April / May 2025 Case Update
Dear friends, family and all our supporters
So much has happened since our last update sent out just a month ago. The biggest and most exciting news is of course the decision of the UK Supreme Court which has
unanimously ruled that the meaning of “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 is “biological sex” and not “certificated sex” (sex as allegedly modified by ownership of a Gender Recognition Certificate). Scottish Government Ministers had argued that “sex” meant “certificated sex” as a default interpretation. The group 'For Women Scotland' challenged this, and won.
New Zealand doesn't of course have an Equalities Act, nor do we have Gender Recognition Certificates, but nevertheless the ruling has huge significance for us. Our equivalent legislation is the Human Rights Act 1993 and since the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration Act 2021 came into force, New Zealanders who believe they are the opposite sex to their biological one, simply have to make a declaration before a Justice of the Peace and pay a small fee to have their sex changed on official documents.
New Zealand thus has the incoherent position referred to in the UK ruling where males (or females) who believe they have a female (or male) gender can have their sex changed on their official documents and be recorded as female (or male) on birth certificates, passports, drivers' licences etc.
In addition, following advice (erroneous in our view) from the Human Rights Commission, Government Departments and many private organisations prioritise the rights of transwomen (biological males) to have access to women's spaces over the rights of women to have women only spaces. The mantra - 'trans women are women' is accepted as a truth by our Human Rights Commission.
Substack writer Void If Removed has explained what the word lesbian would have meant if the Scottish government’s definition of sex had prevailed.
"Lesbian would have meant variously: a lesbian woman; a heterosexual man who says he is a woman; the female partner of a heterosexual man who says he is a woman."
How will our government respond to the ruling from the UK Supreme Court? Will the wording in our Human Rights legislation which gives women sex-based rights be upheld as referring to biological women or will the government continue with its incoherent position that men who call themselves women actually are.
New Zealand feminist organisation Speak Up For Women (SUFW) presented a petition to Parliament in March this year calling for the House of Representatives to define "sex" in the Human Rights Act 1993 and any other legislation as having the biological meaning. The petition is based on the belief that if the word 'sex' in legislation such as the HRA is interpreted to mean anything other than the biological meaning, women and girls can't rely on sex-based rights to keep them safe and able to participate fully in society. SUFW know that women need (some) facilities, services, sports and opportunities that are just for them.
The petition, just like LAVA's views which led to us being excluded from the Pride fair, is totally aligned with the unanimous ruling from the UK Supreme Court.
We wait with great interest to see what will happen in government and in our case.
Meanwhile LAVA's lawyer approached Pride's lawyers hoping that they might concede that given the views LAVA holds are in complete alignment with the views expressed in the Supreme Court ruling, they can hardly be considered as unworthy of protection in a democratic society. If they had agreed it was estimated we could have saved two weeks of Court time, which of course is significant in terms of everyone's time and would also be a considerable cost saving.
Unfortunately their lawyers took the view that the ruling applied only to the interpretation of the Equalities Act 2010 and has no relevance to our case. What can we say? !!
You may remember that last month we had an all out effort to see if we could raise $50,000 by easter. Thanks to your generosity we have had the best fundraising month since we started our campaign so although we didn't get to what was a very ambitious target we have now raised over $35,000 in total.
We are delighted with this and want to thank you all for your support.
Remember you can make a regular weekly or monthly donation directly into
our bank account: 06 0730 0417676 50
Every dollar donated brings us closer to our target. Please give what you can.
And please share this message with your family, friends and social media followers.
You can follow us on X: @lavaAotearoa.
And just in case you’ve forgotten, the opinions we hold, which Wellington Pride and its expert witnesses have alleged are not worthy of legal protection because they are bigoted, hateful and harmful, are that:
people can’t change sex
lesbians (and gay men) are same sex attracted
there are times when sex (as in biology) matters