Sat 6 Dec 2014 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Semi-retired Auckland University law lecturer Dr Don McMorland One of the co-authors of the Homosexual Law Reform bill has described yesterday's swearing in of the country's first openly gay High Court judge as “wonderful” and “excellent.” Speaking after lawyer Matthew Muir joined the high court bench, semi-retired legal academic Dr Don McMorland says Muir's appointment is “a very great step forward after all the history of the last thirty years and the movements and changes that have occurred in society generally where we have an openly acknowledged gay high court judge. I think that's wonderful.” McMorland says there will always be people who will find this difficult to deal with “but I don't think, by and large, it will be controversial. No. I think society has moved forward." As for having an openly gay Attorney General, Chris Finlayson, at the swearing in of an openly gay High Vourt judge, McMorland says the specifics weren't anticipated during the battle for decriminalisation of gay men, “but one always hoped that this sort of thing would be possible. But you couldn't put a time-line on it and it's just a sign of where New Zealand society has got to - which is very, very excellent.” When asked why New Zealand has reached this point when so many other nations haven's taken even the first steps towards halting the persecution of homosexuals, he responds “I think we're a more liberal and open-minded society generally, in all sorts of areas. And quite a lot of that has happened in my lifetime. I wouldn't like to go back to the way it was when I was a child."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 6th December 2014 - 10:05am