LGBT+ People in NZ Give thanks for Politician

Members of the LGBTQIA and traditional Maori third gender communities in New Zealand have acknowledged with thanks the life of Fa'anānā Efeso Collins, a centre left politician, who held positions for both the New Zealand Labour and the New Zealand Green Parties during his brief life.  Mr Collins passed on suddenly at the age of forty nine on 21st February.  His parents immigrated to New Zealand from Samoa in the 1960s, and were of mixed Samoan and Tokelauan descent.  His politics were generally centre-left, but he had held some conservative positions previously. He said these stemmed from his strict, Pentecostal religious upbringing. He was opposed to the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013, which legalised same-sex marriage in New Zealand, but later apologised for his actions.  He supported the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Act 2022, which brought to an end religious extremist groups attempts to change LGBTQIA people into heterosexual or cisgender people.   Wikipedia notes "Collins credited his niece coming out as transgender in 2013 as a pivotal shift in his religious views and beliefs. He defended his niece and supported her even as others in her family struggled to accept her identity. As a result of this experience, Collins subsequently decided to provide support to both takatāpui (LGBT) and fa'afafine (third gender) youth. Collins also stated that he abandoned the Christian theological position of "love the sinner, hate the sin.""  Faʻafafine are people who identify themselves as having a third gender or non-binary role in Samoa, American Samoa and the Samoan diaspora. A recognised gender identity/gender role in traditional Samoan society, and an integral part of Samoan culture, faʻafafine are assigned male at birth, and explicitly embody both masculine and feminine gender traits in a way unique to Polynesia.