My main areas of research are on the human rights of transgender people, with particular expertise on transgender health and wellbeing and legal gender recognition, including for refugees and asylum seekers. I joined the Transgender Health Research Lab in September 2017, as one the lead researchers and authors of Counting Ourselves: the Aotearoa New Zealand Trans and Non-binary Health Survey.
From 2006—2010, I project managed the New Zealand Human Rights Commission’s Transgender Inquiry, including liaising with multiple government agencies about the implementation of its findings. Since 2013 I have worked as a consultant researcher on projects about the health and human rights of LGBTQI+ people in Asia Pacific. This has included co-authoring a manual for the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF) and co-facilitating training on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) for APF members in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. I co-authored the Asia Pacific Trans Health Blueprint, working with two UN agencies (UNDP and UNAIDS) and the Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN). That publication has been translated into multiple languages and used by trans communities and health professionals to improve the provision of healthcare for trans people across this region.
I developed and co-lead a legal gender recognition research project for APTN and UNDP covering nine countries in Asia, working alongside trans communities, academics, lawyers, government officials and other key stakeholders. That work then extended to supporting a related pilot research project in Fiji. Recent projects for APTN including overseeing a regional research project on conversion practices that aim to change or suppress transgender people’s gender identity or expression, and developing an online training module for health professionals in Asia and the Pacific.
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