Thu 9 Feb 2017 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
As the Government announces a case-by-case quashing of historic homosexual convictions the call for a blanket wiping of the convictions still stands. OUTLine’s Trevor Easton says “This is a great step but “really” it should be across the board for all men who have been convicted for having consensual sex with men 16 yrs and over.” In January 2016, a spokesperson for the Justice Minister told GayNZ.com Daily News that 80 percent of historic convictions would still be convictions today under the law. “The electronic data the Ministry is able to access only goes back to 1980. It indicates that between 1 July 1980 and 8 August 1986, 879 men were convicted of homosexuality related offences. Nearly 80% (689 men) were convicted of sexual offences involving males under 16, which continue to be criminal offences. There were 109 and 59 convictions respectively for doing or permitting an indecent act with a male over 16 but the electronic data does not indicate whether these acts were consensual.” Easton says “Most men wouldn’t go through the awful pain of revisited this dreadfully painful experience in their life. It’s shameful. Just quash all these convictions and put right an awful part of NZ history.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 9th February 2017 - 2:26pm