In 2003, Annemarie Jagose and Peter Wells wrote excellent "other Victorian" gay historical novels. So where's factual lesbian and gay historical research in this country? Put simply, it almost doesn't exist. Stevan Eldred-Grigg published his antidote to the "repressive hypothesis" of Victorian social history twenty years ago, depicting some intriguing "other Victorians" that may have inspired Wells' Desperate Remedies (1992) a decade later. Alison Laurie should be commended for her account of the Parker/Hulme murder cases of the early fifties, and recent editing of a volume of New Zealand/Aotearoa lesbian studies that included some valuable historical biographies of nineteenth-century lesbians in this country. Hugh Young has compiled a chronology of New Zealand lesbian and gay history, but there is no detailed account of particular historical periods. Stranger still, histories of controversial 'moral' debates are usually written by the losers of those debates in this country, which tends to be the Christian Right. Be it Marilyn Pryor's conspiratorially inclined antiabortionist perspective on the abortion debate, Carolyn Moynihan's biography of the late Pat Bartlett and SPCS, or Laurie Guy's Baptist fundamentalist (mis)take on homosexual law reform, historical accuracy and balance go begging when these issues are discussed. Why? Hasn't it occurred to someone to retrieve old criminal case transcripts and see what happens? Clive Moore did that when he wrote his Queensland lesbian and gay social history. What about reading old religious periodicals or secular newspapers "against the grain" and see what can be turned up? Or what about old government documents? Gary Kinsman did that when he discussed Canadian lesbian and gay social histories over the last two centuries. While it is understandable that we are focused on the immediate legislative future and ongoing health promotion and maintenance issues related to HIV/AIDS, we seem to exclude the lesbian and gay past from similarly detailed investigation. We know little about life before the emergence of the Dorian Society and Homosexual Law Reform Society in the sixties. To Maori friends, this is inexplicable. One iwi lawyer asked how younger members of our community felt about this. For her it would feel like not knowing one's whakapapa which locates her in relation to her whanau, iwi, land and historical heritage. Without those precious touchstones, Maori lose their sense of identity, she said. I think she was right. We may be shortchanging younger community members through our relative neglect of New Zealand lesbian and gay social history. Isn't it time that we started to seriously investigate our past heritage and develop a stronger sense of historical continuities and changes over the course of our nation's history? Recommended Reading: Stevan Eldred-Grigg, Pleasures of the Flesh: Sex and Drugs in Colonial New Zealand: 1840-1915: Wellington: Reed: 1984. Laurie Guy, Worlds in Collision: The Gay Debate in New Zealand 1960-1986: Wellington: Victoria University Press: 2002. (Fundamentalist Baptist version of the history of New Zealand homosexual law reform. The section on the Homosexual Law Reform Act and attendant debates is completely unreliable.) Annemarie Jagose: Slow Water: Auckland: Wellington: Victoria University Press: 2003. Gary Kinsman, The Regulation of Desire: Montreal: Black Rose Books: 1987. Alison Laurie: Parker and Hulme: A Lesbian View: Auckland: New Woman's Press: 1991. Alison Laurie (ed) Lesbian Studies in Aotearoa/New Zealand: New York: Harrington Park Press: 2003. Clive Moore: Sunshine and Rainbows: The Development of Lesbian and Gay Culture in Queensland: St Lucia: University of Queensland Press: 2001. Carolyn Moynihan: A Stand for Decency: Patricia Bartlett and the Society for Promotion of Community Standards: Upper Hutt: SPCS: 1995. Marilyn Pryor: The Right to Live: The Abortion Debate of New Zealand: Auckland: Haelan Books: 1985. Peter Wells, Iridescence: Auckland: Vintage Books: 2003. Craig Young - 10th April 2004