Investigative journalist Penny Marie raises serious questions about institutional capture after Wellington Police and NZ Herald used ‘she/her’ pronouns and a legally changed name in a missing persons alert for a male — who was found safe within hours.
This man is not merely a by-product of bad law, he was involved with the group that forced the laws in.
Amber Bohanna is a male who was reported missing in Karori, Wellington: the alert was issued by Police and covered by the NZ Herald on 27 April 2026 at 7:20am using ‘she/her’ pronouns and a legally changed name.
He was found safe only hours later.
The questions this raises go far beyond the individual case.
Marie reveals that Amber Bohanna previously served as Treasurer of InsideOut Kōaro – the government-funded transgender lobby organisation whose board governed operations during the campaign for both the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration (BDMR) Amendment Act and the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Act 2022 – the two laws that now legally require police and media to use a person’s chosen name and pronouns regardless of sex.
In other words: a key figure in the movement that lobbied these laws into existence is now directly benefiting from them in a public safety context.
Key findings
● Amber Bohanna is listed as Treasurer on the Board of Trustees of InsideOut Kōaro in its 2019/20 Annual Report, during the period InsideOut actively lobbied for and celebrated the passage of the Conversion Practices bill.
● InsideOut received public funding during this period from the Ministry of Youth Development, COGS, CAYAD, Lotteries Commission, and Wellington City Council, among others.
● During Bohanna’s tenure, InsideOut co-produced a resource for mental health professionals in direct collaboration with Gender Minorities Aotearoa (GMA) – the same Wellington-based organisation that in 2024 published a guide titled Anti-Transgender Extremism, funded by New Zealand’s government Community Matters Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Fund.
● That GMA guide classifies journalists, policy writers, and parent advocates raising concerns about gender ideology as “covert extremists more dangerous than those who commit physical violence.”
On the timing
The original NZ Herald missing persons report was published at 7:20am on 27 April 2026. Wellington Police confirmed Amber Bohanna had been found safe within hours of that report.
Penny Marie says the speed of resolution raises legitimate questions.
“I am genuinely relieved he was found safely. But when a missing persons alert for a male — one with documented connections to the very lobby network that created the laws compelling police to incorrectly identify him — is published at 7 am and resolved by mid-morning, the public has a right to ask questions. At minimum, this case has functioned as a highly visible, real-world demonstration of these laws in action: police and media calling a man a woman, without question, without caveat, in a public safety alert. Whether by design or not, that is the outcome.”
Why this matters
New Zealand Police are not villains in this story. They are operating under laws and institutional culture that now legally expose them to complaint and political consequences if they accurately describe a missing person’s sex. The Conversion Practices Act and the amended BDMR Act have together created a legal environment in which New Zealand’s primary public safety agency cannot tell the full truth in a missing persons bulletin.
This is the direct, human cost of laws built not on public need or evidence, but on activist lobbying by a small, publicly funded network – a network to which Amber Bohanna was personally connected.
Call to action
Penny Marie is calling for:
- Repeal of the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Act, which criminalises honest therapeutic care and creates a chilling effect on press freedom and public safety communications.
- Correction of the BDMR Amendment Act to ensure sex remains accurately recorded and cannot be erased by statutory declaration in public safety contexts.
- Full public accounting of government funding to InsideOut, Gender Minorities Aotearoa, and affiliated organisations – including the use of counter-terrorism funds to produce political documents targeting gender-critical journalists and advocates.
Read the Full Investigation on Substack