The Rainbow Anglican network (TAARTAN) has argued for pastoral consideration for all people across the wide diversity of gender identity and promoted this Church's ethic of full inclusion in its submission to Parliamentary Select Committee on the Legislation (Definition of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill.

The TAARTAN submission asks to retain current legislation rather than installing newly-narrowed legal definitions that will exclude transgendered and intersex people.

The submission opens with a recognition that many Anglican churches across the motu include respected members of the gender non-binary community who serve in leadership and make up worshipping communities:

"Takatāpui, Rainbow, and MVPFAFF+¹ people are present in our Anglican congregations throughout Aotearoa. ... Our Church has direct institutional knowledge of the harm that legal misrecognition causes to these valued members of our communities." the submission states.

"We understand the serious harms this Bill would cause, both from personal and institutional experience. We therefore strongly oppose the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill and recommend that it be rejected in its entirety." TAARTAN write.

The TAARTAN submission draws on existing Anglican statements that address the problems in proscribing gender identity including:
–  Archbishop Philip Richardson and Archbishop Don Tamihere's submission on the Conversion Practices Bill (submission here) and relevant sections of this Church's responses presented to the Royal Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care.

The submission highlights a statement of belief that while all people and all Christians are sinners, our Church does not single out our LGBTQI+ whānau for special mention.

"Anything which seeks to suggest that there is something inherently wrong or sinful in those who are takatāpui and LGBTQI+, or which seeks to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression; is, we believe, wrong." said Archbishop Philip and Archbishop Don in their Conversion Practices Bill submission.

The TAARTAN submission goes on to say that "...any teaching which seeks to change or suppress a person's sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression is both abusive and damaging, and that abuse in any form is incompatible with the love of God."

The submission highlights how the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that the invisibility of transgendered people in institutions had contributed to the conditions that enabled their abuse. The submission says that a Bill that disallows diversity of understanding of gender by defining it exclusively by biological sex will not bring to light the needs of trans people.

"The Church cannot in good conscience accept findings about the harm caused by legal and institutional invisibility, and then remain silent on legislation that increases that invisibility for the same communities." it states.

The submission also picks up on the the Bill's use of "natural order", a familiar argument for women in the church who were excluded from leadership on the same basis until the late 1970s.

TAARTAN has asked instead for Government recognition of various Indigenous understandings of gender diversity, including traditional Pacific third genders, and argues from historic examples where churches have provided a home for people who live outside society's expected gender roles.

TAARTAN's full submission opposing the Legislation Amendment (Definition of Woman and Man) Bill can be downloaded in PDF below.