Rotorua women saving for gender reassignment surgery

Ateyva Goldsmith in Rotorua. Photo / Stephen Parker

"Don't you dare call me a man."

That is the proud statement of Ateyva Goldsmith.

"Right from when I was little, right until now, I've been female."

The 35-year-old transgender Rotorua woman was diagnosed with gender-identity dysphoria at age 12.

"They thought it was a phase ... But I still knew I was different. I still attended boys' schools," Goldsmith said.

"The year before my dad died, he said: 'I lost the son but I gained a beautiful daughter'," she says with a big giggle.

She embraced the role of whakawahine on her Ngāti Whare marae, but some of her wider family members would not accept her.

Goldsmith turned to prostitution and drugs to "lose herself". But nowadays she lives at Lake Rotomā, works as a customer service supervisor in town, and has "bloomed" as a woman.

She says acceptance in Rotorua is continuing to improve.

"I am noticing a lot of my sisters out there ... in front of the public. Seeing others comfortable in their skin as transgender - I totally encourage that.

"I'm like 'bloom baby, bloom'. This ain't the 70s, nor the 80s."

Her only remaining challenge is getting gender reassignment surgery, which costs tens of thousands - sometimes hundreds of thousands - of dollars in New Zealand, depending on the circumstances of the transition.

As of December last year, 219 people were waiting for the surgery nationally, according to Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter.

She removed the cap on surgeries last year and Budget 2019 put $3 million towards "addressing the waitlist". But she told the Rotorua Daily Post this week "clearing the waiting list won't happen overnight".

Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter. Photo / File

Many people, like Goldsmith, are looking to cheaper, faster alternatives overseas.

She is currently saving up for surgery in Asia.

"I am getting old. A big part of me is missing and I need to fulfil that. My body ... From here [waist] up I see female but from the bottom down, no."

She has also turned to crowdfunding to help.

"I work really hard for it [surgery] but I've gotta live you know ... Eventually, I will get there."

Rotorua dance teacher Raukawa Tuhura is also saving for gender reassignment surgery and using crowdfunding.

She intends to go to Thailand - the cheapest option she can find.

Raukawa Tuhura is saving for gender reassignment surgery. Photo / Stephen Parker

"It's a sad truth that we will go to these lengths. A lot of people just don't know how being transgender feels, being trapped in your own body. It's hard, it's really really hard."

Tuhura was heavily bullied for her feminine traits as a child.

"It stopped me from learning my own language and culture [at a kura kaupapa] ... I ended up being a part of the English-speaking schools."

She has been taking hormones for seven years and has a "loving" partner but still feels incomplete.

"Every morning, I get up, go to the bathroom, look down and what do I see? It doesn't make me feel happy ... It makes me feel out of place. Like outwardly."

New Zealand's biggest pride celebration starts in Auckland this weekend and Tuhura has performed there many times.

She will be too busy this year with her tutoring, but says "Pride will still be pride no matter what".

"Pride is every day. As long as you be confident in yourself and as colourful as you can be. Cause we need more people in the world like that. We really do."