Sat 4 Jun 2016 In: Our Communities View at Wayback View at NDHA
There was something about a pro-gay announcement this week by sports organisations, including New Zealand Rugby, that this morning saw me digging through the microfilm records of newspapers at the public library. I was transported back in time to mid-1992, an era when a looming referendum would soon see the MMP system adopted for general elections, Batman Returns with Michelle Pfeiffer as Cat Woman was the hot new movie, US-style rap was beginning to ruffle the feathers of the purse-lipped, Sarajevo was under siege and the last of our main trading banks had just passed into foreign hands. I was looking for an article written by illustrious journalist Toni McRae. I couldn't in the end find it but the story of gays and rugby and 1992 runs something like this. A friend, Warwick Mickell, and I, the founding publishers of what would eventually morph into Express newspaper, had made the brave decision to turn our amateurishly printed news-sheet Man to Man, as it was then called, into a fully-fledged - albeit small - fortnightly newspaper. We needed to promote it but the budget was below microscopic. TVNZ and TV3 generously agreed to run a TV ad for us, we could afford one placement per network but they generously threw in a few more airings for free. The HIV epidemic was raging at its fatal worst, anti-discrimination legislation was something for the future and there had never been a TV advert for anything homosexual beamed into the nation's living rooms... so we had to submit the script for multiple approvals well in advance and the ad would have to be aired after 10.30pm. Pulling in favours from friends and associates we produced a 20-second advert featuring our publication in everyday settings. A cute urban gay couple read Man to Man while having breakfast in their chic, minimalist water-front apartment; two dignified grey-haired men in suits ascended a Queen Street Finance Centre escalator intimately close together and holding a copy; and in a provincial rugby club changing room two muddied blokes, sitting hairy thigh pressed to hairy thigh, smiled as one drew the others attention to something in the latest issue. Ces Blazey I might not have been thinking of that ground-breaking 1992 ad this morning except for the fact that Toni McRae, with a twinkle in her eye, had decided to ask Ces Blazey, the dour, conservative to the point of regressive, face of the hallowed NZ Rugby Football Union what he thought of homosexuals connecting their lifestyles with the national sport. Blazey, who until a few years before had seemed to be the chairman of the NZRFU since sailing ship days, let rip. I wanted to check his actual quotes at the library this morning but suffice to say he was affronted, offended and outraged. This gnarly old war veteran and upholder of masculine kiwi, 'rugby, racing and beer,' values was disgusted at us kind of people daring to degrade something as pure and kiwi and manly as rugby for our perverted purposes. His adverse comments drew attention to the adverts in a way we could never have dreamed of - or have afforded. I seem to remember being interviewed for TV news (the late evening news, of course) about it, the ads aired and our fortnightly newspaper was off with a bang. Contrast that with the NZ Rugby Union being at the forefront of this week's announcement by a wide range of sports codes that they formally and publicly embrace diversity including homosexuality and have set up a programme to carry this out. It's taken 24 years, during which time other codes have been much more proactive than the NZRU. In the meantime gay kiwi Olympians have come out, and iconic rugby players like Bryan Williams and the Ponsonby Rugby Club have helped nurture gay rugby teams into existence, but NZ Rugby has contented itself with anodyne - to the point of insolent - press releases when challenged about homophobia in their midst. Now something seems to have changed... perhaps rugby is happy to move with the herd where it was in the past unprepared to take an strong and principled stance by itself. Whatever the reasons it is good to see this change and to be able to anticipate how much good the support of this wide range of NZ sporting bodies will do for the lives of countless glbti people around the country. Jay Bennie - 4th June 2016