By Katrina Biggs and Suzanne Levy
On Monday, Speak Up for Women announced a new leadership team and change of direction for the organisation.
Speak Up for Women was established in 2018 with the single purpose of protecting the sex-based rights of women and girls by campaigning to prevent the passage of legislation enacting self-identification of sex on birth certificates.
While the Births, Death, Marriages, Relationship Registration Bill passed in New Zealand in late 2021, Speak Up for Women successfully campaigned to have clause 79(2) added to the Bill. This clause supports the continued provision of single-sex spaces, sports, and services based on biological sex, regardless of what is stated on a birth certificate.
Speak Up for Women co-founders Georgina Blackmore and Beth Johnson, along with Ani O’Brien and Daphna Whitmore, say after three years of campaigning it’s time for them to pass the torch to a new group of women with expertise and enthusiasm to take the organisation forward.
Beth says: “There is still a lot of work to be done to defend women’s existing rights in Aotearoa. We are immensely proud of what the group has achieved to date and are excited to see the next phase.”
The group’s new spokeswomen are Katrina Biggs and Suzanne Levy. Suzanne says: “Our focus is on monitoring and recording the impacts of the new law on the rights of women and girls. We will support legal action by women’s groups needing to defend their single sex status.
We will also campaign against ‘gender identity’ superseding biological sex in New Zealand law, such as any changes to the Human Rights Act. We’re inheriting an active support base and a strong record of campaigning and advocacy success, and we look forward to growing the organisation from a grassroots campaign group into a membership-based organisation to continue to protect the rights of women and girls.”
Speak Up for Women is run by volunteers and receives no public funds or funds from external organisations and is not affiliated to any political party or religious organisation.
