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Tony Nightingale - Rainbow Voices of Aotearoa New Zealand [AI Text]

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Thinking back, I've been a public servant most of my life, and in my first six months of working in Wellington, I was working for what was then the Department of Trade and Industry, and came to Parliament Buildings when the anti petition was being handed over, and I've got very strong memories of, one, the fact that we were locked out because we were on the other side of the fence. The fact that this huge semi military [00:00:30] process was being enacted in front of us where all these very neatly uniformed men basically were handing over the petition in these huge boxes. And the overwhelming sort of response of Fran Wilde, which was just fabulous. She was standing on, I think, a ladder or something. She was certainly standing up high, conducting us all singing the National Anthem to try and give a counter to this very jingoistic kind of procession that was almost sort of, [00:01:00] dare I say it, sort of neo fascist rally that was going on in front of us. And being amazed that the whole law reform process had come to this kind of a conflict, which was, if you like, an embodiment of what had been going on for the previous two years. Um, And, yeah, this was one high point for us, in a funny sort of way, it was highly motivating and I think it [00:01:30] pushed a lot of us towards lobbying and some of the marches that went on at that time. Um, and then sort of culminated in law reform going through by the skin of its teeth and with the anti discrimination section pulled out. That's one thing I would really like to see acknowledged because, I mean, Fran got through. 16 year age limit for, um, the criminal acts. But what didn't happen at that time was the anti discrimination work. And that was done by Catherine O'Regan. [00:02:00] And we'll remain eternally grateful for her because Liberal causes, I think, for somebody like Fran was appropriate because she was a Labour politician. For Catherine O'Regan, it made her no friends, and it made her, I think, probably quite a few political enemies. But she pushed through anyway, and she pushed through anti discrimination for HIV positive men, and that was just brilliant. So yeah, that was a couple of my experiences. Um, I was also here when the Destiny Church did their march, [00:02:30] Enough is Enough. Um.. It was a bizarre display. Again, it's that whole thing of, yeah, the use of black and uniforms to try and show an almost militaristic opposition to, um, anything that's different, really, I suppose. It was a very, very strange sort of event to actually watch. Um, Brian Tamaki did his thing. And all these young men again, dressed in these black uniforms. Um, [00:03:00] many of which, you know, they were quite beautiful in a kind of creepy sort of way. It was, it was a very strange position, um, position to be in, just sitting watching that actually happening. Being in the House when legislation is passed, um, that's a wonderful experience when you get that third vote, which is, you know, often quite token at one level in the sense that you hope it's going to go through, um, particularly on conscience votes. It's been good, um, not just for homosexual reform, [00:03:30] but also for prostitution reform. That was, a lot of the people that were involved in that were also involved in that latest sort of push as well. I think having a room where there's a physical embodiment of, I won't say necessarily the Crown's commitment to diversity, LGBTIQAP plus rights is really powerful. Um, it's a physical embodiment. I wish this room [00:04:00] well. I hope it's here forever. And I hope that it's.. Refurbished and reinforced over coming generations because I think the symbolism of it being actually in Parliament buildings is really, really strong and really positive.

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AI Text:September 2023
URL:https://www.pridenz.com/ait_rainbow_voices_of_aotearoa_new_zealand_tony_nightingale.html