, even more so. As a young, middle class, white male professional, I seemed to be treated quite well – even though I was a criminal. … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Georgina Beyer, the world’s first transgender mayor and MP, about her extraordinary life. This interview contains references to sexual assault and suicide, please take care. Sex work and politics are pretty much the same trade, according to Georgina Beyer at least. During her time as an MP, she would strut through … Read more
For decades romance was full of complications for Lexie Matheson. But one Valentine’s Day she learned that to love herself required accepting who she was. It’s hard to separate the idea of Valentine’s Day from martyrdom in one form or another because martyrdom is locked into the history of the day and the people after which … Read more
We’re back for the fifth installment of Congratulations, She’s a Boy, following Wellington writer Felix Desmarais’ female-to-male transition. This month: the secret lives of guys. Bro bro bro. Mate mate mate. Buddy. Champ. Pal. Cobber. Okay, maybe not ‘cobber’ in this century (though I think the word is due for a revival). I ‘pass’ now. … Read more
Emmaline Matagi talks to Akashi Fisi’inaua (aka Queen Kapussi), Vogue Ballroom chanter and member of FAFSWAG, whose Xhrome Xhrysalis project is part of this year’s Pride Festival. Auckland Pride Festival is on now until 18 February and as part of the celebration, the talented and majestic Akashi Fisi’inaua is curating a one-off project at Basement Theatre on 10 February. … Read more
Stats NZ’s decision to exclude sex, gender and sexuality from its upcoming census has come in for criticism from the queer community. But it turns out businesses in New Zealand – most recently Southern Cross Health Society – are already well ahead of the curve. Despite announcing back in 2015 that ‘gender diverse’ would join … Read more
Those visual novel games can be extremely hit or miss, but Matthew Codd reckons locally made Inverness Nights is a high water mark for the genre. A few months ago, Kiwi developer Maddi Mackenzie released Inverness Nights. “Break up with your boyfriend in Inverness Nights, a queer historical fantasy visual novel,” the media release said, calling … Read more
We’re back for month three of Congratulations, She’s a Boy, a monthly column following Felix Desmarais’ female-to-male (FTM) transition. I’m sorry I’m late, dear readers. I’m just continuing a long tradition of being a disappointing white man. Calm down, #notallmen. Eye roll emoji. Seriously though, September was a busy month so apologies to my niche … Read more
Possum Plows, singer of Auckland pop-punk band Openside, opens up about their journey to coming out as nonbinary and the impact it has had on their band and fans. Becoming more public about being nonbinary is something I’ve thought about a lot in terms of how it relates to my music career and whether or … Read more
We’re back for month two of Congratulations, She’s a Boy, a monthly column following the female-to-male transition of Wellington writer Felix Desmarais. Read part one here. Great news! One and a half months on testosterone, and like an almost decade-long tradition of uninspiring Labour leaders, my voice is breaking! #TopicalTrans. I just got a haircut. … Read more