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Kia ora tātou, ko Shawmi tōku ingoa. Um, it is my great honor and privilege to be able to introduce Vernon Tile Vamaua, um, to our branch meeting tonight. Um, a veteran of the gay liberation movement and also a member of the Of the Socialist Action League, one of the, uh, most formidable Trotskyist organizations, uh, these islands had seen in the, uh, 70s and 80s, um, [00:00:30] so he brings with us a wealth of, uh, with him a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of experience of all the various, uh, struggles of those times, um, you know, just thinking about the 70s, it makes me think of the huge anti Vietnam War, uh, Uh, movements, uh, the movement against, uh, the wom for women's rights, um, for abortion rights, all of these things that, uh, Socialist Action League, um, were involved in. But for tonight in particular, [00:01:00] uh, we, uh, uh, invited, uh, Vernon tonight, uh, to talk about his experience in, uh, the Gay Liberation Front. Um, which he joined, uh, right here. And I think it's quite poignant that, um, we are talking on the campus where, uh, Vernon was active in the 70s, uh, building Socialist Action League, building, uh, the fight for, uh, gay liberation, um, right here on this campus. So, um, it is my great pleasure, um, to invite you to the [00:01:30] podium to speak. Thank you, Vernon. Uh, kia ora tatou. Uh, thanks very much for uh, Invited me to speak to you tonight. So, cordially and comradely, I'd like to thank you, the International Socialist Organization, for inviting me to speak to you this evening. It was 50 years ago, in 1972, that A number of extremely courageous and heroic forward thinking, [00:02:00] and definitely ahead of their time, members of the New Zealand Aotearoa queer community joined together to actively and very publicly fight the fight for political and social changes for the most despised community in New Zealand. This collection of queer individuals began the fight for the absolute removal of all discrimination against the queer community, the fight for absolute equality for the queer community, [00:02:30] but also within the context of queer community history, society, and culture for the sexual and personal freedoms of the queer community. At the same time, these brave individuals from the queer community were fully aware that this public and open political and social activism for the most despised community in this country could, and in some cases [00:03:00] would, come at great personal and social risk to their lives. So this year of 2022 is the 50th anniversary of the founding of Gay Liberation Front in New Zealand. back in 1972, firstly in Auckland on the 21st of March 1972, and then followed by Christchurch in May 1972, and later on in Wellington on the 16th of July, not too far away from the state tonight, in 1972.[00:03:30] So firstly there are some acknowledgments that I would like to make at the very start of my talk. Uh, this venue, as Shomi said, Victoria University, 50 years ago, and for me personally, 48 years ago, was a venue for the queer community in Wellington. First of all, for the establishment of Gay Liberation Front, who used these premises quite extensively, and for me personally, 48 years ago, was when I first met my first gay men, [00:04:00] and then I got trapped into Gay Liberation Front and other social activities. Uh, I'm going to tend to use the word gay community because that was the term that was used by us at the time. And from my reading of American history, it was a term that was used right from the start of the 20th century for our community. I will use New Zealand Aotearoa alternatively as I go through my talk [00:04:30] with you tonight. Uh, the first real acknowledgement is to the International Socialist Organisation. It's just that as humanity moves towards this unfolding crisis of capitalism across the world, it is significant that New Zealand has Marxist organisations like the International Socialist Organisation. And you as an organisation do have the potential to be working class vanguards to chart a possibly [00:05:00] revolutionary course where working people put an end to the economic and social ills that are bred by capitalism. It may not necessarily be in New Zealand, but you will do your bit in New Zealand for what could happen elsewhere in the world. Your organisation, Members of Citizens of the World, follow Marxist dialectic. The Marxist materialist dialectics, that is through understanding history, you recognize that it is the material conditions of life that shape your ideas. And [00:05:30] that I think is true for everybody, every individual, if you actually stop and do that work of knowing your history to think about where you play your role in it and where you go from there. As an organization, I'm also sure that you follow the Leninist principle of democratic social democratic centralism That you've got free and open debate within the party Until a vote is taken and then the decision of the majority is accepted and that decision becomes the current party line and is binding on [00:06:00] all members Certainly with the deformed and corrupt Marxist current of Stalinism and the bureaucratic concept of socialism in one country, hopefully being consigned to the dustbin of history, these are indeed exciting times and opportunities for working people globally and internationally for Marxists like us. I would also like to acknowledge the brilliant work that's been done by Brent Coots on Gay community history in New Zealand. [00:06:30] He is the only person who has taken on the challenge of researching and fully covering 1972 and the establishment of Gay Liberation Front in New Zealand. Brent has done an excellent and superb job with the book that he wrote, 1972, A Year in Focus, which he launched in April 2022 in Auckland. His book has been my reference for what happened in relation to Gay Liberation Front in 1972. Brent [00:07:00] has meticulous Detail for the facts and the available written records for that time. And so his book about 1972 displays considerable care and sensitivity to relaying the information to the reader without identity politics or a, or a personal agenda in his own account. of the crucial year of 1972 in the queer community history of [00:07:30] New Zealand. So I'd just like to acknowledge the work that he's done in terms of at least bringing 1972 in a format that can be accessed by anybody, including the gay community. Even though I'm about to definitely generalise It does come from a historical analysis. There seems to be two approaches that have been taken globally to remove political, social and economic discrimination [00:08:00] against the queer community. One approach is the formation of sympathetic groups, which include well intentioned individuals, to then change laws through conventional MP lobbying. Sometimes the law change may not even gain equality, but the perspective is any change is better than no change at all. That's the reformist approach. In 1972 in New Zealand, that was the stance of the New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform [00:08:30] Society. And that society did have its initial beginnings as the law reform subgroup of the Dorian Society, which was a Wellington social club set up by gay men in 1962. They held a public meeting in Wellington in April of 1967, which got about 150 people to it. It was initially named The Wolfenden Association, but fairly quickly, it became the New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform Society. So that [00:09:00] organisation was around in 1972, and I take the view that their approach was very much, very much a reformist approach. The other approach is to raise the consciousness of your community, mobilize your community, be very public about your demands, visibly challenge society as it exists, and then push not only for law change, but for a change in society. The revolutionary approach. So in 1972 in New [00:09:30] Zealand, that was the approach of the gay liberation groups that were set up in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. It's worthwhile to consider the history of gay community activism in the States, because Gay Liberation Front and similar groupings in the US after June 1969 were the inspiration for the Gay Liberation Front in New Zealand itself. There [00:10:00] had been a slow growing move in the United States by various queer community groups and queer individuals to not only support the queer community, but to remove the discrimination the queer community faced. Just looking at those three key United States gay organizations before Gay Liberation Front in the U. S. appeared. When you look at the purposes of all those three organizations. You [00:10:30] realize that there are three clear historical aspects to those organizations. The first one that's very clear from the 1924 organization, and also the Mattachine Society in 1951, is that queer community activists knew their community's culture, identity, and even more remarkably, For those early times, certainly 1924, they knew their [00:11:00] history on a global basis and what needed to be done for the queer community in the United States. where these groups were set up. So they knew about what was happening in Germany. They also knew about Magnus Hirschfeld Scientific Humanitarian Committee. All of that flowed through to form that first organization, the Society for Human Rights. That was the first historical aspect that I picked up reading through about these three organizations. The second aspect that I picked up [00:11:30] was that well before Stonewall, A broad cross section of the queer community across racial divides, and I stress that across racial divides in the US, took advantage of their space from the 1920s through to the late 1940s on the margins of American society to throw themselves into leftist and working people's campaigns. That came, that's come through very clearly in all the reading that I've done over that period of American history from 1920s through to the late [00:12:00] 1940s. And obviously, the third historical aspect that had a major bearing on the last group that you see up there, the Mattachine Society of Washington, lessons were learnt from the queer community involvement in the American Civil Rights Movement. A lot of gay Jewish men and women travelled to the southern states of the United States to take part in the sit ins, and learnt from the Civil Rights [00:12:30] Movement what they were doing. to then use later in the Madison Society of Washington, especially people like Jack Nichols and Craig Rodwell. So the conventional wisdom is that the U. S. Gay Liberation Front learned from the American Civil Rights Movement and the Feminist Movement, as well as being inspired by the Vietnam War protests. Hence the name, Gay Liberation Front, which was an allusion to the [00:13:00] Vietnamese. National Liberation Front, or more commonly known as the Viet Cong. But it could also have harked back to 1954, where the Algerian independence movement was also called the Algerian National Liberation Front. So that's the conventional wisdom in terms of what motivated the US Gay Liberation Front movement. But the Gay Liberation Front movement from 1969 was [00:13:30] Also, not only based on the consequences of the Stonewall Inn riots, but also on a foundation of previous queer community organisations fighting for changes in the law and society that discriminated against the queer community. However, what made the Gay Liberation Front quite different to the three organisations that you see on the See on the whiteboard, was that Gay Liberation Front had a broad political platform. [00:14:00] Denouncing racism, declaring support for various third world struggles, and also groups like the Black Panther Party. They also took on a quite clear anti capitalist stance and attacked the nuclear family and also traditional gender roles. So when you look at what was happening in New Zealand, Those were the things that were happening in New Zealand in 1972. [00:14:30] So there was quite a range of things going on, and the formation of Gay Liberation Front in New Zealand in 1972 did not seem out of kilter with what was going on then. And that's even from my memory as a 17 year old in New Zealand that all these things are happening and Gay Liberation Front was just one of many protests and challenges to the society that we had at that stage [00:15:00] or to government actions that were in place. So these queer Gay Liberation Front activists in New Zealand in 1972 did not arise from nowhere. Many were obviously inspired by international events, such as the U. S. Civil Rights Movement, the anti colonial struggles in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, the anti apartheid campaigns of the African National [00:15:30] Congress, the rise of feminism and equal rights for women, plus obviously Stonewall. So, Those were the inspirations, but also, quite a few of the people that did get involved in Gay Liberation Front in 1972 were also involved in New Zealand political struggles and activities. And that helped forge their political awareness and intellectual understanding of what needed to be [00:16:00] done and why they were brave enough, possibly, to be part of Gay Liberation Front and to do the things that they were willing to do in 1972. So this is just a brief rundown of the initial activities by the Gay Liberation Front in New Zealand, in Auckland. So that's what you're seeing there, the timeline of activities right from Ngahuia [00:16:30] Te Awatukotukus. Speech at Auckland University about homosexuality and calling for the setting up of a Gay Liberation Front. So you can see from that 15th of March action that she took, that quite a bit got organised and put in place in the intervening three or four weeks. So, The people who were involved were a small group, they certainly were very active and it probably explains why later in [00:17:00] 1972 a lot of these people were tired, were tired out fairly quickly. So it was only a small group of six people that met in Parnell on the 1972, and that was a Saturday, so they gave up their Saturday to write the first New Zealand version of the Gay Liberation Front Manifesto. The basis for it was the London Gay Liberation Manifesto, which you see on the right hand side of the slide. There was a meeting the very next day on the [00:17:30] Sunday. There was an all up meeting of everybody that wanted to come along. That meeting discussed and ratified the manifesto. Uh, what I've done here is to show you that in the blue, in the blue part. is the section of the Aims of the Auckland Gay Liberation Front Manifesto. And when I went back and looked at the London Gay Liberation Front [00:18:00] Manifesto from 1971 you can see that the aims came from two separate sections towards the end of the Manifesto of the London one. So they took the first sentence of the Aims of the London Manifesto and added in The first sentence of the campaign part of the London Manifesto for Gay Liberation Front. Just to give you an idea that they weren't starting from scratch. They did quite clearly use and had access to the London Gay Liberation Front Manifesto, and what they did was they [00:18:30] tweaked it. to suit Auckland. But essentially when you look at the London Manifesto in its entirety and you look at the Auckland Gay Liberation Front Manifesto in its entirety, you can see that there is a similar similarity, very definitely. So I just gave you that one part to show you that, uh, the aims of the Auckland Manifesto was cobbling together different sections from the London Manifesto. [00:19:00] However, most of the other sections were straight lifts. So I'm just showing you that they did do some work on it. So the manifesto that came out from the Auckland Gay Liberation Front covered all of those issues. And certainly when I went through and checked the two manifestos, most of the first eight sections were pretty well holus bolus transferred across as our manifesto as well. A bit of tweaking here and there, [00:19:30] but it wasn't until the last couple of bullet points that you see up there that they started coming together. Uh, doing a bit more cutting and pasting, ditching things, pulling out these things. So I just thought it was useful for you to see that the Auckland Gay Liberation Front Manifesto did not come from the inspired thoughts of just six people. They had the help of the London Gay Liberation Front Manifesto. The immediate demands that were put up by the [00:20:00] Auckland Gay Liberation Front in their manifesto were those four demands. They were it. So you can see that there is the support for gay people but also that whole thrust of pushing for removal of legal, legal discrimination and also pushing for some sort of societal change. That societal change emphasis is very evident when you look through the full [00:20:30] manifesto outside of these immediate four demands. But I just thought it was useful that you at least see these were the initial four demands that were put up by the very first Gay Liberation Front group in New Zealand and Auckland. Fairly soon as you can see after they got established. The other interesting thing that I found about the Auckland Gay Liberation Front in that very first two months was the sort of actions that they did. Obviously some of those [00:21:00] individuals had contact with the US. But I think it was a combination of both, not only bringing things back into New Zealand as individuals, but I think certain individuals had links with outside organisations in the States. To think about and know about these sorts of actions that I'm just going to go through with you. So the very first action that Gay Liberation Front did was a direct [00:21:30] action and it was a gay day happening that was held on the 11th of April 1972 at the Queen Victoria statue in Albert Park in Auckland. So this activity was for consciousness raising and visibility in order to promote the Auckland Gay Liberation Front's political goals. Placards had been organised for the happening. Gay is good. Gay is proud. Will Victorian morality ever die? Which I thought was [00:22:00] appropriate being beside the Queen Victoria statue. Camps and gays come out to play. And Katerina Deneuve wore a sandwich board stating, I am your best fantasy, I am your worst fears. Now, this sandwich board slogan was based on Donna Goldschild's placard that she had at the 1970 New York Gay Liberation Parade on Christopher Street in New York, back in the States. So obviously somebody had [00:22:30] known about that placard and That was one of the placards designed as a sandwich board back in the very first direct action activism by the Auckland Gay Liberation Front. Uh, the other thing that they did at that gay happening was they wrote a letter about the oppression of gay people. And that was a letter that was sent to the Mayor of Auckland at the time, Doug Meyer Robinson. He, of course, did not [00:23:00] reply back to the letter. The second activity that I want to just cover, Brent quite rightly describes it as the first ZAP action in New Zealand. So this was done six days after the very first gay day happening in Albert Park. So you can see that they're starting to be very busy. But that wasn't just all they did. So this [00:23:30] zap action was protesting marriage as being oppressive and also taking a stand that there should be legal recognition of same sex marriage. So what happened was that Paul Kells, whose photo is the one that's up there, and John Denmouth, uh, John Demuth, they applied for a marriage certificate. And also two women who have not been named, they also applied for a marriage license. at the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Office in Auckland. [00:24:00] So they filled out the form, they handed over their money, and the official that was dealing with them took a little while to sort out what to do. So it wasn't immediate that the official said, No, this is not possible. There was quite a lot of humming and hurrying going on. In my recollection it was up to at least an hour before a decision came back that we will not take your money and we will not register your proposal for a marriage licence. [00:24:30] Now the reason why I mention this SAP action, it was the sort of thing that was done in the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s. It's a, it's a, it's a technique of direct action actually designed to embarrass an official or some figure or some organisation. And this quite clearly is to embarrass the [00:25:00] person that is responsible for sorting out marriage licences. ZAP actions have been done quite extensively by the gay community in the States and the organization that has got quite a reputation for doing ZAPs is the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, the ACT UP group in New York especially. They extensively use this type of action relating to the AIDS epidemic. So I just thought it was quite [00:25:30] interesting that, uh, Um, we did it, but I know that you can see examples of ZAP actions by the queer community in the States before the one that was done in Auckland. But I also know that ZAP actions were a predominant form of direct action by the ACT UP group in the States, especially in New York, to get movement on sorting out treatment, sorting it out. Facing up to [00:26:00] and dealing with the AIDS epidemic. Now, I didn't realise that, uh, this sort of thing had been, I didn't realise that ZAPs had been done in New Zealand, so it was a revelation reading Brent's book to see this. Uh, the other thing you should note, uh, this was also done back in 1969 in the States and there is quite a detailed record. of the two men who did apply for a same sex marriage certificate. [00:26:30] So that's something that is in the public record, but it is actually available in a number of books that, uh, authors from the gay community have written in the States. Uh, when I saw this in Brent's book, I immediately recognized having seen this example in the States, done about three years beforehand. I think the other thing to note about the Auckland Gay Liberation Front, and you can see it's [00:27:00] within that same short time period, Auckland Gay Liberation Front did their first protest march in Pickett. It was the first one ever done by the gay community in Aotearoa. So this involved 15 people from memory, and it was a march up to the US consulate on Queen Street in Auckland and a picket outside the US consulate because of the refusal of a visa to Nahuia. Yes, it was 15 people that took part in that [00:27:30] march and also the picket. So that was the very first picket by the queer community in New Zealand. And still being active, and obviously if you've got Queen's Birthday weekend, you need to do something as a queer community in relation to the day for your birthday, Queen's Birthday. So, yes, Auckland Gay Liberation did do something, so they had an action on the Monday. They had a Queen's Birthday party, or an open gay day, and they had a [00:28:00] celebration of gay liberation with balloons, queen cakes and party hats. And this photo, uh, was of that action. So I just thought it was quite useful to look at the very first four actions by Auckland Gay Liberation Front within a very short time period and you can see that the actions were quite different and quite significant in that the first time that these things were being done [00:28:30] and you can see that these were really committed people to doing things not just Saying we're forming a group and then waiting for the right opportunity to do something. It was what opportunities we've got right here and now and just getting on with it. Uh, in terms of Wellington. Wellington was the third gay liberation group to be formed. And what you see on the slide there [00:29:00] is the initial activities of that group. So, it was one person, Kevin McCone, who advertised in the Salient, the Victoria University student newspaper, that he was going to have a meeting at his place on the 16th of July, for anyone interested in setting up a Gay Liberation Front in Wellington. He was a first year student, so that indicates [00:29:30] The state of mind that he had, that he was prepared as an 18 year old, I'm assuming he's an 18 year old, as a first year student at Victoria University, to say, I want to do something, I'm wanting to get something underway. So that was the start, the beginning of Gay Liberation Wellington. A couple of weeks later, there was a bigger meeting held in the Student Union building, as you can see. David Russell and Nigel Bournbaugh, who were very active in Auckland Gay [00:30:00] Liberation Front, came down from Auckland to give the Wellington Group ideas, and to talk through what they were doing in Auckland, to give an idea of what they could do in Wellington. It was decided that, at that meeting, that they would not have a structured leadership. They decided that they would have an informal troika to share the leadership of Gay Liberation, and just do that organising work. I was quite [00:30:30] interested to see that a meeting was held at St Peter's Hall. St Peter's Hall is attached to the church, and St Peter's Church has got a good reputation in Wellington for being willing to lease their hall to slightly Left of center groups on a regular basis. So I was quite surprised to see back in 1972 They were quite happy for Gay Liberation Wellington to actually have a meeting at their place at their hall There had been a [00:31:00] really successful dance of a couple of hundred people that made quite a bit of money It was the first time that made money from a social. There was issues over Where was the money going and just that whole financial accountability aspect. So at that meeting they decided that they would have a formal structure and that was what was sorted out and they were the first two office holders for those two leading positions. I've just mentioned, [00:31:30] outside of 1972, that Gay Liberation Wellington did split into two groups. They split amicably. Absolutely amicably. And I've got my copies of the newsletters from that time, and it's all spilled out as you read through. that they've decided to split, and the reason why they decided to split was because if you had an organisation at Victoria University, then you had access to using facilities at [00:32:00] Victoria University. So what happened was Victoria University Gay Liberation got formed, joined up as an official group at Victoria University. That gave them And also Gay Liberation Wellington Access to use Victoria University facilities which were used extensively for all their dances. Absolutely everything. All the meetings were held here. In Victoria University, all the dances were held in the Student Union Hall. The only other [00:32:30] place where they had meetings was up at 15 Wesley Road in Kilburn. And I've thought about that. Where the hell would they have met? And we're talking about at least 15 people used to turn up to those meetings. So the only thing I can think of is that the front room of the 15 Wesley Road flat would have been used as the venue for the meetings that were held up there. And we're talking about meetings that were held regularly. One meeting held here for Gay Liberation Front Wellington [00:33:00] and also Gay Liberation VUW. The next meeting would be at 15 Wesley Road. Then the meeting would be back here and back at Wesley Road. So that's a bit of background about the set up of Gay Liberation Front in Wellington. Obviously, Piggybacking quite successfully on Auckland Gay Liberation Front. In terms of Christchurch, Christchurch Gay Liberation Front was the second organisation formed. That happened in May of 1972. We don't seem to [00:33:30] have a date in May for that happening, but it came about from Ngahuia visiting Christchurch, meeting with a number of interested individuals, and that's how it got underway. Meetings were held in homes. initially, and key members were listed there. And the only two people of those six that I think are still alive, John Walls. John Walls, I met with him in January. He's definitely still alive. So for somebody who's 74, [00:34:00] he is fit and able and mobile. Mike Quaycon, I gather is living in Europe, elsewhere. Robin Duff. Obviously, those of us who are teachers know Robin as PPTA President. Uh, Lindsay Taylor died of AIDS. He was one of my flatmates up at Wesley Road as well. And I'm not sure about Chris Hignant and Paul Maling. But it's just interesting when you look through those six key members that there is only a third of them that are still alive. For definite. [00:34:30] So that's a bit of a background about, uh, what 1972, given that this is the 50th anniversary. anniversary of the setting up of Gay Liberation Front New Zealand. Um, just sort of Give you a bit of a rundown of the first National Gay Liberation Conference that was held. It was held in Auckland, and that was, as you can see, the 26th of August 1972. It was held at Auckland University. Favourite meeting [00:35:00] place for Gay Liberation Front, not only in Auckland, Wellington, but having talked to John Walls, he told me about the places that they used, and they were Teachers College, uh, Teachers Training College. And also Canterbury University were the venues that they used for Christchurch Gay Liberation Front. So, university facilities are quite favoured. facility for use by Gay Liberation Front in the very early days and for many years afterwards. Uh, you can [00:35:30] see it was a nice conference to go to, just two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon, with all the sort of things that they covered. But the other thing that I found interesting was that was where the pink triangle symbol was adopted by the Gay Liberation Front groups in all three localities, that was agreed. Uh, it was 30 people. Uh, eight people from Wellington Christchurch managed to get up to Auckland for it. And there was [00:36:00] official delegations from the Christchurch group and also the Wellington Group, and they are named there, Don Raphael and Barry Neils from the Gay Liberation Wellington and Robin Duff from Christchurch Gay Liberation Front. So, um, according to Brent Cos these are the official, these are the key individuals in Gay Liberation Front in Auckland, in Wellington and Christchurch as far as we know. [00:36:30] And when I look through those names. Well over, a good 60 percent are dead. The others are still alive, and their institutional knowledge of those very early days of Gay Liberation Front are left wanting and need to be followed up as soon as we possibly can. So that institutional knowledge and the knowledge of them as individuals is not lost to the queer community in New Zealand forever. [00:37:00] Just in terms of why people possibly do things, there have been a number of lesbian and gay Authors have thought very deeply about this and what seems to be the common thread as exemplified by Sarah Shulman who's an American gay activist and a prominent lesbian in the States. She's come up with this theory and view that people who join organizations like Gay Liberation Front in 1972 are the sorts of [00:37:30] individuals who have this It's angst to challenge authority and they're also the sort of people who are not prepared to be bystanders. And it's that sort of person that does move to join organisations like Gay Liberation Front and do the things that they do. I just found that that was an interesting concept to explain the personal behaviour of people in terms of their political activities. Um, [00:38:00] uh, in terms of my background, my background is such that my parents were the first, Marriage of a Samoan and a European in New Zealand. I've just got to check with Vincent Arlo that I might possibly not be the first half caste Samoan to be born in New Zealand, but certainly outside of Auckland, and I am. Um, My mother, as a 17 year old, was very determined and she was 18 when she got [00:38:30] married, my father was 41. She forced my father to come back and live in Palmerston North, all places in New Zealand, in the early 50s. So I grew up knowing full well that I Came from an interracial marriage, living in Palmerston North, speaking to people that I've met since, who have then worked out who I am. And then they come back and tell me, your parents stood out like a sore thumb, and then they described my father as exotic. And you just [00:39:00] realise that, and I knew at the time, your parents were noticed and you were noticed as being different. So that was my background, uh, ethnically. Uh, I also thought today that my background and my family was not the usual background. My parents actually operated as equals. My father did the cooking in the house, for example. My mother ran the finances. But it was a very equal relationship. And my father had this philosophy that you don't hit your kids at all. And that was [00:39:30] my way I was raised in that sort of atmosphere. And basically my father, who was a Samoan part, of my family. His only wish for his children was you get an education, you learn as much as you can, so that you can actually not do the sort of jobs that I have to do. So, that's my background, and they're my influences that have [00:40:00] predetermined basically how I've operated since. I Obviously had a very unconventional upbringing and I was interested in quite varied things. It was very interesting seeing about Patrice Lord Mumba's gold tooth being returned from Belgium to, the Congo, because I remember avidly following what was going on in the Congo, going on in the Congo over 1960, [00:40:30] 1961, and I know that Patrice Lumumba was a hero of mine. And I remember reading about him being killed. So that's how. I was only five or six at the time, so that's the level of interest that I had in things outside of me and outside of New Zealand. So it's not surprising that my last year at high school I joined the New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform Society, so that was a copy of the sub that I found in my archives, still around. Uh, certainly I had an anti colonialist upbringing, [00:41:00] that was pretty important. In terms of being a sissy and a pansy I got identified fairly early and my attitude was. I'm not into sport. I'm a bookworm. So what? Uh, by the age of 14, I definitely knew I had same sex desire. But even in a place like Palmerston North, Uh, there were supportive teachers in Palmerston Boys High who were quite open to discuss homosexual authors, films like Midnight Cowboy with us. So, I found a certain openness, even at, [00:41:30] Even in Palmerston North, even at a school like Palmerston North Boys High School. So, all of those things drove me to get politically active. So, I joined Gay Liberation in 1973. This is the letter back to me from Mike Ross. And I just thought it was interesting in the sense that it states the goals of Gay Liberation Wellington when you, if you have a read through it and are able to.[00:42:00] And just. A response back to my inquiry to join to just give an idea of the effort that was made by leading people in Wellington Gay Liberation to respond to requests. This is the sort of request that this is the way they responded to requests, which reading through this, you just think these are people that are busy trying to do university studies as my cause, but he's still willing to find time to write this. letter to me, and not just give me bare [00:42:30] facts, but to give me a bit of detail. So that's why that's up. That was my very first newsletter that I got from Mike with that letter, back in June, uh, that was the June July 1973 newsletter. And Mike, I must have obviously responded back to Mike, handing him my, uh, giving him my, yeah, I must have had another query, because this is giving me details about the And the other thing I found interesting in this was the two books that you [00:43:00] could get that would give you an idea of our way of thinking in Wellington Gay Liberation Front. Uh, that was the famous Fifteen Wesley Road that I talked about earlier. And those two books I obviously went out and got as fast as I could within a few years of getting that letter. So they're still in my library. The other thing I also found interesting was Marilyn Johnson, who was one of the leaders of Wellington Gay Liberation. She [00:43:30] also found time to write to me. She wrote me quite long letters, and she was the president. And And this bit is up here because it talks about the relationships between male and female members of Wellington Gay Liberation, which just shows, well, at that time, they were very cordial, they got on really well, but obviously in 1974 things changed a bit. But I just found it interesting that this is [00:44:00] correspondence from a lesbian who was one of the major leaders of Gay Liberation Front. Telling me and Palmerston North, this is how we work together. So that's why that's there. And, uh, for the Venn Young Bill, Gay Liberation members from the three localities came to Wellington and made a submission to the Parliamentary Select Committee. I was in a relationship with Michael Ross at the time and my parents saw [00:44:30] The newspaper articles saw Michael doing a TV interview and this was three or four days after that all happened, that Mike wrote to me and just to ask how are things at home. Just to show you what sort of per what sort of person or people were like who were leading Gay Liberation that even though I was his partner, still concerned. I was a member of Socialist Action League, [00:45:00] and they were quite happy for Socialist Action League members to be involved in gay liberation activities. And the stance of Socialist Action League was, our line is we support gay liberation, but the other thing that I think is really important is that they gave, Those of us that wanted to be involved in gay liberation, complete free reign to do what we wanted to do, and as much as we wanted to do. And it's in that context that I just let, that I'm just going to quickly go through my personal involvement. So, this is a letter from Julie, [00:45:30] Judith Eames to me, right at the end of 1976, saying, essentially, we know that you're coming down to the formation of the National Gay Rights Association, and this is what. Uh, this is a bit of information about it, and would you like people that we get contact details from, from the parts north to contact you to find out what more they can do? So that was my first direct involvement of being [00:46:00] called upon to go to that meeting in January with the viewpoint that I would go back to Palmerston North to set up Mara, which is what I did in 1977 before we hit our first meeting. There was. For capping week a dance called pro pofta and that was on March the 28th, so I Knew a few I knew a number of other people in pumps north But I knew that they would not go in a protest side of the summer own So I saw on [00:46:30] April the 3rd in the Tribune, which is a paper that came out in the Sunday, an item by the Massey University President, who talked about Capping Week, and there was this bit here, that I'll remember for a long, uh, there are lots of different things about capping because I have enjoyed the whole bit, but one thing I'll remember for a long time was the galeber outside the Propofte Du, who had a billboard reading, Propofte Continues Galeb Oppression, and he walked up and down outside all night in deadly earnest at the Awapuni [00:47:00] Hotel. So. Uh, that was on that day, and then on the Tuesday, uh, I got my own back because Musa had a meeting to sort out its constitution and put up resolutions, so I obviously put a resolution up that the Musa Dance Pro Puff to be replaced by a fancy dress function during the capping period, and that got accepted at the Musa meeting and became official Musa policy, and that was published in the chaff of 1977.[00:47:30] The next day was me organising the first meeting of Manawatu Gay Rights Association and even though Manawatu Gay Rights Association is in a bit of limbo at the moment it is still officially the longest serving. Queer community organisation left in New Zealand. So I got half a dozen people along to that meeting, and they were stalwarts, and we got a meeting, we got a group up and running, that was gonna last after I left at the [00:48:00] end of that year to come and get a job in Wellington. Uh, one thing I do remember quite clearly is that I made the ethical decision that I would have no relationship with anybody in Palmerston North over that period, because I wanted everybody to see that I was setting up the organisation for non, for non personal reasons. I had no personal agenda, and I stuck with that, and the group is still running, so obviously I succeeded, but I [00:48:30] know consciously I made that absolute decision. Um, Between 1978 and 1981, I did most of the reporting for Socialist Action on gay activities in their paper Socialist Action. When I went back up to Palmerston, they, uh, the National Gay Rights Coalition needed somebody for the southern central region. So I put my hand up at the start of 1982. To be the regional rep. Nobody else was foolish enough to put their hand up, so I ended up [00:49:00] being the regional rep for the Northern Central Region for the National Gay Rights Coalition. And that's the position that I held to the end of 1983 when the National Gay Rights Coalition basically folded. Uh, it's interesting that I saw a thesis by a church minister on law reform. And he interviewed Phil Parkinson, and you see the quote quite clearly in the thesis, where [00:49:30] Phil Parkinson says, the reason why the National Gay Rights Coalition collapsed at the end of 1983 was because of the activist activities within the National Gay Rights Coalition of Trotskyites. And I thought about that for a long time and realized that I was the only Trotskyist that was involved in the National Gay Rights Coalition. So, I thought, I will put that right at some stage. So, no, I went through [00:50:00] and thought, of all the Socialist Action members, it was only me that was involved in the National Gay Rights Coalition in playing, playing an activist role. At that stage, I was not a member of the Socialist Action League, and I left on amicable terms because I wanted to invest time in my family. Uh, in my extended family. Right, um, This, this I want to cover because it's quite important. It's a piece of our history that is not known. [00:50:30] Linda Evans at the start of last year said I am trying to get a fix on what tingi and Malcolm McAllister did in terms of their push in the Gay Task Force to move the Gay Task Force in relation to the Homosexual Law Reform Bill campaign to move it from a conventional MP lobbying activity to a mass movement. And I gave her Malcolm [00:51:00] McAllister's phone number to contact, and then Gavin Young told me, said to me late last year, I intend to have a talk to Fran Wild, why she made the move over July of 1985 from a conventional campaign for the bill to a mass action campaign. And I said to Gavin. One of the reasons, one of the major reasons why she made the change is because of what Malcolm [00:51:30] McAllister and I were able to do in the Manawatu. I need to just say that MAGRA had full confidence in me to do the homosexual law reform bill campaign in the Manawatu. There was that level of trust that whatever I, whatever I organised would come back to them. and they would support. So, I was interested to have a look through this book that came out by Alison and Linda and to see Ntingi Instones write up that the Manuretu Gay Rights Association wrote [00:52:00] to the Gay Taskforce suggesting a wider nationally coordinated campaign and a national conference, which was then followed up by Malcolm McAllister and Dick Morrison coming to that same meeting to express their concerns about the opposition to the bill and how it should be dealt with. And there should be a counter campaign. And then it moved on that, that was the direction of the Homosexual Law Reform Bill campaign. Spreading the issue out, getting more support to have a mass action campaign. And this is the [00:52:30] level of detail that Tingi covered in her speech at the 20th anniversary of the Law Reform Bill being passed. But that's the original letter that I wrote up, and that's the only thing that's in the public record. When I went to the Palmerston North Library a couple of weeks ago, a couple of months ago, I did know that MAGRA had handed everything over to the Palmerston North Library. So I went and asked the person on the counter, and it turned out she's the [00:53:00] one who's gone through everything that's been handed over. It's not much. She was halfway through digitalising it. So I And I said to her, do you have anything from MAGRA about the homosexual or rebel campaign? And she said, there's absolutely nothing. So I started to show her what I've got. And these are some of the things I've got. And this is what Malcolm and I were trusted to do and went ahead and did. So what we did was we thought we were going to organize a meeting with Fran in Palmerston North on May the 7th, [00:53:30] but Fran was. I was not able to make that meeting and it had to be cancelled. So the whole idea was, we will show Fran Wild what a mass campaign would look like. So, we went around groups in the manner of two, explaining the bill and getting support from their organisation for the bill. So we had all that set up to go on May the 7th, but we had to delay the meeting because Fran had other commitments. [00:54:00] So, 13th of May, that's an example of the Manurewa Two District Trades Council. They came out already to say that they would support a public meeting to discuss the bill and they were willing to provide a speaker, so that was the sort of support we were starting to line up. We had 17th, it was an absolute packed meeting. And Fran was [00:54:30] frankly shocked that a place like Palmerston North could get so many people to a public meeting on the bill, and everybody at the meeting was in support of the bill. These are the speakers that we had, so we organised a range of speakers. Obviously we let Fran speak first, and then Fran had to sit through speaker after speaker from other organisations. expressing their organisation support [00:55:00] for the bill. So, the Trades Council, Clerical Workers Union, a prominent Maori activist in terms of what they were going to do, the Women's Resource Centre Collective, Roger Middlemas, the Meat Workers Union at the time supported the bill and he spoke, and also the famous Te Rotea branch of the Labour Party, that branch was totally in support of the bill and they spoke. And then I finished off. And that was what convinced [00:55:30] Fran that if you do the legwork, you can build a mass campaign in support of the bill, and that will make the difference. Now that piece of our history during the Law Reform Bill campaign is not known, because it's not in the public record, because I've got all the materials for it. And you're just getting a bit of a scoop, but that's, uh, one. new thing that Gavin is, Gavin Young is going to have for his book. [00:56:00] But I'm just sharing it with you tonight that this is what we did. When I say we, Malcolm and I, Malcolm McAllister and I did that and it was with the full support of MAGRA and even though we did the work with these other organisations, just want to acknowledge it was with the full support and backing of the Manitou Gay Rights Association and it was the work that we were allowed to do with their So the work was done on behalf of MAGRA. And then, [00:56:30] Fran obviously decided it was the way to go. So that was the July 11th meeting. So you can see the timeline that Malcolm and I scrambled to get something done. So that when Dick Morrison and Malcolm McAllister went to the Gay Task Force meeting, they would be able to say, this has been done, this locality, this is the way it can go. And we waited until Fran had decided, yes, this is the way to go. And this is the letter that we started sending out [00:57:00] to supporters and organisations. And you can see down there that Fran Wild has given initiatives such as this their wholehearted backing. So we did the work and then paused, waiting for Fran to make the change. And then we came and That letter there clearly, clearly shows that we did wait for Fran to make that change and to officially say it's okay before we did [00:57:30] any further work. And this is an example of some of the other things we did in the Manawatu in terms of connecting Soweto with Stonewall as an example of some of the political activity that we did. So I've probably well and truly gone over time, but I think it's probably best that I leave it there. And it's probably good in my case that I'm over prepared rather than under prepared. It's just taken me a bit long to get through. And I think it's appropriate to finish at this [00:58:00] point here as an example of a person from the left being allowed, being given the freedom by my left wing organisation, which was a Marxist organisation to work in the gay liberation movement and to work with other gay colleagues to do bits and pieces. Thanks very much.
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