12.30PM: Prominent lesbian feminist and economist Dr. Marilyn Waring has been honoured by the Queen in the New Year's Honours list. She becomes a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to women and economics. Dr Marilyn Waring At age 22 Waring became the youngest MP elected to the Parliament of 1975. The following year she was outed by Truth newspaper, and although she refused at the time to publicly either confirm or deny her homosexuality she subsequently came out, in 1985. The year before she had withdrawn her support for National over the issue of a nuclear free NZ, a move then used by National Prime Minister Muldoon to justify a snap election which National lost. Waring, who had an Honours BA in political science and international politics and is described by close friends as "formidably brainy and a phenomenal teacher," returned to university lecturing and researching human rights and the effect of economic factors on legislation and international aid. An outspoken campaigner for womens and human rights, she has since gained PhD in Political Economy and is now an internationally respected expert on economics and public policy who lives on Auckland's North Shore. Waring moved from Waikato University to Auckland University of Technology in 2006 where she is a professor of Public Policy. She is a member of the Board of the Reserve Bank and has recently been involved in attempts to recover the Solomon Islands from political and economic turmoil. Footnote: Waring's political influence was felt during the ultimately successful battle for human rights legislation in the early 1990s. Her one-time electorate secretary and political protege, National MP Katherine O'Regan, spearheaded the final stages of the campaign for the legislation which to this day helps protect NZ's glbt citizens from once widespread and legally sanctioned discriminatory practices.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Monday, 31st December 2007 - 1:18pm