Trans Hīkoi a Success

Will Irvine (he/him)

Last Sunday, hundreds of trans people and allies marched on Parliament in support of continued access to puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender youth. The protest movement, led by Queer Endurance in Defiance (QED), comes in response to the Government’s signals that it will be moving to restrict access even further. For trans youth, according to QED, hormone blockers are “one of the few aspects of bodily autonomy afforded”. 

The Coalition Government’s move, which is currently open for consultation, is part of a broader reactionary backlash against access to puberty blockers. In the UK, Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has banned puberty blockers outright, and the USA under Donald Trump looks to be moving in a similar direction. In Aotearoa, the policy is the brainchild of Winston Peters, who utilised transphobic rhetoric to catapult himself back into power in the last election.

Despite the general consensus among endocrinologists that puberty blockers are generally a safe and reversible alternative to immediate intervention, conservative figures like Peters tend to brand the medicines as “unsafe” and “untested”. 

A hīkoi participant who spoke to Salient told us that puberty blockers are essential to prevent the high suicide rates in trans youth. “Every month that someone’s not on puberty blockers, something irreversible changes in them… during those really crucial moments, that’s when trans people have the most barriers towards accessing medical transition.”

VUWSA Welfare Vice-President Josh Robinson, who helped coordinate VUWSA’s walking bus to the hīkoi, said that fighting for trans justice was deeply important to VUWSA. “We represent all students… if one section of our community is oppressed, we’re all oppressed.” Robinson was pleased by the turnout of the event.