New Zealand's Gender Villains

The ones to watch

Jaimie Veale describes himself as a Pakeha trans woman. In fact, he’s an incredibly well-connected male academic in the New Zealand trans ecosystem.

Originally from Ashburton, Veale did his PhD at Massey, Auckland and his postdoctoral research in Canada and Australia. He is currently senior lecturer and Rutherford Discovery Fellow, Psychology, at the University of Waikato.

He currently works on papers as weighty as “Let All Identities Bloom, Just Let Them Bloom”: Advancing Trans-Inclusive Perinatal Care Through Intersectional Analysis, published in April this year.

Much of Veale’s academic work has centred on normalising transgenderism. Specifically, he has attempted to refute the controversial diagnosis of autogynephilia by applying the Blanchard Core Autogynephilia Scale to people who are not men identifying as women. He’s also worked on refuting the claim that autogynephilia in women does not exist.

He has served as an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Transgender Health and helped to establish the University of Waikato Rainbow Staff/Student Alliance.

He has had quite an impact on the trans issue both here and overseas. Locally, as the founding president of PATHA (Professional Association of Transgender Health Aotearoa), and globally, since he currently serves on the global board of directors of WPATH (the World Professional Association of Transgender Health). He is also the secretary for WPATH’s international leadership. In 2024 the Cass Review found WPATH to be lacking a systemic evidence review and failing to meet the quality standards for clinical practice guidelines.

Currently Veale is the director of the Transgender Health Research Lab, home of the first Counting Ourselves project. The first survey was in 2018, the second in 2022. The Lab was started by Veale and is described by chatgpt “as the flagship academic centre on trans and non-binary health. It leads national surveys, co-designed community-focused research, academic mentorship, and advocacy that are transforming health policy and clinical practice.”

The Lab is funded by a number of organisations including the Royal Society of New Zealand, Rutherford Discovery Fellowship, Health Research Council, Rule Foundation and Waikato Medical Research Foundation.

The Counting Ourselves survey provides data about the needs of trans and non-binary people in New Zealand, but its findings should be interpreted with caution. Due to methodological limitations—especially around sampling and advocacy alignment —it is not a definitive picture of the entire population or a neutral source for policymaking. Also there’s the small matter of definition. Trans is a mental health disorder while non-binary is what? The way you feel on the day?

Veale worked with Jack Byrne (female-to-male) and Ahi Wi-Hongi (male to female) on this. Wi-Hongi heads Gender Minorities Aotearoa, a national trans organisation.

In addition Veale works with a team of researchers on the Identify survey, a project collecting the experiences of Rainbow people aged 14-26. Many of the team will be familiar to those of us who have followed this issue. They include Tabby Beasley, John Fenaughty and Elizabeth Kerekere. The survey is supported by Auckland University, Waikato University, InsideOut, Rainbow Youth and NZCER.

At a national level, Veale lobbied for changes to the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill to make it easier for anyone to alter the details on their birth certificates, which ultimately passed. Thus men could legally present as women.

He also publicly supported trans weightlifter Laurel (Gavin) Hubbard who represented New Zealand at the 2020 Olympics in the women’s division despite being a 43-year old male. Veale said on RNZ that the public backlash to Hubbard’s inclusion was an attempt to deny trans people their human rights. Journalist John Drinnan lodged a complaint with the Broadcasting Standards Agency alleging the interview was inaccurate and unbalanced but it was not upheld.

Jennifer Shields is a trans health advocate based in Christchurch who describes himself as queer and trans, i.e. man.

Shields is currently healthcare lead at Qtopia, a support service for the LGBTQIA+ community based in Christchurch, running a national training programme for gender diversity in primary care. He is also the President of PATHA.

He describes himself thus:

a photographer, a writer, a public speaker, an ex-radio DJ, a less-ex party DJ, an art and festival producer, a homebrewer, a cat mama.”

Also calls himself a “collaborative changemaker,” aka, a mouthpiece for the trans cause.

Here’s what he said soon after the MoH published an Evidence Brief and Position Statement on the use of puberty blockers in gender-affirming care

The evidence brief has only been out 24 hours and I've already had a number of families message me quite distressed, concerned for the wellbeing of their young people, concerned about their ability to access healthcare in the future.

Any further restrictions are unnecessary and would only do harm to those who need that care the most.

PATHA is concerned about the appropriateness of opening this consultation on a medical matter to the wider public particularly when the matter of gender affirming care has become highly politicised and subject to disinformation.

I would really caution the Ministry of Health to take that into consideration when they are assessing the findings of that consultation and really would caution government in particular about the impacts that a public consultation process is likely to have on the health and wellbeing of trans people of all ages but particularly for trans young people.

Compliant media like The Spinoff feature his comments.

Dishonourable Mentions

Shaneel Lal - Fijian Indian import best remembered for whipping up hostility to gender critical women in 2023. Encouraged by left politicians and compliant media, Lal was one of the prime instigators of the Posie Parker mobbing at Albert Park. That same year he was also named Young New Zealander of the Year.

Eliana Rubashkyn - Colombian intersex import responsible for throwing juice at KJK at Albert Park in 2023. He was convicted and discharged on the charge of assault last year.

Alice Snedden - smug comedian (and I use that word loosely) responsible for a dismal tv series called Bad News. Episode 2 dumps on TERFs.

Paul Thistoll - gender troll. Esp fond of threatening disruption if anyone dares air ideas he disagrees with. As CEO of Countering Hate Speech Aotearoa, he regularly files complaints and issues public critiques for what he regards as anti-trans content, i.e. content others regard as pro-reality and women.

Julia de Bres - Associate Professor in Linguistics at Massey University specialising in how language creates or challenges social inequalities. Also described as a disabled Pākehā queer woman who draws on her lived experience (e.g. managing osteogenesis imperfecta) to inform her work.

Principal Investigator of a Marsden-funded study exploring family support for transgender youth For this, she received the standard Marsden grant of NZ$870,000 over three years. This funding was awarded in 2022 through the Royal Society.

Believes she has a trans child.

Other members of the commentariat who believe they have a trans child include NZH reporter David Fisher and Wellington politician, lawyer and unionist Fleur Fitzsimons.

Next: The Do No Harm Gang.