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The Mother of marriage equality tells express she did it to show support for everyone in the community, including the small percentage who de-transition.

Labour MP for Manurewa and the champion of marriage equality in New Zealand, Louisa Wall has found herself criticised for sharing an article about transgender people de transitioning.

Wall posted a link to the Sky News article on her private Facebook account which was titled, Hundreds of young trans people seeking help to return to original sex.’

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The Manurewa MP says she is a staunch supporter of transgender rights and posted the article stating that she believed “Trans rights are human rights and human rights are trans rights. Trans women are women and trans men are men.

“This kaupapa is obviously relevant to NZ and the issue of transition is obviously not linear with up to 1% re-transitioning or re-affirming.

“Gender identity and sexual orientation and sex characteristics and gender expression are not fixed. We should be able to discuss and talk about the very real issues in our LGBTIQ community.”

Many of Wall’s Facebook friends asked her to remove the article from her wall. Among those calling for its removal were former Rainbow Youth director Duncan Matthews who said, “I can’t help but feel that articles like this communicate that the validity of people’s identities – trans, or de transitioned as termed in the article – are up for public debate.”

Trans rights activist Aych McArdle wrote that the discussion should be had ‘offline’, and was backed by others who agreed Facebook was an inappropriate platform. Wall responded, “this is in the public domain. I am asking about the relevance of this news item to Aotearoa and I would welcome any references to research and evidence. There is nothing to hide.”

Speaking to express, Wall says that she had reiterated the point that an extremely small minority de transition [estimated at 1%], but they nonetheless deserve the support of the LGBTQ+ community, especially as many identified as part of our community both pre and post-transition.

Wall says she shared the article to highlight, “That re-transition or re-affirmation is a fact and people need to be supported to be who they are as they progress through this journey. That gender identity like sexual orientation can be fluid for some and that it’s not linear. There is no destination that people are progressing to. That people are processing and understanding how they feel and reconciling this within a context of biological sex and social norms and values that either support or otherwise the journey people are on including from peer groups or communities that we are all supposedly part of. That people are judgmental and abusive and happy to tell others what they should do. That some people think these conversations should not happen in public. That some people always genuinely engage, discuss and debate. That I am clear that our trans community need love and support and that their needs are many and varied and the system and our community need to do better. That I do not support trans exclusionary people or philosophies. That articles like this should be placed within an appropriate context and that be it 1% of otherwise if our community need our support then I will support them, whoever they are, whatever their need.”

She tells express she is ‘happy’ she posted the article. “I did so to help contextualize this for NZ and because I absolutely support trans rights as human rights. And I affirm trans women are women and trans men are men.”

“We should not be afraid to have these conversations as a community. I have had people who have re-transitioned reach out to me and others who are supporting people through this process. They are proud members of the LGBTIQ community and want to be free to be themselves. 

“They are processing their actions and decisions themselves and the reality of their choices and the rationale for their decisions. We know there needs to be responsive health and social services and a supportive community to assist people to be who they are without judgement or feeling like they’ve betrayed a group within our community.”

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