Taking brave stand in world that labels them freaks

Jack Byrne's neighbours know he's a guy, but they don't know he used to be a girl.

They will if they pick up this newspaper. Jack doesn't know how they will react - going home after work could be a whole lot different today.

Several dozen other transgendered people were prepared to face that exposure yesterday as they headed to Parliament for what is believed to be the first rally in New Zealand in support of their civil rights.

Luckily Mr Byrne, a female to male (FtM) transgendered person, has supportive employers in the Council of Trade Unions.

His immediate family and siblings are also behind him, "But my guess is my parents haven't talked to the wider members of the family. You think about how they will respond".

Then there's the irony that "FtMs spend all their lives trying to get people to see them as a guy". If they do tell people they used to be a woman, "people see them as less of a man".

But the need to tackle the invisibility that allowed others to define members of the transgender community as "freaks" outweighed any potential difficulties of being "outed" at a public rally, he said.

That community is likely to become a political football when Labour MP Georgina Beyer's Human Rights (Gender Identity) Amendment Bill is finally read in Parliament.

The bill is designed to prevent discrimination against transgender and intersex people - those of indeterminate gender at birth and assigned the "wrong" gender.

Ms Beyer said last week that she would delay its introduction until after the election, a move the Opposition said was due to pre-election jitters.

Yesterday's rally was in support of the legislation.

Joanne Perkins believes she lost her job as a taxi driver five years ago because some colleagues could not cope when she "transitioned" from a male to a female.

It took several months for her employers to find an excuse to sack her because they initially consulted a lawyer who said she was protected by the Human Rights Act.

In fact, transgendered people are not protected, the point of Ms Beyer's bill.

MetService computer programmer Emma Peace, on the other hand, went from male to female and has always been supported by colleagues.

"That's the way it should be. But I'm like the exception."

Claudia McKay, the president of transgender support group Agender, said the bill's delay did not worry her.

Responses to letters she had sent to MPs showed a number were "woefully ignorant" and she hoped there would be a "few more rational" ones in Parliament after the election.

Ms McKay said discrimination against people who did not fit into traditional gender categories was widespread.