Just after Christmas I emailed the New Zealand Women's Refuge and asked what their policy on taking in trans women was.
The following is the response that I received:
QuoteDear Caitlin,
Apologies for the delayed response to your e-mail inquiry, our info e-mails are not checked regularly over Christmas.
In a recent audit of our 47 service providers, 34 of them stated that they do currently meet the needs of transgender women. Many of our services reported that they had been advised by their local LGBT sector that they should consider women as clients who have been post-op for 3 years or more. That does not mean that they have incorporated this into their policies, but some of them might.
All Refuges assess intake on a case by case basis, and with consideration of the safety / comfort of others in their Refuge at the time.
So whilst it may sometimes result in disappointment, the best way to find out is to ring the Refuge close to you at the time you are in need, which you can do through 0800 REFUGE. We do not implement blanket policies on this subject, as all of our members are independent.
Thank you for your enquiry.
Hannah Cranston
Service Development Coordinator
What kind of BS is that? "Three years post-op." First, the day you are post-op you can legally petition the courts to change your legal documents to female (if MTF) and many jurisdictions are now allowing pre-ops to legally change their gender under certain conditions. If a business, charity, etc. cannot accept someone as a female who is a) legally a female and b) has a complete female body (i.e. post-op) that to me is outright gender discrimination which is illegal in all 50 states of the U.S. and a host of other countries likely including New Zealand.