A prominent researcher on gay issues has delivered a sharp wake-up call to a gay community mired in complacency over the prejudice it faces in modern society. Peter Saxton, a researcher at the AIDS Foundation and Massey University Shore Centre, responded in the last issue of Express to a column the newspaper published a fortnight ago entitled She'll Be Right, Bitch, which denied a widespread gay community disengagement in politics was for reasons of apathy. "Do we really think that prejudice has less impact in 2005?" he asked. "Do we really think that the law reforms over the last 20 years occurred because mainstream NZ really loves us, and that there wasn't really a need to get so uptight?" Saxton went on to say that it was foolish to ignore extreme groups like Destiny Church: "...the presence of extreme homophobes like that changes the political landscape. Other homophobes start to look more moderate. Our opponents become emboldened. And among the 80% of mainstream NZ the equilibrium shifts away from us – it's more permissable to denigrate us, silence us." Apathy is not necessarily the reason for fragmentation of the gay community, wrote Saxton, but he says we have lost our voice: "So often it was through self-expression and visibility that we discovered and defined who we are as a minority group and as individuals. And we need it back."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Saturday, 26th March 2005 - 12:00pm