Face of the Day

The new chief human rights commissioner, Dr Stephen Rainbow, is defending himself against accusations of transphobia and says his views about the Israel-Gaza war won’t be an issue.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith appointed Rainbow as head of the Human Rights Commission on Friday. He also announced new commissioners of race relations and equal employment opportunities.

But the Green Party and others have criticised Rainbow’s appointment, given his previous comments about a “trans agenda” and his more recent support of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Rainbow entered politics as a Green Party councillor on Wellington City Council in the 1980s and has a PhD in political science. In the 2000s, he campaigned for same sex marriage reform, worked for the rainbow-support charity OUTLine and was on the board of the NZ Aids Foundation.

But comments made in 2021, urging other gay and queer Aucklanders to think twice before signing a petition to ban “conversion therapy”, attracted criticism. He said the opposition to conversion therapy had been hijacked by “the trans agenda”.

“Be careful...there’s some elements of the trans agenda being sneakily promoted through this campaign,” he said, in a post to the Facebook group for Auckland’s LGBT community.

Stuff