The Topp Twins have been rapturously embraced as patrons of OUTLine at a ceremony in Auckland. The iconic and much-love performers were welcomed by a strong and vocal crowd at the Grey Lynn Community Centre. They were more than happy to tag their names to the organisation which does so much in the community. "We're openly gay and we have been for a long time," Jools Topp told GayNZ.com Daily News before the ceremony. "We have a big responsibility to the rest of the community and I think it's really important. There are still lots of gay issues and kids coming out and the youth of today need good role models and I hope we'll be that." Her sister Linda added that everyone should be able to talk to someone: "Anybody who is going through something like that, a young kid, they might think they're the only one. We want to let them know they're not the only one and someone's there for them." Jools says it's like a gay family, "and sometimes it's difficult for people to talk to their own family because they're scared, or they're worried or they're fearful about things, about how people are going to react. So there's another family. It doesn't matter where you go in the world, you can go to Australia or America or whatever and we're all part of a big family, which is cool." The twins also reflected on the fact this month marks 25 years since the Homosexual Law Reform Bill, something Linda says makes them smile. "We've been part of that history and we're pretty lucky, in some ways, that we were part of all those things in our growing up process of coming out and being gay, well, people call us icons but we're just another couple of lesbians like all the other girls. That has been so amazing to grow up in New Zealand and be accepted in such a way by New Zealanders. And OUTLine is just another great thing New Zealand is doing." Jools and Linda have been incredibly successful in the United States lately where their documentary has been given cinema release, with Alabama the latest place to pick it up. "We thought it would probably do all the gay and lesbian film festivals, and it did do that," Jools says. "And the rest of the world sort of sat up and took notice and said 'well we want it in the normal theatres for a good long couple of weeks or something'." She says it's refreshing, because the documentary is simply an honest story.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 22nd July 2011 - 9:52pm