Kiri Allan

Amid a climate of vandalism and hostility, comes a plea to the government not to exclude the LGBTQIA+ community from the proposed hate speech law reform.

It is our belief that our people are in danger, and this is an opportunity to offer the minimum of protections and respect. To the minister of justice: we do not accept your explanation that strengthening hate speech laws to protect our people could create more harm. Some signees of this letter have received death threats this year, unprovoked, and related to this toxic and growing conspiratorialism, which we note has led to significant violence which just this year has involved acts of arson, physical violence, and terrorism domestically, and internationally. Harm is being done at this moment. 2022 has seen an unprecedented rise in homophobia and transphobia in Aotearoa, both offline and online, and to an industrial scale. Psychological harm is already being committed against our people in online spaces.