Justice Matthew Muir. (Photo: Chapman Tripp) In a speech to young glbti lawyers last night High Court Justice Matthew Muir suggested it was time for New Zealand to engage with nearby nations on the subject of social and legal equality for their glbti people. In a well-received and often humorous speech in which he reflected on some of the worst excesses of the campaign against Homosexual Law Reform in New Zealand thirty years ago, Muir recalled "the touching story of a Cook Islands Fa’afafine who at the recent [Auckland] Mayoral function noted that many of the Pacific Island countries retain on their statute books the legislation we fought so hard to overturn 30 years ago." Stopping short of publicly challenging the NZ government to work for improvement in this area, Muir asked "Is there now occasion for a respectful dialogue about these issues with the governments concerned in the same way that New Zealand has for many years recorded its concern over other human rights violations where they see them occurring?" Warming to this theme he also looked further afield. "And is there an even more compelling message to be sent to the numerous countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East whose openly hostile regimes condone widespread civil rights abuses in this area? Should sanctions even be considered in the same way as so successfully invoked against the apartheid regime of South Africa. Many would say the underlying issues really are no different." Muir paid homage to those who sacrificed much to ensure that the Homosexual Law Reform Bill was passed by Parliament, singling out "the Bill’s authors, Professor Don McMorland and Auckland barrister Alan Ivory, together with spokesman Peter Wall and members Bruce Kilmister, Warren Lindberg, John Hughes, my partner James Peters and Wellingtonian Bill Logan" for special mention. He recalled that work in support of the Bill was objected to by "those within the gay community itself who questioned the wisdom of the Bill believing that if we just kept our heads down we could get on with our lives." They were, he said, "fearful of public backlash should the Bill fail – believing the issue one 'left well alone' and seemingly oblivious to the fact that their quiet complacency meant no homosexual men could ever, while openly acknowledging his own identity, take his rightful place in the community, free to pursue his own loves, ambitions and dreams." And, he noted, "within the ranks of gay lawyers there was also, regrettably, fear and timidity in some quarters."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 9th August 2016 - 10:03pm