Friday, 30 July 2021, 5:53 pm
“Today is an important step in naming the harm faced by
trans and non-binary people, and other rainbow people, when
their very sense of self is under attack”, said Dr Jaimie
Veale, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Director of the
Transgender Health Research Lab at the University of
Waikato.
“The Transgender Health Research Lab
welcomes the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation
Bill’s explicit acknowledgements of the serious harm
caused by conversion practices and the need to stop them,
wherever they occur, and whoever is the perpetrator”, said
Dr Veale.
The Bill’s definitions clarify that
conversion practices include attempts to change or suppress
Former elite athlete Kristen Worley, a New Zealander based in Canada, has been working with the International Olympic Committee on its transgender guidelines for the past 18 months and is considered an expert in trans experience in sport. She said the reduction of hormones and “sex reassignment” can have a “catastrophic impact” on the body of transgender people.
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Kristen Worley is a former international cyclist turned trans-rights advocate and researcher. “Under the current rules . this is just above the level [of testosterone] where the body starts to fail. It’s like taking the gas out of the car,” she told Stuff.