Thu 14 Jul 2011 In: Hall of Fame View at Wayback View at NDHA
It was the period from 1984 to victory in 1986 where the sharpest jabs where executed and the campaign for law reform became a full-frontal battle. Fran Wilde emerged as the MP who would champion the Homosexual Law Reform Bill for the campaigners for change. On 8 March 1985 she introduced the proposed legislation into Parliament, with two parts: the decriminalisation of sex between men and making discrimination the grounds of sexual orientation illegal. Opponents were nasty. Guided by the Salvation Army and America-based evangelists, they pushed a climate of fear and hatred, labelling being gay unnatural, connected gay men with paedophilia and made AIDS sound like some kind of divine punishment against gay men. There are plenty of stories of hatred; from the Out! Bookshop in Auckland being sprayed with graffiti such as "kill gays" to an increase in reports of gay bashings, culminating in the "Nuremburg Rally", which the mainstream media had a field day with, showing the bill's opponents blatantly using nationalism to try and push their cause in a very un-Kiwi way. The highly-publicised ceremony on 24 September 1985 saw an "800,000 signature" petition handed over to Parliament ... the petition was rejected due to a number of irregularities, such as signatures of "Mickey Mouse", several signatures in the same hand on some sheets and a number of the delivery boxes actually being empty. Gay rights campaigners hit back, holding their own rallies, wining debates and providing polls to show there was in fact a majority in favour of reform. It all culminated in the night of nights, 25 years ago, where the vote came before Parliament ... July 9, 1986: The "poofs" have it! - Thanks to NZhistory.net and Out! Magazine Jacqui Stanford - 14th July 2011