Gender-neutral facilities are long overdue in New Zealand.

By abolishing gender-specific changing rooms, Farmers have shown that they are willing to change and that they are progressive enough to acknowledge the trans community.

There is a perception in society that thinks that by allowing trans women to use cis-gender women's facilities, that this will encourage opportunist perverts. This is totally incorrect.

Conversely, we have many trans men (people who were deemed female at birth but now present as male) in New Zealand - are they expected to use the "ladies only" places? Somehow this never gets mentioned.

It's a totally unacceptable situation. Gender-specific facilities leave many trans people feeling discriminated against and extremely humiliated. Gender-neutral solves this problem as well as neutralising any feeling of discomfort by that may be felt by cis men and women (people who are not transgender).



We have similar situations in the workplace and in schools. Many young people today are having the courage to talk openly about their gender issues; rather than bury their concerns, they want to express their feelings openly and honestly, hence the rise in the number of youth who are coming out as trans today. In the future, the population who identify as trans will grow appreciably.



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