Countries have called out New Zealand for the way New Zealand handles situations which involve the LGBT+ community.
Chile recommended NZ ended medical procedures on intersex people without their consent.
Along the same lines, Australia "recommends New Zealand amend the Human Rights Act of 1993 to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and intersex status".
Iceland recommended New Zealand "add gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics as specifically prohibited grounds of discrimination in Article 21 of the Human Rights Act of 1993".
From people we have interviewed, while people believe New Zealand is a relatively safe place to be apart of the LGBT+ community, there are still a few issues.
One person we interviewed (who wants to remain unamed) said " I didn't feel safe in the extremely masculine environment, so I decided the safest thing to do would be to hide my identity. I was also worried about my family not being accepting so I hid it."
In a recent survey, Among the 851 participants that responded fully to the Counting Ourselves discrimination section,44% reported they had experienced discrimination in the past year.
That was more than twice the 17% who reported the same in the General Social Survey, a biannual survey of 8000 people by Stats NZ, in 2016. 11% they had been denied a home or apartment in the past due to being trans or non-binary, and 10% said they had had to move back in with family or friends.
6% said they had been evicted before due to being trans or non-binary, 6% said they had to move into a less expensive home in the past, and 6% said they had become homeless because of violence from a partner or a family member.
In 2019, 3% reported they had been discriminated against when trying to find a rental.
This was three times higher than the 1% reporting this in the 2016 General Social Survey. 7% of adult respondents and 2% of youth (age 14-25) respondents also said they would fear going into emergency housing over concerns of being mistreated for being non-binary or trans.
The most common complaint received by the Human Rights Commission on the grounds of sexual orientation was in relation to employment discrimination.
Rainbow Kiwis often concealed their identities and partners for fear of workplace discrimination, and a significant proportion of the community did not feel safe enough or feared discrimination both at work and while applying for jobs.
School was also found to be an unsafe environment for rainbow youth in New Zealand. It found that young Kiwis with diverse sexual orientation or gender identity were, respectively, three and four-and-a-half times more likely than other students to be bullied.
The report found members of the rainbow community had poorer physical and mental health outcomes compared with the general population, and that health care practitioners often lacked training to meet specific rainbow health needs.
The Government announced it will provide targeted nationwide funding to services that provide mental health support to Rainbow young people.
The announcement fulfils an election commitment to allocate $4 million specifically targeted to Rainbow mental wellbeing initiatives aimed at young people.
Of the $4 million, $3.2 million will fund expansion of mental wellbeing services focussing on young Rainbow New Zealanders.
The remainder of the package will be allocated to topping up the existing Rainbow Wellbeing Legacy Fund which was established as an acknowledgement of those New Zealanders who were convicted for homosexual acts before the law was changed in 1986.
The Government has revealed its plans to ban conversion therapy by early 2022 "at the latest".
The Green Party is claiming today's announcement by the Government as a win, as the rainbow spokeswoman Elizabeth Kerekere said the timeline was due to the pressure of a 150,000-strong petition, calling for urgency in banning the harmful practice.
Auckland University’s most recent Youth 2000 survey with 8,166 secondary school students in 2012, found that same or both sex attracted young people in New Zealand are 3 times more likely to hurt or bullied at school at least weekly.
Transgender identified participants were 4.5 times more likely to report weekly bullying compared to non-transgender peers.
LGBTQIA+ students are in all schools and large youth work groups. Nearly 4% of the students in the 2012 Youth 2000 survey reported being transgender or "not sure of their gender" and 6% reported being attracted to the same sex, both sexes, or were "not sure" of their sexual attractions. This suggests that around 10% of secondary school students are likely to be LGBTQIA+ and will be present across schools and youth work settings.