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Analysis: The Relationships Bill- Second Reading

Sun 13 Mar 2005 In: Features

Only the CHP and Maxim Institute commented on passage of the Relationships (Statutory References) Act 2004 on 16 March 2005, the day after. Ewen McQueen (CHP Leader) whined that the RSRA "lowered the standard" of monogamous relationships. It takes much to arouse comment from this reticent figure, who doesn't comment on much. The Maxim Institute made a brief response to passage of the Relationships Act, and referred to Richard Worth's half-hearted attempt to include non-sexual relationships through a vexatious amendment to the Civil Unions Act. When the time came, he wasn't even in Parliament to defend his measure. However, at least the government will be examining the issue during the next parliamentary term, which the Institute should have known if it was at all focused on the issue. The Maxim Institute didn't update its anti-CUA/RSRA website since December 2004, and took it off its main page in January 2005. It's too late now, and its silence left the wider Christian Right bereft of any updated US Christian Right junk science references. In Wanganui, Reformed Church minister Garnet Milne was silent, or perhaps he has a limited span of attention when dealing with these issues. It will be recalled that Milne runs two antigay websites, the Campaign Against Civil Unions and Reformation Testimony. On the day after, Milne had switched to lacerating Mauretania for alleged religious persecution of evangelical Christians, and used the term "spiritual bondage." I will refrain from making correlations with references to corporal punishment on Reformation Testimony's website. What about mainstream media coverage?I was annoyed that there was no reference at all to the bill's passage on either Television New Zealand or TV3 network news, or in the New Zealand Herald. Given the controversy over the preceding Civil Union Act for the last quarter of last year, I must confess to some surprise on that front. Still, at least it means that antigay NZH columnist Garth George has shut up for once, so perhaps one shouldn't complain overmuch. As usual, INL/Fairfax papers did a much better job in terms of coverage. However, they didn't note the winning margin. According to one observer in the gallery, it turned out to be 76-44. In other words, I suspect that it wasn't all that different from the second reading, apart from the fact that Brian Donnelly was back on side after the obnoxious Dail Jones misinformed him about proceedings during the committee stages of the bill. Speaking of Granny Herald, I hope we won't see any more ridiculous columns about phantom social conservative legions that will-turn-against-the-Labour-Party-for-its-heinous-social-engineering from their politics correspondents. It won't happen. This is not the United States, which is abnormally religious by the standards of the Western world. Nor is it Australia, where the Howard administration has been bedding in fundamentalists as a federal constituency for the Liberal/National coalition government for the last nine years. Unfortunately, it won't mean that the Christian Right will shut up, even given its current wounds. They won't prove fatal, sadly, although some of the pipsqueak bigot groups will probably die off. However, we owe the Destiny Church an ironic debt of gratitude for its total ineptitude in not recognising that their militaristic escapade last year would have inevitable consequences. Like Sydney's fundamentalist 'phobe Fred Nile, "Bishop" Brian Tamaki serves as a lightning rod for queasy mainstream New Zealand opinion. Will we now see fundamentalist civil war? Unfortunately, that would be hoping for too much. Destiny Church has allies amongst the Pentecostal fraternity, namely City Impact Church and the Christian Life Centre in Auckland, as well as the Christian Heritage Party, although as there isn't much of them left, that's largely irrelevant. Challenge Weekly ran critical opinion about Tamaki for the very first time, but found it neccessary to publish a response from Tamaki in this week's issue. As for the SPCS, CACU/Reformation Testimony and the shriller element of the Christian Right, I hope that they realise that their undiluted homophobia scares normal New Zealanders. Probably not, but they have to take a share of the credit for our victory margin this time, even if people mostly ignore SPCS these days. Moreover, there's the small matter of the Maxim Institute. Granted, I had concluded that it would inevitably lose any battle against remedies for relationship inequality, but I didn't realise that they would take it so much to heart. At the moment, they're impersonating Herman Melville's Captain Ahab and the crew of the Pequod, pursuing a large and elusive cetacean marked 'hate speech.' Unlike the fabled Great White Whale (Moby Dick), though, no-one has actually seen a creature named 'hate speech ban legislation.' Many have claimed to do so, but they are the likes of the aforementioned Garnet Milne and Stephen Franks (ACT's embarassing Justice spokesperson). These suspect sources can safely be disregarded. What about reading Labour publicity leaflets? According to Rainbow (LGBT) Labour material, there will be eventual adoption law reform and transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination bills. This material does not contain similar promises about hate speech bans. Should hate speech bans be a priority, or are there other outstanding LGBT law reform issues which have to take precedence? Adoption law reform has become the final frontier for lesbians and gay men, as we have acquired all other same-sex parenting rights and responsibilities.As for our transgender sisters and brothers have waited for twelve years for similar anti-discrimination protections to lesbian, gay and bisexual New Zealanders. That has to be our immediate priority. As well as that, there are health issues like methamphetamine abuse, LGBT youth suicide and availability of new protease inhibitor treatments. The McNee case last year also demonstrated that we need to request that the New Zealand Law Commission study the defence of 'provocation' in the context of 'homosexual panic defence.' Now that relationship equality is ours, we should now centre our attention on passage of Georgina's private members bill against gender identity discrimination. In future columns, I'll deal with the fragmented Christian Right response to transgender rights, and suggest useful resources for forthcoming public information campaigns and community submissions. As for eventual adoption law reform, that will have to wait for the next parliamentary session. May I suggest that existing community groups established to fight for passage of the Civil Unions Act and Relationships Act now reinforce the trans community with personnel, financial and media resources? And then there's the general election later this year... Recommended Reading: Fred Nile: Fred Nile: A Biography: Sydney: Stroud Publishing: 2001. Marion Maddox: God Under Howard: The Rise of the Religious Right in Australian Politics: Sydney: Allen and Unwin: 2005. Craig Young - 13th March 2005    

Credit: Craig Young

First published: Sunday, 13th March 2005 - 12:00pm

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