Thu 11 Aug 2011 In: Our Communities View at Wayback View at NDHA
Twenty five years ago today horny gay men no longer had to fear the knock on the door of investigating police or the shame of being prosecuted for the crime of having homosexual sex. From an anonymous bonk to a night of loving with your long-term partner, it was now all acceptable in the eyes of the law. After years of effort and a few valiant but unsuccessful attempts, the gay libbers and pro-law reformers had won. Of course, the year and a half of public debate which preceded Parliament's vote for decriminalisation was neither the the start nor the end of the effort. Even with the subsequent passing of anti-discrimintion legislation, the introduction of Civil Unions (kind of like mariage, but not actually marriage) there are still problems to be sorted out to remove the impediments to some glbt people's lives. Adoption must be made more rational and fair. Genders other than male and female must be properly recognised and the bureaucracy dragged into the new millennium when it comes to trans people's identities. And so on. And none of this is going to happen without us demanding it, just as gay folk demanded and achieved decriminalisation in 1986. In researching the on-going series of features GayNZ.com is publishing to mark this 25th year of freedom some themes have stood out and there have been a few surprises along the way. How totally committed and massively capable those who led the campaign for law reform were. How fundamentally decent and fair-minded most middle New Zelanders can be if they are presented with a rational argument and not just self-serving bullshit. How Out! magazine and its publishers were such powerhouses in the fight and how well that magazine, often derided in its declining years, documented the process of decriminalisation and motivated our geographically widespread communities. How many ordinary glbt people rose to the challenge. How we came together as communuities and learned so much about each other. How otherwise decent groups such as the Salvation Army could so easily be swayed by a virulently anti-gay leader and without question take his hatred to the streets in an attempt to persecute their fellow citizens. And, conversely, how many decent people stood up and were counted as supporters of the nation-wrecking perverts we had too often been assumed to be. And how in the soft focus of memory it all seems to have been so easy, so straightforward, so inevitable, how our opponents now seem so laughably jurassic... and of course it was none of those things. We hope today every glbt person in the country takes a moment to say a personal and private thank you to all those who 25 years ago put their futures, careers, family relationships and even their lives on the line so we can today take our near-equality in the eyes of the law and increasing acceptance in society pretty much for granted. Without their passion and foresight life for us today would be immeasurably bleaker. So let's take a moment to laugh at a few of the 1985/86 utterances by arch homophobic bigot and master of truly gruesome rhetoric, Invercargill MP Norm Jones. Then let's reflect on the fact that, as laughable as they seem now, they exemplify the kind of all too real mindsets which had to be overcome then and which still exist in less enlightened moments and places even today. Norm Jones MP “They learn it. It's a dirty, filthy habit. It's abnormal sex. They're not born with it and as far as I'm concerned its time we said 'so far, and that's far enough.'” “I've met a goup of homosexuals, three men and three women, if you can call them that, and I said I'm not interested in talking to poofs about this thing...” “They are human beings! So are murderers, so are rapists, so are the people who put the people into the gas ovens at Belsen. They are filth. They are abnormal pople.” “If the good Lord had wanted us to procreate the race through the rear he would have put the womb down there.” “All I can say is that if we are all going to become limp wristed, poncing poofs then you're going to be out of a job!" “If we legalise this we could be faced with legalising incest and rape and everything else!” “They are not 'gay.' The least 'gay' people I know of are homosexuals. They are agonising about this. They need medical treatment! Jay Bennie - 11th August 2011