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I'm Bob Davis, and I'm from And, um, I haven't been in a in any gay activity in Wellington for the last 30 odd years, and I'm very interested to see how things have changed from the 19 seventies and the 19 eighties. And I think there's been a great change, and I'm glad to see it. A change for the better I had. So what kind of activities were you involved in back in the seventies and eighties? Uh, I was involved. I'm one of the survivors from Gay Liberation [00:00:30] and I organised in Auckland for the, uh, for the A social club There in, uh, 1977 76 and 77. And, um, I was instrumental in setting up the, uh along with Robin Duff and setting up the, um National Gay Rights Coalition. And in 1977 and ever since I came out in 1974 I've been an activist for men to men and or now and for all [00:01:00] alternative sexualities, which is now known as Rainbow A Rainbow People. And, um and, uh, I'm very interested to see how and very pleased to see how things have changed so greatly from the anger of gay liberation and those all those things that happened way back in the 19 seventies, especially seeing now that political power is not being homophobia is not being used as a political power, as Muldoon used it to destroy [00:01:30] mul, uh, to destroy Moyle and O'Brien in the 19 seventies. So things have come a long way from the use of homophobia as a political weapon to what we have today. So how did you get involved in, um, I came out in Spain in 1974. And, um, I was with my American partner. And while I've been active in the, um in the anti war movement, the anti [00:02:00] nuclear movement and the anti apartheid movement in my university days, it kind of I kind of scrawled into gay liberation activities quite nicely because, um, 19 seventies, as people may or may not remember, it was a time of great ferment and turmoil. And, um and there were, uh, there was a a good, uh, correlation and good relationships between all of those movements and the gay [00:02:30] liberation movement. So they had all had a common cause And that, uh, a common, um, a common not cause a common background, which was, um, the, uh, challenging, patriarchal and repressive state power, basically, and very conservative social values that existed in New Zealand at that time. Yeah. So can you describe some of the activities that were happening in the mid eighties around law reform? Um, the law reform is I can't speak [00:03:00] anything about that period because I left New Zealand in 1982 before the law reform activities got underway. But I can assure you that from 19. The early 19 seventies, until their law reform in 1986 there was a great deal of work that was done by gay liberation and feminists and also, uh, non non queer people, non rainbow people [00:03:30] who were very supportive. So, Fran, we came very lately. Came very late to the, uh to the, uh to her credit. She picked it up, but she came. She was building on a on a base that had been in place for a good 10 years prior to her arrival. So it's That's, um and I think that, uh I think that, um we need to remember that, uh, that, um that that was part of the history. If, [00:04:00] uh if the rainbow what's become the rainbow movement, we need to remember that. And unfortunately, with, um, the critical edge in terms of in terms of seeing, um, Rainbow, Rainbow sexualities and genders as an alternative way of living is kind of been lost, which was the focus in the because the early gay liberation movement was very much a challenge to the capitalist and the patriarchal [00:04:30] society that we had then. Anyway, I think I've said enough coming to today and now I mean, did you ever think you would be seeing this kind of, um, visibility? And that's a pretty good question. Um, I'm really thrilled to see the number of people that are now involved in the diversity of people that are now involved. We had a function last night at the end of the international meeting [00:05:00] that the ELGER had here in Wellington, and I didn't get the opportunity to get up and stand up and say that when I first began acting be lucky if you got 10 10 people room, you know, to organise something, And now, looking at the conference there yesterday and looking at the crowd here today, you can see that the seeds that were sown in the early seventies in the early seventies have mushroomed [00:05:30] to a real forest, which is really pleasing to see because what it says that New Zealanders are becoming much more comfortable with diversity and much more comfortable with expressing who they are. And at the conference yesterday, there was a real welcome development in terms of reaching out and having international solidarity as an aspect of the rainbow movement, which hasn't existed for a long time, [00:06:00] hasn't existed in prior times except in the early days of gay liberation, when there was a great influence from America and a lot of the thinking that went on and gay liberation came out of the stone wall and all of those kind of things. And, um, it's great to see the change that's taken place. It's a really positive and a really welcome development. And I'm so pleased to see it happening. And just finally, um, so we're 30 years since law reform. [00:06:30] What do you think is gonna happen in another 30 years? Time? What? What are we going to look like? Well, who's got a crystal ball? I mean to say If you had told me 30 years ago that you would be having a rainbow parade like this, I would have been somewhat surprised because in those days things were you know, things were very, very different. In 30 years time, I hope to see that that, uh, that all of the various communities that make up the rainbow, [00:07:00] the rainbow movement have have continued to work and to to to protect. And, um, protect is not the right word, but to encourage people of alternative sexualities to express themselves and have pride in who they are and have, um, and and feel safe about their about their sexuality and their gender. And And I hope that we don't that we don't get a fascist [00:07:30] backlash or some kind of regime in place in New Zealand that actually tries to strip away a lot of the positive changes that have taken place. I mean to say in America, Trump represents a real raw expression of American frustration, and I'm old enough to remember that Muldoon and his ilk were able to capture the [00:08:00] their anger and the frustration of a lot of New Zealanders in the 19 seventies and used race as well as homophobia, with the raids on the Islanders, our homes to send them back to their home country. And it is a very fine line between governments that are progressive and supportive and positive and those that try to strip away rights, and I hope that we never return to that situation. But given the institutional structures that exist in political leadership, it's [00:08:30] always a possibility, no matter how subtle that change may be.
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