Frontiers | The Perceptns of New Zealand Lawyers and Social Workers About Children Beg Adopted by Gay Coupl and Lbian Coupl

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.

A TRANS HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN NEW ZEALAND

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.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

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. 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.

50 YEARS OF GAY LIBERATN AOTEAROA

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.

PAGE 2. GAY ACTIVISM AND LAW REFORM

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).

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.

STORY: GAY MEN’S LIV

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.

GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT PROTT

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.

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

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.

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.