BYRON CLARK FAR LEFT EXTREMIST STALKS THOSE THAT OPPOSE GOVERNMENTS NARRATIVES ‘IDEOLOGIES’

THE WORKERS PARTY NZ comprises of Far Left Wing Cultural Marxist Socialists they published two magazines  ‘The Spark’ and Fightback’. Byron Clark  has recently published a book called ‘FEAR’ on thee front cover reads ‘New Zealand’s hostile underworld of extremists’. The extremists he refers to Counterspin, Groundswell, Voices for Freedom, Hannah & Brian Tamaki, Lee Williams, Sue Grey, Carol Sakey others that have spoken out publicly against the governments narratives. Byron Clark 2007 campaigned as Mayor for Christchurch as a representing the Workers Party NZ.  26th September 2011 an article in the Workers Party NZ ‘Fightback’ magazine titled ‘Queer Our Schools’,  saying this is the first campaign to ‘Queer our Schools’ in New Zealand by a Wellington group called ‘The Queer Avengers’. They emerged from the ‘Queer Night March’ that took place in the central city of Wellington. Deliberating they used the term ‘Queer’ deliberately masking the multiple list of gender identities  by just using the word ‘Queer’. Once the march had finished they went back to their daily lives, their jobs etc., However they still had meetings once a week, not only did they include gender diversity (queering) but also climate change.

The Queer Avengers planned a three pronged campaign, firstly focusing on youth. A march took place from the Ministry Of Education 47 Pipitea St, Thorndon through to Midland Park, Lambton Quay where there were speeches and entertainment. The Workers Party NZ ‘Fightback’ magazine promoted, published. The ‘Queer Avengers Group were political activists, they made clear demands to the Govt’s Ministry of Education. (1) Government resourcing for the formation of student led, community supported queer straight alliances in every secondary school in New Zealand. Incorporating sexuality and gender variance diversity into all relevant subjects, including history, health, science, English.  Making schools accessible and safe for gender variant students. zero tolerance of homophobic & transphobic bullying

NOTE: (A) Gender neutral bathrooms/private changing facilities (B) Non-gendered dress codes  (C) Resources and education which fits the needs of gender variant students (D) Trans affirming spaces and role models, requiring professional development staff to model queer positive spaces.

The ‘Queer Avengers’ spokesperson Jason Froch told GayNZ that he wanted to question the Ministry of Education’  as to “why they have not provided programs to enable students to recognize their full potential as individuals,  saying  “schools are generally not an affirming space of queer peoples identities and are unacceptable places for trans-youth. That they should be able to go to school in the appropriate uniform and use the bathroom of their choosing”. Jason Froch blamed the government for “its failing to provide a legal duty of care” saying “the march is on- the march of the ‘Queer Avengers -we will call the government out -the ‘Queer Avengers’ will continually agitate the government until the Ministry Of Education does something about their demands.  Froch said “What we need to do as a community is to continue to organize the valuing of our identities, having more people involved so that the ‘Queer Avenger’ can call up the Ministry of Education, for example in the campaign planned by the ‘Queer Avengers’. Froch referred to other groups such as ‘Safety in Schools 4 Queers’ (SS4Q), this group had been operating for some years before the ‘Queer Avengers’ were established, however Froch said “they did not have a driving force behind them, no social movement to push them. The ‘Queer Avengers’ aims, goals were to be a political action group, to organize the community and educate society.

A ‘Queer Night Demonstration’ took place where 600 people gathered, a number of them were youth, others were involved including some school aged students. Froch explained why he used the term ‘Queer’- “Its about being inclusive without the alphabet soup” (Advertised in the  Workers Party NZ Fightback magazine) Froch said “his political goal was to educate people about there being no such thing as natural identity “all people are created by society, co-one is born straight, he would fight Queer oppression and leave no-one out”.

A Wellington group called ‘Legalise Love’ were acting similar to the ‘Queer Avengers’ but in a different manner. Not that interested in social change like Froch was, he had his mind fixated on Parliamentary reform, trying to change social values that could be passed by Parliamentary reform. At this time another Wellington group were ‘Queer Avenger’ like-minded-‘Legalize Love’, they were doing similar to the ‘Queer Avengers’ but in a different manner. Froch was more interested in Social Change, fixated on Parliamentary reform. ‘Queer Avenger’ leader Froch explained that he was trying to change social values that could be passed by parliament so he said we need to create our own space for public debate”. However he fully supported the group “Legalize Love’. The ‘Queer Avengers’ advertised for further people to jump on board with them.

“The Queer Avengers are looking for school aged people or those that have left school less than 5 years ago to get in contact with them to share their school experiences. Giving the email address as [email protected]. Byron Clark was a key member of the ‘Workers Party NZ’ published and promoted the ‘Queering of Schools’ in NZ. (Workers Party NZ- 26th September 2011) supporting the Queer Avengers). Byron Clark who campaigned to be mayor of Christchurch representative of the Workers Party NZ a ‘far left wing, cultural Marxist Socialist. Clarke gives seminars, lectures in Massey University. Plus gives a damming description of those that resided at parliaments grounds. His book ‘FEAR’ has earned a place in the Govts National Library. He often reports for main stream media and has been interviewed also by Mainstream media about his book ‘FEAR’. 4th October 2011 ‘Fightback’ Workers Party NZ magazine article read ‘Queer Our Schools – I am a ‘Queer Avenger -and advertising , promoting ‘GLBT Campaigning ‘ in Wellington and also an interview with ‘Queer Avengers’. Fightback magazine article dated 26th August 2019.. Daphne Lawless article on ‘Socialist Feminism’. Byron Clark’s new book ‘FEAR’ has a special place in the ‘National Archives of New Zealand’

Demands by ‘The Queer Avengers’ to the Ministry of Education: (Promoted and advertised by Byron Clark’s Workers Party NZ.

  1. Government resourcing for the formation of student-led, community supported queer-straight alliances in every secondary school in the country.
  2. Incorporating sexuality and gender variance diversity into all relevant subjects, including history, health, science and English.
  3. Making schools accessible and safe for gender variant students
  4. Gender neutral bathrooms/private changing facilities
  5. Non-gendered dress codes
  6. Resources and education which fits the needs of gender variant students
  7. Trans affirming spaces and role models
  8. Zero-tolerance of homophobic & transphobic bullying and requiring professional development of staff to model queer positive spaces.

 

LINK

https://web.archive.org/web/20130208162751/http://workersparty.org.nz/2011/09/26/the-queer-avengers-march-on/#more-4877

 

 

 

 

 

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SEXUALITY AND GENDER Blog Posts View all Categories

NEW ZEALAND SCHOOLS AND RAINBOW POLICIES

Waatea News .com  20th April 2022 reported “Schools look out for Rainbow Policies

The Government has made available a range of new resources to help schools teach about sex and relationships – including issues like consent, gender diversity and rainbow inclusion.

Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti says she wants schools in Aotearoa to be safe spaces for all students, regardless of their gender, race, nationality, beliefs, or sexual orientation.

Tabby Besley from rainbow charity InsideOUT, which developed some of the resources, says more young people are coming out in the school environment and need support.

Schools are looking for not just lessons on gender diversity and rainbow issues but help creating policies and support groups.

“We hope schools will pick up those resources, particularly the one around policies and supporting our trans young people, because those are where we get the most requests from schools. A lot of the time they ask if we have policies about how to do that rainbow inclusion or when a trans student comes out in the school, what they should be doing to support them. Often the parents and the students are getting in touch because the school isn’t doing it,” Besley says.

She says the resources are only guidelines, and schools need to consult with their communities when they bring in new policies.

By Peter Verschaffelt

NEW ZEALAND SCHOOLS AND RAINBOW POLICIES ’20th April 2022′. NZ Government made a range of new resources to help schools about sex and relationships. Educatgion Minister Jan Tinetti said she wants “schools in Aotearoa to be safe places for all students regardless of gender . Hence pushing ‘gender fluidity’ that does not exist. She referred to lessons on gender diversity and rainbow issues- creating policies to support trans people. These people are children from the start of primary schoool age to end of senior school. Jan Tinetti spoke of ‘rainbow inclusion’

Tabby Besley from rainbow charity InsideOUT, which developed some of the resources, says more young people are coming out in the school environment and need support. chools are looking for not just lessons on gender diversity and rainbow issues but help creating policies and support groups. “We hope schools will pick up those resources, particularly the one around policies and supporting our trans young people, because those are where we get the most requests from schools. A lot of the time they ask if we have policies about how to do that rainbow inclusion or when a trans student comes out in the school, what they should be doing to support them

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THE SEXUALIZATION, POLITICALIZATION OF OUR CHILDREN IN NZ SCHOOLS- DRAG QUEENS,  READING STORIES TO CHILDREN IN LIBRARIES:

LESSONS HAVE NOT BEEN LEARNED. THE STORY OF KIWI BORN JOHN WILLIAM MONEY SHOULD BE TOLD  TIME AND TIME AGAIN PUBLICALLY. Firstly the theory of ‘gender neutrality’ namely ‘gender identity’ was developed primarily as a result of gender theory of social learning ‘nature vs nurture’ from early childhood, that it could be changed, just like changing your clothes everyday with behavioral interventions. Below I will share with you some of my research I have undertaken of Kiwi born psychologist David William Money and the identical twins Bruce & Brian Reimer who lived in Winnipeg Canada. At 6 months old the twins had problems urinating, at 7 months of age they underwent circumcision,  the operation on Bruce went badly wrong, his penis was burned beyond surgical repair. The twins parents contacted many doctors for help to no avail. Then one day the Reimers were watching a program on Canadian News of John Money being interviewed about gender. They contacted John Money who was a psychologist at the John Hopkins Medical Institute in 1967. Money was known as a pioneer in his field of sexology and gender’

John Money’s theory was ‘gender neutrality, he based his work on intersex patients, that gender identity could be changed through using the appropriate behavioral interventions. A gender identity theory as a result of social learning. (I noted that this is exactly what is happening in schools in NZ across the world today, the sexualization of children through behavioral interventions eg using pronouns, choosing what gender school students want to be- gender diversity teaching (gender fluidity). Plus the governments introduction of changing an individual’s biological sex on birth certificates if they so require..

The identical Reimer twins became the guineapigs of John William Money’s gender theory. He decided that Bruce Reimer would be happiest living as a woman with functioning genitalia.  He used Brian Reimer in the guineapig human experiements. This was known as ‘Joan and Joan Case Study’, where one boy would be raised as a girl the other a boy. Because Brian shared his brothers genes he was used as a ‘’control’ in the experimentation. (Nature vs Nurture). John Money persuaded Bruce’s parents that Bruce should have a ‘sex reassignment’ surgery, saying it was in Bruce’s best interests. This was performed and a rudimentary vulva was fashioned to replace Bruce’s testes so he could be raised as a female in his biologically male body he was then renamed as Brenda. The twins visited John Money every year for consultations, a social learning concept of gender identity. The boys visited John Money’s clinic until they were 13 years old. John Money’s guinea pig experiments on the twins included ‘childhood sexual rehearsal play’ where the boys were ordered to play at thrusting movement and copulation. They were forced to do sexual acts with Bruce (now Brenda) playing the female role. John Money placing Brian crotch between Brenda’s buttocks, forcing Brenda’s legs open with Brian laying on top. Money took photo’s of the sexual acts, and often other students-colleagues would be the audience.

If the twins resisted John Money’s orders he would become very angry and aggressive, ill tempered with the children. He made Bruce (Now Brenda) take of his clothes, when he resisted money would shout at him louder and louder ‘NOW, NOW, NOW”, so he fearfully obeyed him, standing their naked and shaking. These boys were 6 years old when these sexual acts were forced upon them by John Money, both the boys were highly traumatized by being Money’s gender guineapig theory. They suffered extreme depression, especially Bruce (Brenda) being stuck in a female body being biologically male. He never ever accepted he was female. Later Brenda who had received Estrogen hormones through John Moneys experiments had grown breasts, then underwent reconstruction surgery and took testosterone and renamed himself David Reimer. Both the twins suicided in their 30’s. David shot himself and Brian overdosed. Their parents said that their sons suicides were because of John Moneys guineapig study on them. But John Money proclaimed the his study on the Reimer twins as successful. By the time David was 15 years old he was living as a  male. David in going public tried to discourage similar practices. At 13 years old he experienced suicidal depression he ceased going to school at 14 and was tutored privately.

On March 14th 1980 the Reimer twins were told the truth about the sex reassignment by their parents. David underwent a double mastectomy and other operations including hormone treatment in an effort to return to his maleness. At school he had been bullied and called a ‘cave woman’. Later David was employed in a slaughterhouse, he then met Jane Fontane, they got married and David adopted her three children., he continued to suffer severe depression and the threat of a marriage breakup lead to David shooting himself in the head with a sawn off shotgun. His identical twin brother Brian had suicided by an overdose only 2 years earlier..The Reimer twins story, the biography of David Reimer was published by John Colapintgo in the ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine in December, it won the ‘National Magazine Award’. The New York Times published ‘As Nature Made Him: The Boy Was Raised As A Girl’ (2000) this included how in John Moneys experiments

David refused to be identified as a girl, he was ostracized, bullied by peers dubbed him a ‘cave woman’. Davis said “that no frilly dresses nor hormones made him feel female” David’s relationship with is parents was difficult.. Researcher Mary Anne Case  reported that John William Money’s gender based theory also fueled the rise of the anti-gender movement. John Money deliberately concealed the fact that David Reimers sex reassignment to being a female was not going well. John Money was referred to by Judith Butler in her 2004 book ‘Undoing Gender’ which examines gender, sex, psychoanalysis and medical treatment of intersex people. Horizon a BBC series based 2 episodes on the life of ‘The Boy Who Was Turned Into A Girl’ in year 2000 and also a documentary on ‘Dr Money and the Boy With No Penis’ in 2004. A PBS Documentary series ‘Nova’ entitled ‘Sex: Unknown’, investigated David Reimers life.A BBC radio episode called ‘Mind Changers’ was about the ‘John & Joan Case’- The boy who was raised as a girl, the impact of two psychological theories of ‘Nature vs Nurture’ Other related stories about David and his identical brother Brian were:-

Chicago Hope episode ‘Boys will be girls’’ year 2000. Explored the theme of a child’s right to undergo sexual reassignment surgery without consent. David Reimer and his mother appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2000 and the ‘Laws & Order Special Victims Unit’ episode called ‘Identify’ (2005) was based on David & Brian Reimers lives and their treatment by John William Money.

A song by Winnipeg ‘Indie Rock Band called ‘The Weakerthans’ had concerns about David Reimer and produced the  ‘Hymn of the Medical Oddity’. A 2016 play titled ‘Boy’ produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre was inspired by the Reimer story and a Taiwanese film ‘Born to be Human’ (2021) shared a similarity to the Reimer story where a child undergoes sexual reassignment surgery without consent at the insistence of an authoritative doctor.

WHO WAS JOHN WILLIAM MONEY?  He performed one of the most immoral experiments that helped give birth to the trans-movement  due to his sinister origins of gender ideology (Lauren Smith 5/2/2023). Biological sex does not determine ones gender identity. the being born biologically male or female. Trans gender ideology can be traced back to John William Money (1921-2006).  He was born in Morrinsville in 1955, the first person in his field of sexology to use the word ‘gender. He popularised the term ‘gender identity’, founded the worlds first ‘gender identity’ clinic at John Hopkins University Baltimore in 1966. Above all John Money pushed the view that is so central on todays trans-movement. Without John Money its unlikely that trans ideology, especially the phenomenon of ‘trans-kids’ would exist the way it does today. (The social engineering in schools namely ‘gender diversity’ teaching.). John Money believed that children at the age of 2 yrs old pass through a ‘gender identity gate’. He determined whether one is male or female biologically this could be socially engineered into another fender (gender fluidity- gender diversity)

Without Money, it’s unlikely that trans ideology, especially the phenomenon of ‘trans kids’, would exist today in the way that it does. His ideas uphold trans activists today namely male or female is not biologically determined. That some-one born with male sexual organs can still become female. John Money is rarely heard of because his experiments were cruel, creepy and immoral, he left a trail of misery, pain and suicide in his wake. John Money has been criticized as his main interests were that gender identity development of children with normal sex characteristics, that he wanted to apply his theory about the malleability of gender to all children.  To test his theory on normal biological infants male or female it had become a problem for Money because what parents would allow their healthy babu to be streamed into the opposite gender, undergo countless operations, intensive therapy sessions/ Rolling Stones magazine article of David Reimers story fell into their hands. The media championed John Reimers work in 1973 in the New York Book Review described ‘Man, Boy and Girl as ‘ the most important volume in social sciences to appear in the Kinsey Reports, solved the age old question of ‘Nature vs Nurture’, landing on the side of ‘Nurture’. 4.This became the foundation of future writings that helped to legitimise sex assignment surgery for children worldwide.  At the onset of David Reimers puberty David Money decided that David should have female hormones asap.

The ‘Sigmundson’ Paper  this became controversial was published in 1997 this became controversial in the scientific community, however it convinced a large number of paediatricians that John Money’s theory on the gender neutrality of babies was flawed that his treatment of intersex babies in most cases caused more harm than good. Lessons have not been learned from the John Money’s cruel callous human guineapig experiment of the Reimer twins, that gender is not fluid cannot be shaped at will through medical interventions and hormone treatments. The Reimer twins were sacrificed at the alter of gender ideology, it was a tragedy, but the ideas of gender identity and gender fluidity are still promoted even in our schools.  Many politicians treat trans gender ideology as ‘progressive’ however they should be held accountable, responsible for using children as the gender fodder for gender diversity experimentation. Now the schools from a tender age embrace gender ideology, do the teachers know about  John William Money how be trailblazed the idea of the ‘trans-child’, have they any idea of the devastating impact he has on the Reimer family life, of the Reimer twins?

The Central and Local Government (Councils) in New Zealand and other country’s governments are promoting ‘gender diversity’ on children from Kindy age to the end of senior school and beyond. The tragedy, cruelness, misery, heart breaking sadness, the  inhumane immoral undignified experimentation of the Reimer twins by Kiwi born John William Money must be continuously publicly shared, it is a tragedy that should never have happened, one that must be learned by. New Zealand politicians need to be held accountable for the unacceptable sexuality gender diverse teaching of our children in schools. Drag Queen Story Time to children in council run libraries must be stopped now. This is adult entertainment, and disrespectful imaginary that depicts women. Men dressed up in drag queens. This is not so called family fun as advertised. This is genderised insanity. In our adult sanity we as sane caring adults demand that ‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’ this stops NOW. United must stand as caring, loving parents, family, friends to protect our children from this evilness.  The message to the NZ political cronies in the toilet bowl of Wellington is “KEEP YOUR GRUBBY POLITICISING, SEXUALISING HANDS OFF OUR CHILDREN” NOW’

I URGE YOU TO SHARE THIS STORY SEND IT TO YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

NOTE: Of all the governments in the world NZ Government have the most numbers of LGBT+ Transgender political cronies. Newshub headline   reports  that New Zealand has the ‘Queerest’ Parliament In The world  18th October 2020

LINKS:

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/10/new-zealand-now-has-the-gayest-parliament-in-the-world.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer

. https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/05/dr-john-money-and-the-sinister-origins-of-gender-ideology/

 

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NZ GOVERNMENT COMMUNITY REPORT 2007/2008 ‘LGBT WAS ON THE AGENDA’    

Connecting Diverse Communities Report on 2007/08 public engagement A report on 15 meetings held around New Zealand to discuss diversity and social cohesion and responses to a written questionnaire August 2008. The views documented in this report are the views of the people who attended the Connecting Diverse Communities meetings held around the country. They are not the views of the Government, government agencies, Ministry of Social Development, Office of Ethnic Affairs or their staff. The purpose of the report being the summarising of the findings of the ‘Connecting Diverse Communities’ public engagement process. This process involved fifteen meetings held throughout New Zealand between August and November 2007, followed by a written survey that was sent to relevant organisations and available publicly. The majority of this report summarises the feedback received at the community meetings, while the responses from the survey can be found at Appendix 4. The meetings were organised by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and the Office of Ethnic Affairs (OEA) and were held in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin. More than 500 people attended the meetings in total. The key objectives of the meetings were: • to engage with representatives of diverse communities around New Zealand (including ethnic and religious communities, iwi/hapū/Māori, Pākehā and Pacific Island peoples

Including in the content of this report was the following:-

Responses were subsequently transcribed and sent back to the meeting scribes for further comment and corrections, before being collated, analysed and used as material for this report. On four occasions, ie the Auckland Youth meeting, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender or Intersex (GLBTI) meeting and the two Otara meetings. To hold dialogues with different peoples, to continue to communicate in times of celebration and adversity, and to influence others to be comfortable with diversity. We need to have more ‘conversations’ about social cohesion. • The media has an important role in this process. Take advantage of and celebrate diversity.  The Treaty of Waitangi as a foundation for intercultural respect. The role of schools in preparing young children to accept diversity as a ‘norm’ was often raised in the Connecting Diverse Communities meetings. Responses from the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Intersex (GLBTI) meeting…The GBLTI meeting, held in Wellington, was designed to allow participants to respond in a safe environment where their range of views was more likely to be expressed than if they were part of the local meetings. The questions were worded slightly differently and the responses are recorded below

Question 1.1 What do you think would help you create, maintain or strengthen your sense of ethnic, cultural and/or religious identity and community belonging in New Zealand? Question 1.2 What role can government play to support this?. Participants responded to the notion of diversity, identity and community by including sexual orientation and gender identity rather than just focusing on matters of ethnicity, culture or religion. Critical issues for the GLBTI community revolve around increasing their visibility and the levels of tolerance of GLBTI people in all communities. Two clear positions were articulated by participants in answer to the above two questions. They were: • While the local and central governments have a powerful influencing role in protecting GLBTI communities, local community groups have much more capacity to practise behaviours and attitudes that lead to GLBTI safety. Therefore, creating, maintaining or strengthening one’s sense of ethnic, cultural and/or religious identity and community belonging in New Zealand greatly relies on local community groups being in a position to deal with issues of sexual orientation and gender identity first. This requires a sustained and far-reaching education campaign that starts with schools but involves all members of local communities, including parents and local leaders

Government can play a critical role by increasing GLBTI visibility, rights and safety in the following ways: o Supporting the rights of GLBTI by enforcing their application in new policy development (such as developing ‘anti-hate-speech’ legislation), in current legislation (as expressed in the Human Rights Act) and in processes (such as GLBTI individuals being able to be counted in census data, household and crime and safety surveys). o Establishing a Ministry to deal with GLBTI issues, or at least a Ministerial portfolio for that purpose. o Establishing and funding a non-governmental body such as a Diversity Council to represent all minority groups. Such a body would be able to deal more readily with issues specific to GBLTI, such as assumptions about how different ethnicities respond to the GBLTI communities, their relationship to fundamentalist religious groups, or policy development involving their communities. o Resourcing, enforcing and monitoring programmes that support diversity (including sexual diversity) in schools (for example, through School Charters or by addressing cultural safety issues in curriculum delivery); in the media (for example, through TV and Radio Charters, or programming such as Māori TV’s Takataapui programme); and in the health sector (for example, through the Nursing Council’s cultural competencies – not just during training but also via in-service professional development – or by showing same-sex couples in health promotion TV ads). o Supporting student-led diversity initiatives in schools (e.g. against racism or gender bias).

There are LGBTI groups in schools that focus on sexual and gender diversity issues through the ‘School’s Out’ forum. However, these groups need more ethnically diverse input. o Acknowledging that GLBTI people face discriminatory practices from members of mainstream ‘straight’ society, including parents, schools, employers and employees – no matter what ethnicity or socio-economic circumstance they are in. Government has a role in lessening tension by addressing stereotypical attitudes and behaviour, such as refuting the perception that all LGBTQ people practise predatory behaviour or want to ‘recruit’ young people in schools, and by encouraging inclusive behaviour. o Establishing role modelling processes in government agencies so that there is an increasing awareness of cultural difference and safety in workplaces and in the health sector. o Supporting the development of more open leadership and providing more counselling information services for LGBTI people in cultural and ethnic communities. o Supporting celebrations like the Gay and Lesbian Fair ‘The Big Gay Out’ and the Hero Parade, that create awareness of LGBTQ issues and carve a space for the LGBTI community within the wider community, by funding or underwriting them in the same way that they might support ethnic festival development. o Supporting festivals that celebrate other cultures. Film festivals in particular, encourage the coming together of diverse groups (for example, the LGBTQ ‘Out Takes’ film festival).

LGBTI meeting responses Group question 2 was modified slightly to reflect the needs of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transexual and Intersex participants. While many of the above summary responses apply to the GLBTI group, the responses below reflect other insights specific to these participants. Specific responses have been put into table form below

Question 2.1 – How well do you think people from diverse ethnic, religious and cultural communities interact with each other, for example in your neighbourhood, in GLBTI spaces, at work or through school? Question 2.2 – What do you think are the barriers to people mixing?

Question 2.2 Barriers include:

• The lack of identifiable spaces where it is safe to be LGBTQ+1.

• The visibility of LGBTQ+1 members is met by fearful and negative attitudes, non-acceptance and ignorance

• Migrants are not aware that New Zealand legally protects minority groups such as members of the LGBTQ+1 community

• There is a lack of opportunity to meet and discuss LGBTQ+I issues.

• There is a lack of opportunity to work on common tasks. • People don’t know how to discuss LGBTQ+1 matters in a frank, open and informative way. When there is an opportunity to do so, people do not recognise common ground as a starting point for interacting. The increasing pace of social change makes it harder to get to know people as people first

• Attacks on LGBTQ members by fundamentalist religious groups are a barrier. Some religious leaders want to eliminate GLBTI people altogether. The increasing diversity of the population and resulting increase in fundamentalism is a threat to GLBTI communities. Newcomers need to know New Zealand is first and foremost a secular country where there is freedom to worship.

• Marches and protests against LGBTQ communities.

• The use of derogatory terms and hate speech against LGBTQ communities.

• That the focus on sexual and gender diversity in schools tends to be Pākehā-dominated and needs to be more inclusive of other ethnic groups

https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/research/connecting-diverse-communities/cdc-public-engagement-2007.pdf

 

 

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AFTER BOTCHED SURGERY HE WAS RAISED AS A GIRL ‘GENDER EXPERIMENT’ NO THANKS TO NZ SEXOLOGIST’

ARTICLE LOS ANGELES TIMES ‘AFTER BOTCHED SURGERY HE WAS RAISED AS A GIRL ‘GENDER EXPERIMENT’ (David Reimer Aged 38 years) Author Elaine Woo 13th May 2004. David Reimer, the Canadian man raised as a girl for most of the first 14 years of his life in a highly touted medical experiment that seemed to resolve the debate over the cultural and biological determinants of gender, has died at 38. He committed suicide May 4 in his hometown of Winnipeg, Canada. At 8 months of age, Reimer became the unwitting subject of “sex reassignment,” a treatment method embraced by his parents after his penis was all but obliterated during a botched circumcision. The American doctor whose advice they sought recommended that their son be castrated, given hormone treatments and raised as a girl. The physician, Dr. John Money, supervised the case for several years and eventually wrote a paper declaring the success of the gender conversion. Known as the “John/Joan” case, it was widely publicized and gave credence to arguments presented in the 1970s by feminists and others that humans are sexually neutral at birth and that sex roles are largely the product of social conditioning. But, in fact, the gender conversion was far from successful. Money’s experiment was a disaster for Reimer that created psychological scars he ultimately could not overcome. Reimer’s story was told in the 2000 book “As Nature Made Him,” by journalist John Colapinto. Reimer said he cooperated with Colapinto in the hope that other children could be spared the miseries he experienced.

Reimer was born on Aug. 22, 1965, 12 minutes before his identical twin brother. His working-class parents named him Bruce and his brother Brian. Both babies were healthy and developed normally until they were seven months old, when they were discovered to have a condition called phimosis, a defect in the foreskin of the penis that makes urination difficult. The Reimers were told that the problem was easily remedied with circumcision. During the procedure at the hospital, a doctor who did not usually perform such operations was assigned to the Reimer babies. She chose to use an electric cautery machine with a sharp cutting needle to sever the foreskin. But something went terribly awry. Exactly where the error lay — in the machine, or in the user — was never determined. What quickly became clear was that baby Bruce had been irreparably maimed. (The doctors decided not to try the operation on his brother Brian, whose phimosis later disappeared without treatment.). The Reimers were distraught. Told that phallic reconstruction was a crude option that would never result in a fully functioning organ, they were without hope until one Sunday evening after the twins’ first birthday when they happened to tune in to an interview with Money on a television talk show. He was describing his successes at Johns Hopkins University in changing the sex of babies born with incomplete or ambiguous genitalia. He said that through surgeries and hormone treatments he could turn a child into whichever sex seemed most appropriate, and that such reassignments were resulting in happy, healthy children.

Money, a Harvard-educated native of New Zealand, had already established a reputation as one of the world’s leading sex researchers, known for his brilliance and his arrogance. He was credited with coining the term “gender identity” to describe a person’s innate sense of maleness or femaleness. The Reimers went to see Money, who with unwavering confidence told them that raising Bruce as a girl was the best course, and that they should never say a word to the child about ever having been a boy. About six weeks before his second birthday, Bruce became Brenda on an operating table at Johns Hopkins. After bringing the toddler home, the Reimers began dressing her like a girl and giving her dolls. She was, on the surface, an appealing little girl, with round cheeks, curly locks and large, brown eyes. But Brenda rebelled at her imposed identity from the start. She tried to rip off the first dress that her mother sewed for her. When she saw her father shaving, she wanted a razor, too. She favored toy guns and trucks over sewing machines and Barbies. When she fought with her brother, it was clear that she was the stronger of the two. “I recognized Brenda as my sister,” Brian was quoted as saying in the Colapinto book. “But she never, ever acted the part.” Money continued to perform annual checkups on Brenda, and despite the signs that Brenda was rejecting her feminized self, Money insisted that continuing on the path to womanhood was the proper course for her. In 1972, when Brenda was 7, Money touted his success with her gender conversion in a speech to the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., and in the book, “Man & Woman, Boy & Girl,” released the same day. The scientists in attendance recognized the significance of the case as readily as Money had years earlier. Because Brenda had an identical male twin, they offered the perfect test of the theory that gender is learned, not inborn. Money already was the darling of radical feminists such as Kate Millett, who in her bestselling “Sexual Politics” two years earlier had cited Money’s writings from the 1950s as proof that “psychosexual personality is therefore postnatal and learned.”

Now his “success” was written up in Time magazine, which, in reporting on his speech, wrote that Money’s research provided “strong support for a major contention of women’s liberationists: that conventional patterns of masculine and feminine behavior can be altered.” In other words, nurture had trumped nature. The Reimer case quickly was written into textbooks on pediatrics, psychiatry and sexuality as evidence that anatomy was not destiny, that sexual identity was far more malleable than anyone had thought possible. Money’s claims provided powerful support for those seeking medical or social remedies for gender-based ills. What went unreported until decades later, however, was that Money’s experiment actually proved the opposite — the immutability of one’s inborn sense of gender. Money stopped commenting publicly on the case in 1980 and never acknowledged that the experiment was anything but a glowing success. Dr. Milton Diamond, a sexologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, had long been suspicious of Money’s claims. He was finally able to locate Reimer through a Canadian psychiatrist who had seen Reimer as a patient.

In an article published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine in 1997, Diamond and the psychiatrist, Dr. H. Keith Sigmundson, showed how Brenda had steadily rejected her reassignment from male to female. In early adolescence, she refused to continue receiving the estrogen treatments that had helped her grow breasts. She stopped seeing Money. Finally, at 14, she refused to continue living as a girl. When she confronted her father, he broke down in tears and told her what had happened shortly after her birth. Instead of being angry, Brenda was relieved. “For the first time everything made sense,” the article by Diamond and Sigmundson quoted her as saying, “and I understood who and what I was.” She decided to reclaim the identity she was born with by taking male hormone shots and undergoing a double mastectomy and operations to build a penis with skin grafts. She changed her name to David, identifying with the Biblical David who fought Goliath. “It reminded me,” David told Colapinto, “of courage.”

David developed into a muscular, handsome young man. But the grueling surgeries spun him into periods of depression and twice caused him to attempt suicide. He spent months living alone in a cabin in the woods. At 22, he prayed to God for the first time in his life, begging for the chance to be a husband and father. When he was 25, he married a woman and adopted her three children. Diamond reported that while the phallic reconstruction was only partially successful, David could have sexual intercourse and experience orgasm. He worked in a slaughterhouse and said he was happily adjusted to life as a man. In interviews for Colapinto’s book, however, he acknowledged a deep well of wrenching anger that would never go away.  “You can never escape the past,” he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 2000. “I had parts of my body cut away and thrown in a wastepaper basket. I’ve had my mind ripped away.” His life began to unravel with the suicide of his brother two years ago. Brian Reimer had been treated for schizophrenia and took his life by overdosing on drugs. David visited his brother’s grave every day. He lost his job, separated from his wife and was deeply in debt after a failed investment. He is survived by his wife, Jane; his parents, and his children.

Despite the hardships he experienced, he said he did not blame his parents for their decision to raise him as a girl. As he told Colapinto, “Mom and Dad wanted this to work so I’d be happy. That’s every parent’s dream for their child. But I couldn’t be happy for my parents. I had to be happy for me. You can’t be something that you’re not. You have to be you.”

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-may-13-me-reimer13-story.html

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