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Hi. I'm Peter. And I'm at the, uh, out in the park. 30th anniversary. Uh, and, um, it's been great. I really enjoyed it. And it was so nice to have a nice, happy march here compared to what we did 30 years ago. Yeah. What was it like 30 years ago? Oh, it was a bit horrifying. Going up Queen Street in Auckland. We used to live [00:00:30] in Auckland. Um, a lot of, you know, odd looks we got from the so called straight community. Um, much better now, of course. Um but you did feel the intimidation back then. Um, no, I love it. I just love it. What I see here today, yes. What's the thing that stands out for you the most? Um just all the people, the acceptance. And, [00:01:00] um, I think it's just fabulous nowadays. Yeah, no, just good. Um, years ago, when we lived in Auckland, we were harassed in our own home and, uh, you know, things thrown at us, and it was just shocking. But, um um, you carry on Peter. What was I mean, Was that due to, um, law reforming, you know, Or was it prior to law reform? it was prior to law reform. [00:01:30] So you couldn't really do anything because you were doing something illegal. Basically, although the I think the police were pretty understanding anyway. But we, um, had to get over that, I think, um, when I was thinking back 30 years ago walking, marching in Queen Street, there was a lot of, uh, hostile abuse, but nothing as bad as what we experienced [00:02:00] at Parliament when the civil Union bill was going through and we had to face up the Destiny Church there, which was very loud and awful. So it's really nice to be here and feel free and see all the young people who are never going to have to go through what we went through and their happy faces. Yes, it's It's amazing to think about that for a lot of people under 30. Um, it it's very hard to kind [00:02:30] of comprehend what it what What? That was like. Yes. Yes, I will agree. Um, when I came out at the age of 12, it was in about 1967 I suppose, um, very hard at school. Difficult. All through those years, I was, um I was uncoordinated. Very bad at coordination and a bit fairy like, if you know what I mean. So I was [00:03:00] teased a lot at school, and I finally left school at 16 because I was harassed so much. So, um, from then on, I went into a sort of a 17 year, which ended, Um, And then in 1980 I met Peter, and we've been together ever since. And we both had a civil union, Uh, seven years ago. Um, and we're great. We're great. [00:03:30] We wondered if if we should get actually married, so to speak, but, um, we think perhaps not civil unions. Just as good, I think I don't think we're going to adopt kids or anything. Children, I should say. Not kids. No, just pets. How many pets have you got? Uh, just the one cat who was a, uh, a abandoned, abused cat. So she took a while [00:04:00] to decide she would accept us, but she definitely wanted to live on the property. So first thing she do is jump on his knee, and she's been there ever since. That's very sweet. What What's her name? A little girl. We We didn't know whether she had another name. So we were just calling her the little girl and she got used to it. So she's a little girl, so that's our our child. But over the years I think we've been [00:04:30] We entered a lot of younger people coming through, and, um, I guess the some still experience some of the things that we did. It's not totally clear of the woods yet for that sort of thing. It's still bashing and things that goes on, but by and large, it's much safer for gay people than it was before. What do you think some of the issues are nowadays facing kind of rainbow communities? Uh, I think there's [00:05:00] a lot of still a lot of bigotry, and, um uh, people who have fears about themselves and sort of use bullying other people who are scared will try and intimidate others and do things, And I think those people sort of have to be reached out to and be comfortable who they are. I think it probably takes generations and generations for it to really clear up. [00:05:30] But what happened in the last 30 years is good and, you know, maybe in the next 10 or 20 years, it will be totally good. And I want to ask you in 30 years time, What would be your kind of ideal world? What? What? Just to be together? I'm happy to by the pool and the rest home. Why wait to the rest home with some nice gay nurses to look after us? I. I imagine that must be quite I mean, that that is an issue, [00:06:00] isn't it kind of ageing as that would happen? I had my mother in a rest home and I thought, God, there's no way I would be there. If it's like this, if you're a little bit different or anything, it would be awful. So I suppose things will change in that way, and they'll be, you know, good places for elder gays to go. Uh, and I'm sure, uh, gay community [00:06:30] people are very supportive of their own, so that would be good. But I wouldn't have liked to have been a resident, a gay resident, and the rest time my mom was there, So yeah, that's the next big thing because there's a lot of us ageing gay people and very, you know, in the next 10 or 20 years, we will be headed in that direction, so we need a safe environment and one where we can be [00:07:00] happy and accepted and be ourselves.
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