It's time: A Ministry for Rainbow Communities

Aotearoa should be a place where the diversity of our Rainbow communities are supported and celebrated. Despite important steps towards equality in recent years, our Rainbow communities continue to face discrimination and hardship. This is why we're calling for a Ministry for Rainbow Communities to give a voice to LGBTQIA+ people within Government.   

For those of us who don’t fit neatly into a box, whose gender isn’t included on official forms, or who face discrimination or abuse at school, at work, or even within our family for being different, representation makes a huge difference.

A Ministry for Rainbow Communities will provide us with a dedicated taskforce to address the barriers and discrimination that Rainbow communities face and will uphold the right of Rainbow and Takatāpui people to live with dignity, equality and respect. 

Last year, close to 160,000 people signed the Green Party’s petition to ban traumatic conversion practices, and we succeeded in making the Labour Government fast-track a law change. But this is just one example of years and years of tireless advocacy and activism to achieve basic rights for trans, intersex and non-binary people. It shouldn’t be this hard.

We already have long standing Ministries for Women, and Pacific Peoples, and just last year the Ministry for Ethnic Communities and Ministry for Disabled People were created. It’s time for a dedicated Ministry for Rainbow Communities that can champion Rainbow issues, and work to improve LGBTQIA+ rights in Aotearoa.