Beth Johnson is a representative for Speak Up For Women, a New Zealand-based women’s rights group working to educate the public about the ways sex self-identification harms women.
On July 13, a billboard paid for by Speak Up For Women was removed following backlash on social media. The billboard, displayed in downtown Wellington, simply stated the dictionary definition of the word ‘woman’, a nod to the campaigning done by UK women’s rights activist Posie Parker. The billboard was intended to draw attention to sex self-identification clauses within the Births, Death, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill, which allows full self-identification and alteration of the sex marker on one’s birth certificate without a medical recommendation.
In August, the Advertising Standards Authority completed an assessment of complaints about the billboard, and decided that “The majority of the complaints board said in the context of advocacy advertising the advertisement was socially responsible and did not reach the threshold to cause harm, or serious or widespread offence, did not cause fear or distress without justification and was not misleading.”
Currently, the government is holding a public consultation on the bill containing sex self-identification clauses which is open to members of the public living overseas as well as New Zealanders. The deadline for submitting a response is Tuesday, September 14, and Speak Up For Women is asking for international support in opposing the legal erasure of women.

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