KEY POINTS:
How Noel became Noeleena, the story of the 60-year-old married builder who had gender reassignment surgery, is at heart about how important it is to assert our true identity.
Noel had always known he was different, a girl born in a boy's body. But as a child it
would not have been wise to go public.
As Noeleena said this week: "Back then in 1958 I would have been thrown in Lake Alice if I said anything, and I knew no one would know what I was talking about."
By all accounts, when Noeleena returned home to Waimate nobody batted an eyelid and she has taken another step in her new life, happy at last to be acknowledged as a woman.
However, it is worth noting that though many will applaud Noeleena's forthrightness and support her decision, there are many in the transgender community who change their name and live as a woman (or a man) without surgery.
Gender reassignment surgery is a serious and expensive step to take. Many transgender people, whether those in transition from male to female like Noeleena, or female to male, either cannot have surgery for financial or health reasons, or don't see surgery as the path they need to take.
Yet when a man lives as a woman or vice versa, issues crystallise that the rest of society rarely has to face. There are questions like, what do you put under "sex" on a passport? Should I change my details on my driver's licence? Can I change the details on my birth certificate?
There are deeper questions. One can be framed along the lines of "How far do I need to go to be comfortable in my identity?" As is their right, many transgender people feel the strong need to "transition" into their true identity.
This journey can take decades and the path is not well signposted. Sadly this is especially so in the health system where, many people told the Transgender Inquiry conducted by the Human Rights Commission, the only certainty was uncertainty.
They recounted stories of a high level of inconsistency, an "adhocracy" that left transgender people confused about what services they could expect, whether it was support for counselling, sessions with a hormone specialist or gender reassignment surgeries.
Sometimes transgender people received a sympathetic hearing and skilled professional expertise, but too often all they got was a blank stare and months spent lost in the health bureaucracy. Health professionals told of the concern and frustration they felt about this.
As the inquiry heard submissions late last year it became clear that the term transgender encompassed a wide spectrum of experience. Transgender communities mirrored the breadth and depth of New Zealand society.
The inquiry heard from transgender people who worked as farmers and business people, trades people and students, who were parents and grandparents, who were accepted as whakawahine, tangata ira tane, fa'afafine and fakaleiti in Maori and Pasifika cultures.
Noeleena has had the support of family and community. Other transgender people have not been so fortunate.
A transgender male said: "I'm not sure how many trans people suffer physical harm but all suffer emotional harm at some point in their journey."
Another said: "Being transgender isn't a lifestyle and it isn't a choice. It's part of who I am. It doesn't define who I am it only defines the process I have to go through to get the world to see who I am."
Many recounted examples of verbal and physical abuse. The inquiry team heard about transgender women denied service at makeup counters and clothing stores and being turned away from public places like changing rooms and toilets.
Many had struggled at school, either because they had to repress their intrinsic gender identity or because they suffered harassment and abuse if they chose to acknowledge it.
Transgender people told us they did not seek special treatment, they merely wanted to be treated on the same basis as everyone else. This is hardly an unreasonable expectation.
* The Human Rights Commission will publish its final report on the Transgender Inquiry later this year.
* Joy Liddicoat is a Human Rights Commissioner.
