Gay activism and law reform – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS
• A TRANS HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN NEW ZEALAND
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• 50 YEARS OF GAY LIBERATN AOTEAROA
• PAGE 2. GAY ACTIVISM AND LAW REFORM
• STORY: GAY MEN’S LIV
• GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT PROTT
• THE PERCEPTNS OF NEW ZEALAND LAWYERS AND SOCIAL WORKERS ABOUT CHILDREN BEG ADOPTED BY GAY COUPL AND LBIAN COUPL

GAY RIGHTS

For more rmatn on queer Aotearoa New Zealand prr to 1969, check out the followg: Elizabeth Kerekere, ‘Part of The Whān: The Emergence of Takatāpui Inty – He Whāriki Takatāpui, ’ PhD This, Victoria Universy of Wellgton, 2017; Chris Brickell, Mat and Lovers: A History of Gay New Zealand (Auckland: Random Hoe, 2008); Jsi Hutchgs and Clive Asp, eds., Sexualy and the Stori of Indigeno People (Wellgton: Huia, 2007); Alison J. Danielle Street, ‘Queer activists vandalised a ‘gay’ ATM Auckland’, Vice, 24 Feb 2015; Aych McArdle and Ts McClure, ‘Auckland Pri Para and the hypocrisy of Big Corporate’, Vice, 23 Feb 2018; Maxe Jabs, ‘Pri Para: More sponsors pull their support’, RNZ, 21 Nov 2018; ‘Pri Para sponsors ‘blackmailg’ gay muny – Rākete’, RNZ, 23 Nov 2018.

While the Gay Liberatn Front self may not have been found by trans people, trans women were the “ial impet” behd the gay movement: for was trans women – whakawāhe (Māori trans women) specifilly – who were the backbone of the muni om which the movement grew. In an early issue of the Auckland Gay Liberatn Front’s newspaper, Gay Lib News, activists plored the “suffotg tightns of the nuclear fay, ” which had rulted “anyone who don’t act acrdg to the male or female rol fed by society” as beg emed “unnatural, and subjected to discrimatn and sufferg”.

Meanwhile, Victoria Universy of Wellgton’s Gay Liberatn Front branch clared s manifto that “those wh the movement who face addnal opprsn”, cludg “women, Maoris [sic], Pacific Islanrs, transvt and trans-sexuals and blatant gays, ” should be given “every enuragement to form special uc or sub-groups to prent their e to the movement”. Hesthia, a trans advocy group found Lower Hutt 1972, was an early supporter of gay liberatn, and turn members were equently asked to speak at nferenc, ved to gay liberatn danc, and gave tnal panels alongsi gay activists at hospals and schools. Ngāhuia Te Awekotu, the very spark of Gay Liberatn Aotearoa, specifilly named three whakawāhe – Māori trans women – as the lears an hered “Polynian tradn” of queerns: om “the Mahu of Hawaii, Tahi, the Cook Islands, the Marquas, of the Fa’afafe of Samoa, of the Fakalei of Tonga, of the Carmens, and Shirell and Natashas of Aotearoa.

A TRANS HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Prostut Collective muny liaison Chanel Hati has scribed how credible was for her young trans self to see someone like Carmen beg so unapologetic: “this trans woman got out there, wh her big tti out, not shy…she broke down the barriers of nservative ials about what beg trans, or beg gay, or beg anythg other than the norm is…we stand on her shoulrs. In the Uned Stat this greater visibily brought some backlash, particularly om the ernment and the police: the ernment often fired gay civil servants, the ary attempted to purge s ranks of gay soldiers (a policy enacted durg World War II), and police vice squads equently raid gay bars and arrted their patrons.

In the Uned Stat the first major male anizatn, found 1950–51 by Harry Hay Los Angel, was the Mattache Society (s name reputedly rived om a medieval French society of masked players, the Société Mattache, to reprent the public “maskg” of homosexualy), while the Dghters of Bilis (named after the Sapphic love poems of Pierre Louÿs, Chansons Bilis), found 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Mart San Francis, was a leadg group for women. In Bra 1957 a missn chaired by Sir John Wolfenn issued a groundbreakg report (see Wolfenn Report) remendg that private homosexual liaisons between nsentg adults be removed om the doma of crimal law; a later the remendatn was implemented by Parliament the Sexual Offenc Act. This support, along wh mpaigns by gay activists urgg gay men and women to “e out of the closet” (ed, the late 1980s, Natnal Comg Out Day was tablished, and is now celebrated on October 11 most untri), enuraged gay men and women to enter the polil arena as ndidat.

Other issu of primary importance for the gay rights movement sce the 1970s clud batg the HIV/AIDS epimic and promotg disease preventn and fundg for rearch; lobbyg ernment for nondiscrimatory polici employment, hog, and other aspects of civil society; endg the ban on ary service for gay and lbian dividuals; expandg hate crim legislatn to clu protectns for gays, cludg transgenr dividuals; and securg marriage rights for same-sex upl (see same-sex marriage).

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Ary’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (1993–2011), which had permted gay and lbian dividuals to serve the ary if they did not disclose their sexual orientatn or engage homosexual activy; the repeal effectively end the ban on homosexuals the ary.

The activist Sandy Gntlett argued that drag queens were the ‘most maligned of gay people’, spe their brave ristance to society’s ‘genr programmg’, and another wrer suggted ‘drags’ were pneers the gay movement, havg had ‘the urage to “e out” and bear the bnt of straight srn long before any of dared to’. It’s important to rist popular ias that Gay Liberatn started wh the 1969 New York Stonewall Inn Rts (a nohels semal event the history of global queer activism) and sudnly changed the world overnight, and stead work to unrstand and uplift the radil histori on our own shor, and to tell the stori that extend back many centuri.

In Aotearoa, the Gay Liberatn movement of the 1970s sought to ee people om the homophobic shackl imposed by Brish lonisatn followg the signg of Te Tiri o Waangi 1840, which led to the adoptn of Brish laws, cludg the law which crimalised sodomy. Gay liberatn uld never have occurred Aotearoa whout the prr existence of the muni, the “kamp men and women, the fairi, butch, queens, dyk, transsexuals, transvt, and htlers” who risked imprisonment, physil abe and social nmnatn orr to live their thentic liv.

50 YEARS OF GAY LIBERATN AOTEAROA

There were the kamp Māori women of 1960s Wellgton (they didn’t ll themselv lbians back then), who band together for safety, solidary and socialisg; the femme fairi betiful drs dolled up wh wigs and false eyelash on the arms of butch clad mascule attire, breasts strapped – female upl passg as heterosexual to avoid a hidg; the queer trailblazer Carmen Rupe, who employed transvt, transexuals, drag queens, gay men and lbians at her famo ffee lounge and other Wellgton tablishments the 60s and 70s. Although theory activists sought clivy – the word ‘gay’ was ed broadly to name a muny that was racially diverse and volved homosexuals, bisexuals, asexuals, tersex people and trans people (though they ed different terms, such as “non-sexual” and “trans-sexual”) – practice GLF was a predomantly whe, middle-class, cisgenr movement. 'Natnal MP Norman Jon addrsg a public meetg 1985 LAGANZ 0080-B, Peter Nowland CollectnOpponents were supported by anisatns such as the Salvatn Army and by well-known overseas mpaigners agast homosexualy – the Reverend Lou Sheldon and John Swan particular.

'Bigot Bters rally at Wellgton Town Hall LAGANZ 0503-BGroups such as the New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform Society, the Gay Task Force, Heterosexuals Unaaid of Gays (HUG), the Lbian Coaln and the Campaign for Homosexual Equaly tried to unter their opponents many ways. Male same-sex activy was still illegal durg the 1970s, and a young Graham Unrhill – later a gay activist – watched a gay rights prott march Auckland wh some trepidatn: ‘A small, brave group of people dared to march down Queen Street loudly mandg “gay rights”. The fear of imprisonment or beg locked an stutn did not stop the LGBTQI+ muny and the first New Zealand anisatn for gay men – the Dorian Society (1962-88) – started to advote for change, the first steps that would lead to law reform and the regnn of human rights.

Across New Zealand, several gay and lbian rights anisatns were tablished, like 1972, when Ngahuia Te Awekotu formed the Gay Liberatn Front Auckland and 1973 The Sisters for Homophile Equaly (SHE) was formed Wellgton by a group of a femist activist. Her discharge om the ary over her homosexualy had turned her to an Tob/The New York Public LibraryPublished July 19, 2023Updated July 23, 2023Lilli Vcenz, who beme a gay rights activist the hhed, reprsive era before the Stonewall rebelln of 1969, when such a ncept srcely existed, makg a mark as a newspaper edor, documentary filmmaker and psychotherapist voted to L. Vicenz beme, by most acunts, the first lbian to picket the Whe Hoe support of equal rights for gay people as a member of the Mattache Society of Washgton, an early gay rights prott — the first of s kd, acrdg to the Library of Congrs — and others that followed were small but brought visibily to a movement s fancy.

PAGE 2. GAY ACTIVISM AND LAW REFORM

Vcenz beme the first out lbian to appear on the ver of a natnal gay magaze, The Ladr, a publitn produced by the untry’s first lbian-rights group, the Dghters of Bilis, acrdg to a retrospective on her life and reer by Lillian Farman, a historian of lbian and gay her scbbed, all-Amerin looks, Dr. Vcenz looked like “every mother’s dream dghter, ” as Barbara Gtgs, The Ladr’s edor, put Vcenz also ntributed to the e on the other si of a mera, makg two 16-limeter films that were later hailed as signifint artifacts of the early gay rights first, tled “The Send-Largt Mory, ” documents a Mattache Society prott ont of Inpennce Hall Philalphia on July 4, morn ey, the black-and-whe film, roughly seven mut, seems anythg but seismic. ) And Kate McKnon, playg a so-lled Weird Barbie who experienced an extreme haircut and makeover at the hands of an experimental child, never actually answers the qutn anybody would have upon seeg her gay-ass haircut and knowg the actor’s sexualy.

That said, the New Zealand ernment still nsired homosexualy a mental disease, and men who were dishonorably discharged om the ary due to gay activy were imprisoned, and the rerds weren’t expunged after the homosexual law reforms me , bee there was no retroactive enactment of those laws. The radil gay liberatn scene started to import disptive tactics om the USA, such as “Zaps”, guerilla polil theatre that saw activists drsg up as characters such as Batman & Rob and playg out a urt of law scene, while Santa Cls chanted “ho ho homosexual, sodomy laws are nefectual!

Unfortunately, the origal formatn of the Gay Liberatn Front found by Ngāhuia Te Awekōtu would not ntue for all of the stggle for queer liberatn Aotearoa, as fell to siar problems of ternal racism and sexism which also plagued other Gay Liberatn Fronts Ameri and Europe. Other radil elements such as digeno rights activists, anarchists and Trotskyists across the socialist spectm put forth analys that placed them squarely the fight for gay liberatn, as well as black liberatn and women’s liberatn, almost always opposg the more nservative “equaly” and “assiatn” elements.

STORY: GAY MEN’S LIV

At a 1974 Gay Liberatn Conference, Gay Liberatn lear and member of the Socialist Actn League, the late Dick Morrison put this statement forth: “All of the [anti-gay] laws have been set up for a fe purpose: to mata the hetero-sexual nuclear fay un which prent society pends on.

However there were several shortgs of this bill, such as the fact that was not retroactive, meang that men who had severed time prison or had been arrted for homosexual actns would need to rry out their sentenc and still rry rerds of them beg arrted for somethg that was no longer illegal. Another issue here was that gay and lbian people were not given protectn unr New Zealand Human Rights Bill, th makg legal to discrimate agast openly gay and lbian peopl Aotearoa until 1993 when the new New Zealand Human Rights Act was passed and discrimatn agast gay and lbian people Aotearoa was ma illegal.

GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT PROTT

Of urse, legislative change do not elimate all stctural barriers to eedom, but given that the unengaged mass look to parliament and the law as our central polil stctur, removg homophobic legislatn will affect public perceptn of queerns for the better.

This separate but equal system for gay “unn” as opposed to straight marriage was sperately weak, but given society’s pennce on the nuclear fay, was celebrated by some as an cremental step, a workaround to grant accs to the benefs provid by legal marriage, while not havg accs to the stutn self. When we look to the risg ti of transphobic hate the UK, the subsequent absolute erasure of tersex bodi and liv, and reactnary anti-gay laws beg drafted and enacted the US, we’re unfortunately remd that the gas we have won need to be protected whenever they’re challenged. A look through the ternatnal rearch lerature shows that spe numero untri awardg statutory rights to marry—and by extensn, adopt—lbian and gay upl ntue to report facg ongog obstacl when tryg to adopt, perpetrated maly by dividual adoptn worker and agency bias (e.

Moreover, children whose lbian mothers or gay fathers were origally heterosexual relatnships, will also have both mothers and fathers their liv the same way—and wh the same varyg gree of ntact—as children of heterosexual upl who divorce and remarry.

THE PERCEPTNS OF NEW ZEALAND LAWYERS AND SOCIAL WORKERS ABOUT CHILDREN BEG ADOPTED BY GAY COUPL AND LBIAN COUPL

Moreover, some thors have reported that the psychologil adjtment of children wh same-genr parents is not merely on par wh children raised by heterosexual parents, but that children raised by lbian and gay parents had better psychologil adjtment (Biblarz and Stacey, 2010; Fewa et al., 2015).

On the other hand, the lbian and gay fai who are not wedd to the nuclear stcture are fdg themselv and their children larger geic and social kship works… Adoptn wh ntact is a mol of muny or shared parentg that may have lsons for the same-sex parent fai. Importantly, has also been suggted by other rearchers that if the offsprg of same-genr parents do turn out to be homosexual, the likelihood is extremely high that they will grow up more acceptg environments, than did many lbian and gay dividuals who grew up heterosexual hom (Carastathis et al., 2017; VanrWaal et al., 2017). Regardls of the eventual sexual inty of children raised by lbian and gay parents, the offsprg are beg raised acceptg environments that promote more tolerance of diversy, which many of the children/young adults themselv believe to be a beneficial by-product of their unique fay life (Welsh, 2011).

Fally, one of the earlit and more nigratg myths about same-genr parentg is the notn that children raised by gay or lbian parents are more likely to be sexually abed, which appears to stem om the belief that homosexuals are sexually viant people (Hicks, 2006).