June 2025 Case Update

Greetings to all our friends, families and supporters 

We are humbled and heartened by the support we are receiving from all around the world. So many women (and some men) who realise how important it is that we continue our fight to be accepted and respected for who we are – same sex attracted women. We are also fighting for everyone’s right to have their opinions and beliefs about gender and gender identity respected as reasonable, rather than labelled as bigoted, hateful and harmful simply because they are different from theirs.

LAVA is taking Wellington Pride to the Human Rights Review Tribunal alleging that Pride has breached the New Zealand Human Rights Act.

The Human Rights Act protects us, as same sex attracted women, from discrimination, and also protects our political beliefs. 

In their defence, Pride has taken the approach that we are a group whose beliefs are so hateful, bigoted and harmful to trans people that we have no right to any form of legal protection. They on the other hand, say they practice inclusivity and diversity and respect for all. They will always “show up and speak up for our community, to ensure safety and representation for all.” (refer to their website)

The evidence says otherwise.

They seem to genuinely miss the contradictions in these words and statements. There is no safety or representation or inclusion for anyone who holds a different view of gender, for anyone who believes a woman is an adult human female or anyone who believes that lesbians are same sex attracted women. It is not hateful to expect that our rights to same sex protections should be addressed by the laws passed for exactly this purpose. They do not seem to understand that difference is not hateful, and that to talk respectfully about differences is fundamental for living in a pluralistic society.

We of course deny the allegations that we are hateful, and our views are harmful. We find it interesting that it is only our views that they consider harmful. If they truly believed that, then they would have to accept that their views of us are also harmful. They deny who we are, and they deny our right to identify ourselves as lesbians, same sex attracted adult human females. They claim the right to identify themselves as they wish but deny us the same right.

In reality it is not we who are hateful. It is they who demonstrated hatred and bigotry towards us at our protest against Wellington Pride excluding us from their Fair, with placards such as ‘fuck terf cunts’ and ‘terfs fuck off’, and so on. You can see photos of these placards on our website should you wish. www.lava.nz/ourcase  

LAVA placards on the other hand have never been more than simple statements of our beliefs: ‘biology is real’, ‘woman is not a feeling’ and so on. At the demonstration mentioned above, we had a banner with a lesbian symbol and another with the word PRIDE and a lesbian symbol. Nothing else. 

In what universe could that be considered hateful or harmful?

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 so bigoted, hateful and harmful, are that people can’t change sex, lesbians (and gay men) are same sex attracted and that there are times when sex (as in biology) matters.

Please donate this month if you can.Remember that for the month of June, all donations received, up to a total value of $30,000 will be matched by our very generous supporter. 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT