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Hm. 55 out of my for that. Oh. Oh, [00:00:30] [00:01:00] [00:01:30] OK, [00:02:00] [00:02:30] uh, [00:03:00] [00:03:30] come up? Yeah, they told me Hello. Yeah, yeah, [00:04:00] yeah, we have that. [00:04:30] Hello? Ok, [00:05:00] we did. [00:05:30] [00:06:00] [00:06:30] Yeah, Yeah. [00:07:00] Go like way. [00:07:30] [00:08:00] [00:08:30] [00:09:00] Want it to be up here? Did he ask me? Did not go through me and no [00:09:30] courage. It takes courage and conviction, a sense of dedication and are wanting to change. 30 years ago in New Zealand, this happened 30 years ago in New Zealand. The homosexual law reform bill was passed. Congratulate [00:10:00] yourselves. My name is Amanda La, and I'm incredibly honoured. Privileged to be here to welcome you to the 30th anniversary of the Homosexual Law Reform Act. Tonight we have an amazing array of performers. And from what I can see, spring has certainly hit the fashion industry. [00:10:30] This is delicious. We have a collection of youth. We have drag queens gender illusionists. But most importantly, we have some of the members surviving 30 years to see what they did and how we use their manner. What we've accomplished in the last 30 years, [00:11:00] these men and women are here present with us. Can you imagine, 30 years ago, if I was to walk down the street, as did our sister Carmen. I would have been bashed till I bled Bleeding being the operative word, these men and women bled on the streets of Wellington to give us the freedom. I always refer to this statement. They walked in the shadows [00:11:30] so that I can bask in the sun and I applaud each and every one of them. Like I said, when I say that I'm grateful, honoured and humbled to be here to welcome you this evening it's meant so without further ado, I would like to now take this opportunity to introduce you to Elizabeth. Ladies and gentlemen, where is she? She's somewhere this year. [00:12:00] You please. Thank you. Uh, I thought I was later in the programme. So all of the thinking of all the organisers, the place in which we are will all have been done. Uh, I [00:12:30] to you all. Ah, so there will be speakers tonight. They will talk about law reform and talk about some of those historical things. And what I wanted to bring into the room then is around the and we would Yeah, let's just roll with this, OK? About the same time as law reform first swung into action, Uh, the term [00:13:00] was being promoted within rainbow Maori networks. Uh, we use today as an identity that embraces all of our diverse sexes, genders and sexualities. It is, however, a centuries old traditional Maori term. So claiming connects us to our language and our culture, our our ancestry and our our spirituality [00:13:30] and our connected our connectedness to all things in the universe. Art also reminds us that we have suffered a particular type of historical trauma brought to us by colonisation. The gift that just keeps on giving trust was established in Wellington in 2001 to provide a safe space for to live our culture in a way that honours our diverse sexes, genders and sexualities. [00:14:00] Our vision is a rainbow is forming in the sky. Our aims are to tell our stories, build our communities and leave a legacy. If we look to the Maori health model which was adopted by this government decades ago, envisage envisages Is that even a word? We have a vision of a world [00:14:30] that honours our our spirituality, where our sex, our gender and our sexuality is acknowledged as the gift that it is from our ancestors. It is certainly not something to be trifled with. Our our mind, where homophobia, biphobia and transphobia is not a constant assault on our sensibilities that limits our creativity and certainty of the future. [00:15:00] Our body, a world where our Children's bodies are not subject to surgical torture, to normalise them where our young people are safe from threats and violence in their schools, their communities and their places of worship, where every single one of us has access to whatever health care we require and that our elders may age gracefully, gracefully with the dignity [00:15:30] they deserve. Finally, we envisage a world with the families we were born into, and the families we create are places of love and support where we have healthy and happy relationships with the people we share our lives and our bodies with, and that's a revolution right there having a healthy, happy relationship. My partner in LA and I 24 years next week just say [00:16:00] I am the because of that where our communities and particularly this see a world where our communities can harness our collective wisdom and creativity to change the world around us. It does not seem to me to be too much to ask. So we're not We're not sitting around doing nothing. Many of you will know we do this. We are not a performance group. No one pays us to [00:16:30] come and perform. This is part of us making sure that the treaty is alive and well in our communities. Uh, that we support, uh, the organisers and provide the to create a safe space for all of us. But also, uh, we work with many community groups, organisations, government agencies and universities around a range of products to advocate for within the context of our wider range of communities. So we're involved in many [00:17:00] projects addressing issues such as primary health care, mental health and suicide prevention, secondary and tertiary education programmes, sexual health, sexual and intimate partner violence, housing and homelessness, sports and the arts. Throughout this work we do research, we collect data. We contribute to the production of of Western knowledge, Of course. Uh but we also contribute to a Maori knowledge base. [00:17:30] We help our people remember that discrimination against us may be part of Maori society. It is not part of Maori culture with so much to do and so few of us to do it models, relationship building and collaboration. We will put that to the test over the next two years as we develop a national rainbow strategy with the national strategy inside of that that reflects the needs and aspirations of all of our different communities. [00:18:00] Uh, I will be coming to a town near you to talk to you about that. Be ready for that. So in that collaborative and fully and treaty based spirit invites all of you all of us, to help create a rainbow movement that honours our ancestors, respects our elders, works closely with our peers and looks after our young people. Are you with us that [00:18:30] together, Elizabeth? Now we have members of the Rainbow Community, the parliamentary Rainbow community. You'll meet them in just a few moments, but let's give them a round of applause [00:19:00] for just being here with all this colour, shall we? [00:19:30] And while um Elizabeth, it may not have been scheduled. I think it's wonderful to place us firmly in a treaty relationship. As parliamentarians, we and the Cross party Parliamentary Rainbow Network welcome you to this place which of course, is on the land of and we work in partnership or aim to work in partnership with, um our treaty [00:20:00] partners in this place. Um, I'm Jan Logie. I'm a green Party MP and Co-chair along with the fabulous Louisa Wall of Labour and Paul Foster Bell of the National Party, um, of the cross party Rainbow Parliamentary Network with these other gorgeous members who you see on the stage, including David Seymour of the Act Party, Trevor Mallard of Labour, James Shaw of the Greens and your local [00:20:30] Grant Robertson of Labour and also of the Maori Party and quite a few others who were very, very disappointed not to be able to be here tonight. We're a new network. We're set up. Um, it's kind of like a queer straight alliance happening in Parliament, modelling ourselves on the leaders in our schools, um, to be be able to progress LGBTI [00:21:00] rights in this country to be able to advocate externally and internally for better policies and legislation to ensure the human rights and the vibrancy of all of the members of our community. And as we come today to celebrate 30 years in an extraordinary time and amazing work that was done by community and [00:21:30] parliamentary activists. We are inspired for that next stage of the journey of those whose work has not yet been done. And we are proud to stand here and welcome you to this place, your place, the people's house. And it's so wonderful to see it full of our people. [00:22:00] Our next speaker is a matriarch of our society. She's a super woman from 1986 and it's an absolute honour to be able to introduce this woman who is one of the main reasons why we're here celebrating tonight. 30 years later, if I say too much more, my I'm gonna cry. And [00:22:30] then my false eyelashes are gonna fall off. So, I I won't. But could you please join a huge welcome for Fran Wilde? [00:23:00] OK, I think that's enough. Guys Don't get too carried away. Um and, um, greetings to all you fabulous people here tonight. Um, 30 years I saw on the programme, we talked about the homosexual law reform era, which made it seem like, you know, about 500 years ago, actually, uh, but even 30 Seems [00:23:30] a long time. I was only 14 of course, when I was in Parliament. So you realise. And, uh, now I'm just about growing up. So, um, I guess the question is, how did it happen? Well, it was the right time, and it was the right parliament. And I do need to say that a lot of us joined the Labour Party in the, um, late seventies to get rid of Muldoon. And then when we got into Parliament, we found there were other things to do as well, so we got [00:24:00] rid of him. But there were other things. So when I was, uh, running in for the 81 election, I was lobbied by Tom McLean and others I think came with him and they said, Would you would you vote for gay law reform? And I, being a good Wellington Central liberal, said, Of course I would. And then they said, Well, if nobody else would sponsor it, do you think you would? And I young and stupid, remember, at the age of 14, said, Well, I suppose [00:24:30] so. Not having any idea what that meant. And so when I got in the first practically people to see me with the gay community like. OK, Fred, guess what it's all on. So the first bill we looked at was the equality Bill. Um, it didn't see the light of day, which actually is just as well, because I said earlier that was the right parliament. And frankly, a number of, um, younger MP S had come in in 81 and more in 84 and we had enough people [00:25:00] then to make it go through. I don't think I'm not sure we would have got something through in the 81 84 parliament. Um, So I wanted to start tonight. I've probably used nine minutes so far of my team by thanking in particular, the key people that I worked with because, you know, nobody does anything by themselves in this world, it's always a team. And this was the most phenomenal team. There were people all over New Zealand. I'm not going to actually talk about the people from outside Wellington because actually, [00:25:30] there were too many of them. But in Wellington there were a group that I worked with, and they came into my office at Parliament. I was the whip, and Mike Cullen and I were in the with the whips and we can and and they We set up a little kind of headquarters in the whips office, and these people were really the critical ones. Now I'll probably miss somebody out, but I just want to just mention a few names tonight of the people that I remember who were there all the time and who actually then went out and organised outside of parliament. [00:26:00] So there was Bill Logan, who was, um, a really Bill. Bill was a strategist and an organiser. You all know how poli political he is. So he was very helpful in that respect, Alison, Laurie, Alison was really important for us, too. [00:26:30] And you and painter I don't is you And here No, no, you and painter was really important. And then there were and Graham Russell, who I think worked full time on this campaign. And, uh, he was around a lot as well. He was much younger than two. And then, uh, we needed information. And Phil Parkinson, the librarian, was just so important for us. And David [00:27:00] Hindley and David, I recalled a lot of the writing as well. So there was. That was a really phenomenal team. It wasn't all, um ghastly. We had a bit of fun. And Des, who's gonna talk to you later? Supplied a bit of fun in the office and as did and, um Dez I remember when he came out, they said Des has got something to tell you. Desert arrived one in the summer, I think, and he was wearing practically nothing. And he was a builder. And he had a great body and [00:27:30] which he constantly displayed. And, um and one day he had to tell me something I thought, Oh, yeah, OK, I know what it is. And sure enough, he said, Well, I'm actually gay. And I said, Well, really Anyway, dear, thank you. Des was fabulous. Uh, and we did have a lot of fun as well as doing the hard yards. And this was a parliamentary campaign. There were two key people who ran. That one is Trevor Mallard who's here tonight. You're going to hear from him later. [00:28:00] We could not have got this bill through without he he was. And the other one was Ruth Dyson. I don't think Ruth is here tonight, but she Ruth Ruth, I was a single mother with three kids. And that was why I was a good bet, I think for doing the bill in the middle of the most liberal electorate in Wellington. [00:28:30] And, uh, I it was Ruth was staying with me. She and I shared this childcare, actually. And she also worked on the campaign, and she was phenomenal. So I just want to acknowledge her. And, of course, on the other side of the house we had Catherine O'Regan and Catherine did a great job organising as many as she could. I just want to lastly acknowledge my office, Um, the people who worked in my office, obviously Mike Mike Cullen, the whip who was very patient and carried [00:29:00] a lot of my work. I suspect during that period, um, and the Officer Marion Line and my P A who was just phenomenal and just and and we had thousands of letters. And guess what? In those days, computers were pretty new, so most of these were handwritten, and there was all the paperwork was much more laborious than it is now. And she just managed all of that and our little office assistant who had to be taught how to detect litter bombs in case some nut sent one to me. [00:29:30] So you know Well, they were great people and they worked their hearts out on this campaign. They didn't have to. They were doing it voluntarily. So, um, no. When the bill was introduced, and by the way that was somebody reminded me 31 years ago next week. The Evening post headline was gay sex at 16, right across the front, front of the of the evening post, and I thought, Oh, God, I was hoping for a little paragraph, you know that. But anyway, I thought, Well, that's it. And we [00:30:00] counted at that time and there was a bit of a convention in the house. Then I don't think it's there anymore. It was a gentleman's agreement. They don't have gentlemen anymore. Um, they don't. In fact, they got more women, which is great, but, uh, that you would always vote for a first reading for a bill, you'd always let it be introduced, and then it will be killed in the select committee. So, um, it went to the select committee and we knew we had about 20 people that would vote for it. We absolutely we knew. I can't remember the exact number. All my files were burned, by the way and that that, [00:30:30] um, fire in the Kilburn fire, uh, storage unit a year or so ago, which was a tragedy. But we knew we that the strategy was to get the electorates organised and get New Zealanders to give permission to their MP S to vote for the bill. So, um, the lobbying wasn't all in Wellington. We were very poorly organised it when we first introduced it. I have to say, um, but we got organised pretty quickly. The cities were good. They were obviously, um um the, [00:31:00] um, lesbian and gay community are kind of congregated there, but the provincial areas in the smaller towns were just awful. It was a scorched earth, and we had to give them help when they needed it. Um, it wasn't just the gay community. Um, many liberal New Zealanders helped us. They formed groups. We started an organisation called heterosexuals, unafraid of gays HUG. And we had a badge, a pink badge with hug written on it. And that was for them. So they they all that and that was great. And we [00:31:30] the idea was to give information. Gay men had been demonised as child molesters and the whole nature versus nurture debate raged. And, you know, all of this Old Testament stuff was quoted, and they're all depraved monsters they're going to watch out for, you know, have to watch out for your Children. We had to get information out there. New Zealanders had the stereotypical ideas of gay men, and they simply weren't correct. And so we needed [00:32:00] to get this information out. So we used the media. We used radio, we used talk back. We had ed articles, letters to the editor, lots of lobbying of MP S. We had a list of MP S. Trevor might tell you how many are in the end who we won't name them. Tonight we knew the ones we had to get. We knew the ones that were kind of on the verge, and we had to get them over to our side. We knew the ones we would never get. And being the parliamentary whip was very helpful because they often were able we were able to give them leave [00:32:30] the night that the bill was being debated, which was every Wednesday if you go. And in fact, we got a lot of them invited to do things on far ends of the country. So they couldn't get back on Wednesday night on Wednesdays, a lot of people were absent, and they always got leave when they asked for it. Um and, uh, basically, this was that I just travelled all around the country frequently and meetings and public meetings and small meetings and radio and yada yada. And so did Trevor, actually, [00:33:00] and some of the other MP S. They did some great work for us when we asked them to. They were there. Um, look, I don't want to go on much more, but there were 22 things I want to say which I think helped immensely and probably were pivotal in the campaign. One was the petition, and Trevor will talk a little bit about that. But when it was presented out here on the steps of parliament, they had the Remember the boys and girls brigade. I don't I think they're defunct now, thank goodness. But they had them in their uniforms. They had New Zealand flags. [00:33:30] Let's all vote for the new one team. Um, sorry, I know the Labour Party are, but I am. They had the flag, they had the national anthem, they had hymns and and it was really scary. And they had one box for every electorate with the name of the electorate, this is meant to scare the MP S and what it did was it scared New Zealanders because they'd seen this sort of thing before, either in reality or on the on the, you know, old news reels they'd seen it in in Hitler's [00:34:00] Pre-war Germany, and the Nuremberg rallies. The words were kept popping up all the time and people said, We don't want this in New Zealand. We don't want fundamentalist Christians demonising these people and blaming them for everything that's going wrong in our society. There's gotta be a better way for New Zealand. And and it was really interesting because a lot of the press gallery came into the office that day and said, Give me a hug, badge and put it on. And they were they were [00:34:30] journalists. They're all neutral, of course, but they they were sickened by this site, and that was a key thing. But even bigger for me was visibility of the gay community, and I just tonight want to finish by saluting the members of the gay community who came out during that period. Those men were criminals, and they have been persecuted in New Zealand for a a long, long time. And we knew that unless New Zealanders, other New Zealanders saw that they [00:35:00] had gay men living all around them, they worked with them. They were they played golf with them or tennis or rugby. Uh, they had, uh, sons. They had brothers and in some case, husbands who were gay unless people realised that gay men were just like all the rest of us. We come in many different sizes and shapes and inclinations, but we're all Kiwis. We would not win this. And there were some extraordinary brave acts by [00:35:30] gay men who came out during that time. And you could see people almost kind of hear the brains working amongst other New Zealanders. Ah, so and says gay. Wow, he's just like me. Absolutely. And that was really, really, really important. So I just want to, um, acknowledge all those men who did that. It was a really brave act, because if we had actually not passed the bill, they would have been in the most terrible situation. It would have been really, [00:36:00] really bad for them. They weren't the only ones. Of course, all of us women would have had a bad, pretty rough go if if we and and all of those other causes that we'd all espoused wouldn't have worked. But that was really important. So for the future. Look, we've had some great law reforms since then, and it's got SSA well done on the latest. We didn't get the, um, uh, human rights part of the bill through, uh, that was the insurance policy of some of the MP S. They voted against that. They knew they had to decriminalise, and that's gone through since then. Um, [00:36:30] but there's still a lot of issues in New Zealand, and I particularly just want to say I know you are all working on it, but I think the kids we need to look at what's happening to LGBT R kids. Uh, some schools are great, they're really safe, but others aren't. And I think that's something that the older people in the community need to focus on and make sure that those kids feel safe and are OK. And with the advent of, um, you know, the digital age and I just was growled at by Gavin for having a bit of paper and not using [00:37:00] my cell phone, but makes it much easier to bully. We all know about that. And so these kids really need some help. So just to, um, kind of wind up on that, really, that there is always more work to be done. So I'm to introduce the next person now. This person's father taught a, uh, a young lad called Trevor Rope when he was at school. And you know who Trevor Rio was? Trevor went on to be Calman. And so we are now going to hear from [00:37:30] Carmen's namesake, who was a key person in homosexual law reform. Trevor Mallard. I'm I'm told by my parents. I was named after an uncle and, uh, not after Carmen. Uh, but but some of my, um, earliest, [00:38:00] um, experiences, uh, with the, uh, LGBT community were, uh, with, uh, Carmen who, having been taught by my father, who went from being a teacher for a couple of years in to being a share broker in Wellington. When we walked up Willis Street, Carmen would always wave and call out and say, Uh, hello, Colin. Haven't seen you recently. And and for a very straight conservative share broker, he found that a little bit hard to take. [00:38:30] Um, and and, of course, um, with Georgina, uh, in front of me. Um, we in my generation there weren't really good nightclubs. Uh, in Wellington. Now, the balcony was the only place that you could go to see really good bands playing. And for me, I got educated there, Uh, including by, uh, by Georgina, uh, who was Who was one of the most wonderful and beautiful dancers you have [00:39:00] ever seen? Um, like, uh, most, um, straight males. Uh, the issue for me, um, was became a little bit clearer in 1975 when young, uh, had a had a bill. That was it was the first time that I can remember that the issue, uh, was there. And it was a bill in parliament to decriminalise with an age of 20 from memory. Uh, that lost pretty badly. Um, but it started people, uh, thinking, uh, from [00:39:30] an intellectual perspective, Um, I, uh, still have a friend, a good friend who's actually sort of relatively ill at the moment, who has never been able to tell me. I've known about it of his conviction, and it just it just seemed that for some of the generation just before mine, um, it was absolutely awful. It's [00:40:00] still not good. And it wasn't good at the time that the bill was being passed. But of the the the people, uh, in the 19 fifties and 19 forties in particular, their their lives must have been so shocking. And and people were so traumatised that they can't even tell their own friends of their convictions. Um, my my job was to do numbers. Um, I did numbers in a couple of ways. I'll talk a little bit about the bill itself, but, um, Fran referred [00:40:30] to the petition. Um, the petition, I think, had a face number of something like 600,000, 800,000. Sorry, 800,000 people on it. We'll see. It was, and it was frightening. And the Nuremberg rally is an understatement for what was happening out there. And the problem that we had was that many of our colleagues took the numbers that were being presented to them. Seriously. So [00:41:00] what? You know, we did what was logical. Uh, we went to the petition. We opened up the boxes. Uh, we ran through the sheets. I think we picked out something like one in 100. Uh, we looked for we looked for duplications, and we looked for obviously false names. And we did some electoral roll checking. And it was amazing how often Mickey Mouse had signed. And Karl Marx had some somehow come back somehow come back to [00:41:30] life. And there were there was lots and lots of handwriting on it That was off. Obviously from very little kids who would have had no idea. Uh, what what they were signing. And there was a lot of repetition as well. And and and, as I say, because it had the name and the address on, we went back and we checked the electoral role, and we knocked out about two thirds of the signatures. So what it showed was that there was just an enormous amount of of bullshit in [00:42:00] that, uh, and and and and behind it, um, I also did numbers, uh, on on the bill. and what I did. And it was completely un modern was that I had, um, list of members of Parliament and three felt pens and and, um, I sort of I sort of hate hate to say this green was a good colour. [00:42:30] Yeah, and and, um, blue was the colour for people on the other side. And yellow was the one sitting in the middle. And and we just had sheet after sheet after sheet because it wasn't just what was gonna happen right at the end. It was how we were going to get the bill through the parliament because there was not a majority in the parliament, a majority preference of the people who wanted to vote for [00:43:00] the bill to have the age of 16. We didn't have enough to get the numbers through. And what what happened in the end was there was a joint decision from people from who were very pro and very anti both to vote for 16. And the anti did it because they wanted the bill to be in its most radical form, that because they thought the only hope they had [00:43:30] of it failing would be if it went finally to the parliament at age 16. Um, sort of seems weird now that you know, we're talking about age equality, but it was a very real issue. And many of the people who finally voted for the bill actually preferred the age to be, uh, at 20 or at 16. So it was my job to to count the numbers up. We're expected to win by three. Um, on the night [00:44:00] of parliament at that stage of of 99 we actually won by five. Ian McLean, who was a very conservative national Party member who I don't think voted for any other part of the bill. He might vote at the beginning, but certainly through the bill hadn't voted for it. It is our understanding. It is my understanding because we were always told that we were going to get one extra by by Simon Upton. And it was almost like it was a proxy vote. Simon felt that he couldn't vote for the bill himself, but [00:44:30] he arranged for someone else to vote for it. And the vote, you know, the vote. The vote worked. There were also two, national party members, both of whom subs subsequently became knights, um, one of our realm and one personally from Her Majesty without identifying the two of them, both of whom had gay brothers but felt that they didn't or couldn't or were too scared to vote for [00:45:00] the bill, but they wouldn't have the bill fail. So what happened on the night, um, that the bill was finally going through was that those two men stood at the far end of the eyes lobby until we knew that we had enough votes to pass it and we could wave to them and they could go away. Uh, and they voted against it. Now, it's a sad situation to be in, but [00:45:30] for us, it was It was sort of like a little bit of insurance that was sitting there. Uh, that meant that the legislation could get through. Um, and I just I mean, I we polled in my electorate, it wasn't popular. Uh, about 2 to 1 against in the Hamilton West. The marginal electorate, uh, that I was in, um, it was a conservative provincial city, uh, and and, um, and people weren't very popular. And some of some of [00:46:00] the, uh, opposition was truly awful. Friends talked about what was out there. What I really hated was the bastards who would ring home and swear at my kids. You know, I had a daughter who at the time was four. In the end, we got the solution. The solution was a whistle. And when someone ran and said what was described to her as a naughty word, she blew the whistle in their ear. [00:46:30] And it was It was, you know, effective. But who would you know, who would ring and talk to a four year old like that? That But there are some other people with whom I disagree deeply, but I know, you know, and I know they were wrong, but I also know that they believed what believe their view. They weren't doing it for political, for [00:47:00] a political reason. It was a sometimes a religious view and sometimes a personal view. It was a long way away, uh, from my views, but they weren't Some of them weren't malicious. Um, one of those was, uh, Trevor Young, uh, in part of his seat, I now I now hold uh, Trevor. Trevor was like that. Never voted on the right side of any of it. He was constantly blue, uh, on my list, every [00:47:30] every vote. He he was on the wrong side of, um but what made it awful And that family, as it did in lots and lots of families, because families were split on this issue. Um, in in a way, which was awful was that his son Gavin was an activist. Throughout the campaign, he was one of the hardest workers [00:48:00] on the pro change side, and he did an enormous job. And he's the next speaker. I'll give you Gavin. Thanks. What I what I'd like to talk about is [00:48:30] a is a couple of things. Is is that what went before and also taking it to the to the enemy. Um, but before we do, I'd just like to say thank you. To Trevor and to and to Fran. What Fran didn't mention is it was a big personal toll on her. She got a lot of shit thrown at her from all sides, and and it was really hard for her to keep going during the campaign. And I remember remember you out here when the anti were delivering their petition, you were really beside [00:49:00] yourself. Um, and it did turn against them. But, you know, it was really hard going, and she she gave a lot personally, so we owe her a huge debt of thanks. The homosexual law reform bill that that we got through in uh, 1986 was a real milestone. And we've heard from from Fran and, um, Trevor [00:49:30] as to why that was, um it was a milestone for a lot of individuals, As Fran said, in terms of people coming out, uh, and that has mushroomed since. But it's it was the culmination of a lot of stuff that went before, and I'd just like to to mention a little bit of that, Uh, because I think it's quite important not to forget those people whose shoulders that we stood on and and that we're standing on today. So in the 19 sixties, [00:50:00] when the word gay, um, still meant, uh, pretty and bright and so on. Um, there was a group called the Homosexual Law Reform Society. Now they were a group of, um, prominent individuals. A number of them, and also, um, gay men. Um, but not necessarily really out. But they started the focus on law reform and they wanted the Crimes Act changed. And they they were the activists of the day. [00:50:30] And they took they they stood up and, you know, um fought for what was a really unpopular cause in those days. And people like Jack Goodwin, who was the secretary of the homosexual Law Reform Society, did an amazing job. He wrote so many letters, he he he lobbied. He wrote, um, submissions, and he spoke at a lot of events. And so he he he was the activist of the day. By the 19 seventies, [00:51:00] you you had a a different group of of younger people coming through and you had gay liberation. So you you had least means and gays beginning to come out, beginning to be visible and having a slightly different take on things. And so the the 19 seventies was very much about focus on our rights and that we wanted 16. So we heard mention of Ben Youngs film, which got introduced at an age [00:51:30] of consent of 21. Um, the Homosexual Law Reform Society and the gay groups made submissions for 16. I think it came back at 20 but it it failed to get through on a conscience vote in 1975. Now that was seen as a bit of a defeat. But for a lot of us, it wasn't because we saw it as we didn't get second class citizenship. We we didn't We didn't accept less than everybody else. And [00:52:00] it kept the pressure on the politicians to to have another go and do better, right? So we kept pushing for 16. And And in the late seventies, um, Labour MP and former Cabinet Minister Warren um agreed to introduce a bill, and he came and talked to us about it with the consent of 20. Now, we we had a lot of meetings around the country and a lot of debate about that. Some people felt we should accept it, you know, and and take what we could get. Um, but [00:52:30] a lot of us didn't. And so in the end that was withdrawn, he came back the next year in 1980 with age consent of 18. And again, we said, No, thank you. So that was sort of the background that led up to, um, Fran's bill. And Fran didn't argue about the age of consent. She went for 16, and we all got behind it. So it was It was, you know, absolutely worth setting out. What, what our goals were and sticking to those over the years. [00:53:00] Um, just on the edge of it in. And Trevor's just mentioned it that he was at the night before. A couple of days before the final vote, Fran invited all the the groups and people in committee state. Was it that there was a, um, could get it through at 18. So she she had a consultation with us so they could get it through at 18. And she said, What do you wanna do? [00:53:30] And we said, We want to go for 16. There was a risk. There is a risk that we could lose the whole thing. Um, but we we we said, stick with 16, And it it worked because it forced some of those people George Gear and others who we, we thought might get might be able to be pushed it It forced them to go that way. And so we got we got through it. 16. Um, now, just moving on to the activist side of things. Um, the the [00:54:00] group, the main group that was doing the lobbying, as France mentioned, was a group called the Gay Task Force. Now, that group was, um, very instrumental in getting the bill through, and it was led by Bill Logan. As as we've already mentioned. Um, the reason the reason that I'm speaking tonight is because Bill can't speak tonight now. Um, [00:54:30] yeah. No, um, so I'd just like to acknowledge the work that Bill did, which was absolutely fantastic, uh, and very wide ranging and and not only supporting what Fran was doing, but doing a lot of the activist stuff that we were doing as well. Now, what surprised us [00:55:00] at the early stages of the of the, um, campaign is that the opposition, the anti, as we called them, got themselves very well organised. And so they got that awful petition going. And the Salvation Army, who we all thought were nice people that did nice things for people. They took it upon themselves to take this awful petition around door to door to schools, to workplaces, to pubs, to everywhere. And and so there was a lot of opposition suddenly happened. [00:55:30] They were also running rallies, uh, quite big rallies in the town hall and other places, and so they had a momentum that we kind of didn't on the on the other side. So there's a group of us Alison, Laurie, Linda, Reins, Tiggy and Stone. And a number of us got together, and we we, uh we thought that what we needed was a It was slightly different group than the task force. And we called ourselves the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, and we we we [00:56:00] were focused on doing activist stuff, and basically taking it to the enemy, um, was was what we were trying to do. One of the one of the early things that we did. Um, well, actually, can I just go back to a little stage? What? The effect was of this petition and everything going around? It was really having a toll on our people that it was emboldening, um, people to abuse, Um, the LBG community, you know, and there were a lot of incidents incidents [00:56:30] in workplaces where, you know, people were getting a lot of flack from their their coworkers, and so we we sort of saw if we can get those people involved. It makes it makes everybody feel a lot better. But also, we can achieve a bit. So we took the fight to opponents. The first thing we did, one of the early things we did was organise a march. Now there was a lot of risk around that because because, um, there was a feeling that, uh, it could have been attacked by the, uh, opponents. [00:57:00] And Fran, in fact, rang me a couple of days before and said Could we called it off. We thought about that, and we thought we couldn't, um And so we went ahead and and and did the march with very, very well marshalled. And we had, um, helium filled balloons. So it was a carnival type atmosphere. Um, and fortunately, we didn't get attacked, and it was successful, and it was a turning point in the in the in the fight back campaign. Um, there were a number of other things we did. And I, I I've been told I've got to shut up [00:57:30] shortly. Um, but the number of other things we did is we took it to the Salvation Army. They weren't all united internally. And we picketed their their Sunday service at Citadel in in Vivian Street. And my parents were horrified by the way. And, um, and we and we visited their their their head office in Cuba Street, and we asked for our donations back because they used to do street appeal. So we went and asked for our donations back, and and so they started to realise that actually, [00:58:00] it was going to affect them big time. Now there are a number of other things that that that we also did about I won't won't go into all of those now. I just mentioned that there were some. It wasn't just the activists. There were a number of individual things that that Fran has also mentioned that people did to fight back. And what I heard last night when I was having some drinks with some friends is that I had a couple of friends who were taxi drivers, and one went to pick up a fear at the People's Palace Hotel, which was run by the Salvation Army in Cuba Street. And [00:58:30] he went into the lobby to find the the customer. And on the counter was the petition. Well, when he left the petition wasn't there anymore. So I don't know if the Pete's here tonight, but good on you, Pete. That was really good. So we had a lot of fun. Um, but I think we also achieved with the task force a lot. Uh, and with Fran and her team, um, we all worked together to make the bill a success and got it through. So thank you very much. [00:59:00] And if you ripped up the petition, if you ripped up the petition, ripped up the petition back your head, and with that, the next person that I have to introduce, not clap my hand because what you have just said is not [00:59:30] factually correct. Exactly. Um alright. Thank you. Thank you. Ok, thank you. Um, I just introduced the next person who is Alison. Laurie. Alison, listen, I'll introduce you. I'll introduce you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, [01:00:00] it is very uncustomary for a drag queen to be seen in her costume before her show. I've come out here to remind you that this is a celebration and we are adults. This is not a public forum for debate. Thank you so much. [01:00:30] All right, just very quickly. An introduction of of of, um Linda. Uh, sorry. Alison. Alison, Alison. I've known for many, many years. She's an activist. Goes back right to the sixties. She has worked in Norway and was involved in the in the movement there. She's bought she [01:01:00] Norway, Denmark, um, and and, um, she's She has brought a lot of that knowledge from Europe to the campaign that we ran here. And so she was, uh, an absolute, um, not only an icon, but a a great source of of help to us. Thank you, Juna. [01:01:30] Yeah, so I'm speaking, but I'm speaking about lesbian involvement, uh, in respect to homosexual law reform. And so I'd like to start a lot earlier, back prior to [01:02:00] coming to our country and my maori ancestors because I'm at the cusp of both races, as so many of us are, uh, my Maori ancestors. Uh, the women could live as, uh, there were plenty of rights for women. Women could own land. Women could do all [01:02:30] kinds of things. When the English team, many things changed and the English in the light 18th century had passed laws that said that women were the property of men and that a woman had no identity. Uh, she was, in fact, the property of her husband, firstly, her father, then her husband and then if he [01:03:00] died, her son brothers. So she really had no identity. So for us as women, the law has always been paramount and very important because it's only the law that has enabled us to achieve any kind of equality or recognition within society. So as women, we've always been very interested [01:03:30] in the law. And in New Zealand, both Maori and Pakeha women were very active in achieving the first in the world the right to vote. In 18 93. We were the first in the world. But prior to that, we did achieve in 18 85 the Married Women's Married Women's Property Act, which gave us the right to be an individual. And without that you couldn't vote [01:04:00] because if you're not a person, how could you vote so as women and as lesbians? We have always been very aware that it's the law, and here we stand in the House of Parliament. It's the law that gives us rights whatever else we may think in the final instance. It is the law. It is the parliament. It it is our members of Parliament that [01:04:30] that can achieve the kind of equality that enables us to live full and equal lives. So, yes, we stand on the shoulders of those who went before, and I will mention some people that perhaps we haven't thought about Mary Taylor. Mary Taylor started the business that eventually became James [01:05:00] Smith's. She was a lover of Charlotte Bronte. Mary Taylor left. She lived here in the 19th century. She went back to London, and she wrote very important books, particularly about the first duty of women. The first duty of woman is to earn her own living to be independent of men. And that's [01:05:30] hugely important because you can't have any lesbians unless women can be economically independent. So all these things link in together, so we shouldn't forget any of that, either. Those women who went before us, who fought hard for those legal reforms to enable us to have a legal existence who have the right to vote [01:06:00] later to have the right to be in Parliament, it actually came a lot later than the right to vote. Um And so it went on the laws against sodomy. How did that affect women? Well, because any law that makes any sort of homosexuality criminal will eventually affect not only men but women. [01:06:30] There were a attempts in Britain which we followed to make sex between women illegal. I don't believe the bullshit that Queen Victoria didn't believe in it. It's rubbish. She knew all about that. Uh, that wasn't a problem. The real attempt comes in 1923 when they when the House of Commons passed it to [01:07:00] make sex with women illegal and it was defeated in the House of Lords Not because they thought that there was anything wrong with that but because, as Lord dear said, to make a law about it would bring it to the attention of women who had never thought of it and never dreamed of it. And that would be a grave mischief. So in New Zealand, we took on [01:07:30] the laws against so so male the not being gay. But the male act of sex was illegal and could be punished for seven years. And we lost so many men to that we lost men who left and went overseas because they couldn't be here. So they talk about a brain drain. And we also lost men who went to prison. [01:08:00] And that was terrible. And so, finally, through many attempts, some of which Gavin has talked about, we came to the point where we finally had a chance to change that law and lesbians were involved in that. Because for us, any kind of criminal, any kind of homosexuality which is criminal, will eventually lead to all kinds of homosexuality [01:08:30] being criminal. So it is not in the interests of lesbians to just say, Oh, well, that's only for men. It was very important. That's why we were involved in the bill in both parts of the bill, not only in the second part of the bill, which was the human rights part we were involved in really agitating and fighting for that reform. We The first part of the bill was one. We were very lucky to lose the second part of the bill because all the exemptions would have meant it was [01:09:00] illegal to discriminate, you know, against teachers against build the military and all kinds of things. So it was best to lose that part And that came again in 1993 and was won by Catherine O'Regan. Uh, so we have legislative success, and we will continue to do that. And my message is that is, through the law, that we achieve equality. It is so [01:09:30] important to recognise that we live in a democracy. We are fortunate. We have a parliamentary system and we must use it. And I will conclude by saying that we must never silence anybody. We must not silence people. We must not know platform people. That is anti democracy. We must let all the voices be heard. [01:10:00] Yes, and now I want to introduce Des Smith. Oh, no, no, no. Sorry. I forgot that. No. Now I want to introduce Michel Jena and Michelle was one of the activists in homosexual law reform. And she was a partner of Pauline [01:10:30] Simmons, who was a tremendously important campaigner for all our rights for many years and who, unfortunately died a couple of years ago. I feel immensely proud to be here with all of you today. I [01:11:00] It's wonderful to see old friends and comrades from many years ago. Um, like Alison, I also want to talk about lesbian involvement in the homosexual law reform campaign. And in the human rights amendment, the times are very different back then, Um, as many of you who are older than I will remember, I was about 21 during the homosexual law reform campaign. Um, [01:11:30] and as people have alluded to previously, um, it was a bit of a scary time. I remember the presentation of the petition on the steps of Parliament. I remember seeing those young people in their uniforms with their sashes in their first race at singing the national anthem. And it was shocking. Um, at the time that the petition the petition was being at the time that the petition was being taken around, I worked [01:12:00] for the housing corporation. Um, the petition arrived in my workplace, and people were lined up by the supervisors and expected to sign it. A number of us refused. Um, not just the gay men and lesbians, but also a lot of our straight colleagues refused. Thank goodness. Um, but these it made [01:12:30] our lives very, very difficult. At the time, I was centred many times for wearing trousers to work. I was told that I must make my appearance more feminine to fit in. That prompted me to join the union. My life at that time was divided between Wellington and Christchurch. [01:13:00] Um, it started off down in Christchurch during 1985 and I joined a group supporting the homosexual law reform campaign. At the time down in Christchurch, a lot of evangelists were being invited over from the United States to speak in churches and community halls about the evils of homosexuality. I remember attending one of those meetings, and there was quite a large police presence. We stood at the back of the hall peacefully with placards supporting [01:13:30] homosexual law reform and said very little during this entire travesty. I was a friend of mine was standing next to me and got barged by an elderly man who had his elderly wife next to him. She said, Excuse me to try and get past him. He turned around and he punched her in the face and knocked her to the ground, and a policeman was standing there and said, I saw nothing. That's [01:14:00] what it was like. I remember in Christchurch at the time, as a young lesbian socialising in rough pubs because those were the only meeting places we had and taking beatings in the car park. That was the reality for a lot of us lesbians and gay men. So we had to stand up and we had to fight for equality. And we have. [01:14:30] Many of us were evicted from our flats. Many of us were thrown out of our homes. I was made to leave home when I was 16 years old. That's not uncommon. Um, so that's why this has been so important. It's changed people's lives. [01:15:00] I came back to Wellington just to see, um, things were heating up with the with the petition being presented at Parliament and all that kind of stuff. And, um, it was at that time that I first met. Although I didn't connect with, uh, my life partner, Pauline Simmons, who I was with for 28 years. We [01:15:30] danced together at the celebration, Um, but also what I want to talk about are the diverse groups in our community. At the time, we were all so different. There was no homogenous gay and lesbian community. As such, we were we were a range of diverse groups, and we all had our own opinions, our own values. We all had our own ideas and we didn't always agree with each other. [01:16:00] Sometimes we really disagree with each other, and sometimes the meetings could become heated. They were always passionate. They were always with the right intentions. But sometimes there were disagreements. But we worked through those disagreements. We we spoke to each other about the ideas. We didn't target individuals. We treated up our opponents at times within [01:16:30] our own community. With respect, many of you will remember some of those debates. I remember having discussions with Alison and Pauline, Bill Logan and Phil Parkinson. Many of us are now all comrades and friends. Those film Logan and Linda were celebrants at my partner's funeral. [01:17:00] That's how close we became. Over that time. We learned to respect each other, though our views often differed and we got together to change things, and we learned to tolerate differences and we moved forward and and with the help of many of our parliamentarians, with whom we couldn't have, without whom we couldn't have achieved this, [01:17:30] we now live in a much different world. But I do still have some concerns. The fight isn't over at any political whim. The rights that we take for granted today can be taken away. I think we need to be realistic about that. Look at the American elections at the moment. Um, there are still issues facing our community, although people may have legal protection, Do we truly have equality? There are still issues [01:18:00] of poverty, and, uh, she's holding back many members of our community that we need to address. But what I would like to see as we move forward into the future is the continuation of those alliances of being able to work together, even though we don't agree on everything to find a common ground and not expect everybody to be the same, because I don't think that's realistic. I think we can work with each other, [01:18:30] and I think we can work positively and achieve great things while respecting other people's differences. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge Bill Logan, who hasn't been allowed to speak tonight. Bill, I'm sorry that this has happened. I don't think it's right. I don't think [01:19:00] that people that fought as hard as Bill should be no platform tonight. So thank you for your time. Just a I have an old newspaper from from 1993 when the Human Rights Amendment went through. [01:19:30] This really sees a lot of what I've said here tonight, so thank you. All should. And now I am introducing Des Smith and dear was the founder of heterosexuals unafraid of gays. [01:20:00] And and that was very important, uh, to create an organisation which allowed heterosexuals to support the bill. There were There was also a coalition, uh, in support of the bill. But that was an organisation. But I must say that in fact, uh, among us lesbians and gays, we were inclined to call [01:20:30] it hag homosexuals, afraid of gays. And he did come out OK, that's enough. Uh, one of the things that we did learn during that campaign I've got many, many tales to tell. And of course it was hard work. And I do remember running around like a cat in and out of the office [01:21:00] coming in here today. All that security. We didn't have it. Then I could run up to Wild's office. I could use all the copying machines. I don't know how many papers I copied, distributed even around New Zealand, and this is all on taxpayers' money. Anyway, in running around, I met Johnny Cross Street. Now Johnny was a wonderful I've got a photo here. I know you can't [01:21:30] alter it. Johnny was really a neat gay guy. He didn't call himself transsexual. He didn't call himself transverse guy. He just was a gay guy hopping around in wonderful drag. I mean, here's a photo of his wonderful plume. Now, Johnny, I said to him, This is all hard work, you know, getting this bill going through. He said, I'm not political. Johnny was political [01:22:00] because right at school days primary school, Johnny was Johnny. And that visibility is something we learned during homosexual law reform, the importance of being visible. And this is so important. I at our age Mark John and my wonderful partner, John and myself, we recently have met quite a number of closet gays. I like to think young people because [01:22:30] of Fran, the bill and people like Bill Ogan, Alison Laurie, Trevor Mallard, Gavin Young. All these people have made it easier for younger people. And there were moments when we wasn't all work. It was quite amusing because the infamous petition backed by the Salvation Army. They had a free post box number. Great. My brother had a shot. He threw out a lot of cards. [01:23:00] Deepest sympathy. Happy birthday. We wrote the free post box number on all those post them off to them. And they said, Oh, this isn't enough. We'll wrap up bricks. So we wrapped up bricks and we posted them. Next thing they closed down the preview post box number. So we did all that. And another person I like to acknowledge it wasn't all hard work by gays. I was phoned by a 16 year old woman [01:23:30] at or young girl at, uh on college. Uh, that was Emily Perkins, well known now as a writer. The reason she supported homosexual law reform because she had parents who really thought they had gay friends. And although she's not gay herself, But we went around and we put posters that are copied on those machines hold all over Wellington. Great. But then we had this fundamentalist Christian guy [01:24:00] coming around following us with a paint scraper scraping our posters off. So we followed him every time he took one poster down. We put five more up, but then a way to frustrate fundamentalist Christians. I turned up one day with my van and we had a step ladder. So what we did was Emily would pass me out the bucket of glue so he put them up so high, and then this guy would come along on his pay would go. So anyway, those things were [01:24:30] a little bit lighter moments, but I don't know how many times the police took my name, but I didn't get in trouble. Uh, well, I don't think I did. I've probably got my name still, um, so one of the other things, Of course. As people will know I did. I did start with James Hislop and Pauline Simmons, the gay lesbian fear, which is still going. [01:25:00] So the first year we did it together after that, of course, I did it on my own for nine years. But in 1987 I did meet a wonderful man. And everybody here probably is aware of John. And so with John over there, we have had now as close on 30 years of a wonderful time together and [01:25:30] many, many moments. And I do want to acknowledge also at this time, Bill Logan again now, Bill. Bill. He not only was great strategy, but he saved people. And I was one because I did get, uh, a big boulder put through my van window. I got abused, I got stones chucked at our house. I got, uh we did a, uh I had a stall in upper, uh, lower [01:26:00] hut. We got spat on by so-called Christians, and we also had our store tipped over. Life was tough. Bill saved me. He put me on to, uh, Neil Thornton. Good counselling. And so I just want you all to give a big clap for bill. Anyway, I [01:26:30] think I'll wind up there. Uh, you've probably heard enough, but I'll tell you what. There's 100 tales, but I am doing another tour at the lander on Thursday at 10. 30. So those who have time come along, no matter what the weather, you'll have a good time. I've got some funny tales to tell. Ok, thank you.
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