A bit of history

After being at the forefront of the action to reform the New Zealand Homosexual Law Act in 1985/1986, lesbians¹ formed LAVA in 1988 to bring the discrimination of lesbians¹ to public attention:

  • denial of basic human rights

  • denial of the right to work

  • denial of the right to goods and services

  • denial of the right to access public places

  • aggressive actions against lesbians¹

  • continuation of lesbian¹ invisibility

After a hiatus of many years, LAVA was re-formed in August 2020 to fight gender identity ideology - yet another way of discriminating against all women and girls, in particular lesbians¹:

  • Globally, lesbians¹ are losing their jobs and livelihoods: teachers, athletes, academics, writers, cartoonists, musicians…

  • Young lesbians¹ are faced with men calling themselves lesbians on lesbian¹ dating platforms.

  • Young lesbians¹ are being conned, bullied, shamed, coerced into having sex with men calling themselves lesbians¹.

  • The portrayal of lesbians¹ online is dominated by pornographic images intended for a fetishistic male audience - just switch off your tight family filter and give Google a try.

  • Young lesbians¹ and lesbians¹-to-be are pressured to “trans”, i.e. mutilate and chemically alter their bodies - because of their gender non-conformity.

  • Lesbians¹ are once again denied safe women/lesbian¹-only services and spaces.

  • Lesbians¹ asserting their sex-based rights are being excluded from the “Rainbow” Communities they built.

  • By replacing biological sex with the nonsense of “gender” the very concept of “lesbian¹” is being eradicated.

  • Lesbians¹ are threatened with rape and death when they assert they are same-sex attracted, not same-gender attracted.

  • All this is pushing lesbians¹ back into the closet.

LAVA members have been involved in protests at the Ministry for Women on International Women’s Day, protesting at the Ministry’s redefinition of the word “woman” to include trans-identified men. We handed out information at the CARN (Cross Agency Rainbow Network) Conference in Wellington and attempted to have a stall at the Wellington Pride event, Out in the City. As we were banned from that “inclusive” rainbow event by the organisers, we held a protest outside where we were harassed and abused by trans people and their allies. We also marched on Suffrage Day with other women’s groups, once again protesting at the redefinition of the meaning of the word “woman”. LAVA submitted concerns to New Zealand parliamentary select committees about the BDMRR Bill and SOP 59 as well as the Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill in 2021.