John MacDonald: Here's where I'm torn on gender identity

There’s a chance you'll think I sound like I’m contradicting myself with my views on NZ First jumping on the gender identity bandwagon.    

Politicians love a good bandwagon and that’s what NZ First is riding with its members’ bill to legally clarify the definitions of man and woman.  

I say they’re riding a bandwagon because it comes on the heels of the Supreme Court in Britain doing pretty much the exact same thing last week. It ruled that it all comes down to a person’s biology, and that’s NZ First’s thinking as well.  

I’m not so black and white. But first, let me say that, of all the things New Zealand is dealing with at the moment, this plan by NZ First is not a priority. We don’t need this.   

Yes, some people think the transgender community is leading us to hell in a handbasket. That’s why NZ First is saying things like its members’ bill being all about fighting “cancerous social engineering and woke ideology”.  

But I think only a minority of people feel as strongly about it as that language suggests.  

And will it do anything to get the economy sorted? No it won’t. Will it get kids out of poverty? No it won’t. Will it reduce power prices? Not it won’t. Will it get more life-saving drugs for people? Nope. See what I mean?  

But, aside from thinking that NZ First is barking up the wrong tree or barking at a passing car, and that we don’t desperately need this clarification, my overall view is that inclusion is way better than exclusion.   

What I mean by that is however we might feel about someone being transgender —however comfortable or uncomfortable we are about it— does how we feel really matter? I don’t think it does.  

What does matter is that someone who, for whatever reason, feels so uncomfortable in their own skin —or who feels alien in their own skin, in terms of gender— then why shouldn’t they be free to do something about that?  

Well, they should be free. And, by being free, they should also enjoy the same privileges and freedoms as everybody.  

That’s the inclusion versus exclusion part of it.  

But, at the same time, there are parts of this freedoms and privileges bit that I really struggle with, and this is where I’m going to start to contradict myself.  

I’m not saying here that I advocate any sort of antagonism or discrimination or worse towards anyone who lives their life as a transgender person. But I understand why some people aren’t as open to the possibility that not everyone wants to be the person they were when they born.  

And I understand that because I’m not black and white on it myself.   

Yes, I’ll preach inclusion instead of exclusion and I’ll tell people who get wound up about drag queens reading stories to kids that they’re indulging in unnecessary moral panic. But often, the question people ask me if they disagree with me is how I feel about a transgender person using public facilities provided for people of particular genders.   

And —I’ll be totally honest with you— that is my stumbling block.   

But, despite that, I don’t support what NZ First is doing because it doesn’t seek to include, it seeks to exclude. I also don’t support it because I don’t think people are crying out for it.  

But what do you think? 

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