Gay man reflects on 'sry' life before New Zealand's homosexual law reform | Newshub

Contents:

• GAY DATG NEW ZEALAND
• STORY: GAY MEN’S LIV
• HEATH DAVIS BE FIRST MALE NEW ZEALAND CRICKETER TO E OUT AS GAY
• GAY MAN REFLECTS ON 'SRY' LIFE BEFORE NEW ZEALAND'S HOMOSEXUAL LAW REFORM
• FREE GAY DATG NEW ZEALAND ONLE
• GAY MEN’S LIV
• GAY NEW ZEALAND
• START MEETG SGLE GAY MEN NEW ZEALAND
• GAY CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND | THE ESSENTIAL LGBT TRAVEL GUI!

GAY DATG NEW ZEALAND

In 1993 beme illegal to discrimate agast gay people, and 2005 civil unns were troduced, allowg same-sex upl to have legally regnised unns siar to marriage. Former New Zealand Tt player Heath Davis has bee the untry’s first male ternatnal cricketer to publicly speak about beg, 50, played five Tts and 11 one-day ternatnals for the Black Caps between 1994 and 1997 and was known as an timidatg, if nsistent, pace s after his Tt but, Davis publicly revealed his sexualy for the first time, an episo of the documentary seri Scratched: Aotearoa’s Lost Sportg first ternatnal male cricketer to e out publicly was the former England wicketkeeper Steven Davi was durg Davis’s first tour to England 1994 when he started to really disver himself, he told The Spoff, though he had told his mother at an early age he was gay. There was nothg to tie to, if you know what I mean, ” Davis entered his first gay relatnship when he was 27 years old, while playg for Wellgton, but he was reluctant to appear public as a uple.

When an offer of a ntract me om Auckland, Davis saw an opportuny to move away om the cy he did not felt fortable beg out the uple ma the move to Auckland, Davis told his new team’s manager he was gay, which was passed on to his team members and “didn’t seem to be that big an issue” is now on a new journey – one that exists tensn wh his sexualy. Photograph: supplied by Heath DavisAn ternatnal study on homophobia sport, released May, revealed that New Zealand gay and bisexual men were the most likely to keep their sexualy secret both youth and adult sports, wh many sayg they feared bullyg om teammat and discrimatn om ach and than half of all participants believed team sport is more homophobic than the rt of New Zealand society, while gay men were much more likely to believe this (69%) than anyone Wellgton Firebirds player, Stephen Mather, said Davis told him about his sexualy 1997, when there were no other outwardly gay men playg first class cricket at that time.

STORY: GAY MEN’S LIV

Former Gay Task Force member Bill Logan, who was part of the ph to legalise , says life as a gay person before the reform was "pretty sry" given you uldn't expect to have a public life or get many secure jobs. "You're not gog to be able to have gay men discs what they need to discs to prevent the spread of AIDS wh their doctors, wh health profsnal workers unls they n be open about their sexual practic.

HEATH DAVIS BE FIRST MALE NEW ZEALAND CRICKETER TO E OUT AS GAY

Society was not always so open – until recently many aspects of gay life New Zealand were hidn, and the early 21st century some gay men still ncealed their sexualy. The news media beme terted the new homosexual ‘sects’ and ‘circl’, reflectg the works’ creasg size and the growg visibily of bars equented by gay men: the Waemata Auckland, the Royal Oak Wellgton and the Brish Hotel Lyttelton.

GAY MAN REFLECTS ON 'SRY' LIFE BEFORE NEW ZEALAND'S HOMOSEXUAL LAW REFORM

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 lerature of the movement – which brought together gay male and lbian activism – was sexually explic and openly advoted a gay life; different thors promoted gay marriage, mun and non-monogamy.

Author Peter Wells remembered how the arrival of HIV/AIDS created a public backlash towards the gay muny: ‘Every time you picked up the paper there was a new b of news about how you uld tch .

Although this applied to all forms of provotn, impacted on gay victims sce some killers had claimed their male victim proposned them sexually and ed them to lose ntrol, allowg them to be nvicted on the lser charge of manslghter. The annual Big Gay Out Auckland’s Coyle Park, wh performers, dancg, food stalls, and ocsnal handbag-throwg ntt, is one of the most high-profile gay social events.

FREE GAY DATG NEW ZEALAND ONLE

In the 2010s there was no reliable timate of New Zealand’s gay, lbian and bisexual populatn – official statistics on sexual orientatn were not llected for privacy reasons. While the self-selectg nature of the survey ma unreprentative – most rponnts were highly ted, earned high and were polilly active – provid some sights to the gay muny and a base for further rearch. A 2009 survey of Otago sendary school stunts revealed gay people or issu were rarely discsed class, although librari and guidance uncillors sometim provid relevant books and pamphlets.

GAY MEN’S LIV

Among the populatn another sort of diversy exists: age-old Maori tribal ways, nservative Brish tradnalists and a lorful, out-proud Lbigay muny savorg their ferally legislative rights.

Dpe a storm of fundamentalist relig bigotry, MP Fran Wil, supported by a voted re of natnal gayadvot, led the charge agast ignorance and discrimatn for 16 arduo months as she phed, joled and persuad legislators to vote for her landmark legislatn which proposed to crimalize nsentg homosexual over the age of 16. Wh a harbor of whe sails, also the gay pal of Aotearoa, the native Maori name before the Europeans arrived wh their tradg ships and firearms the neteenth century. Wh two hours of landg Auckland we were treated to generosy om a Sgaporean woman at the Swiss bakery, a urty om r drivers as we entered cross walks, and a iendls om virtually each person we enuntered: the rental r agent, our gay B&B hosts and the sexy cyber assistant at the Brazil fe on K’ road.

GAY NEW ZEALAND

One glance through s onle pag ptur the by and tense gay scene here: polil issu, gay bs ads, sports activi, full page bar/sna/dis ads, lendar of events/venu, acmodatns, lerary reviews, personals, and gay Maori news. If anythg is missg there, ’s sure to appear the other major gay webse, which also featur world news, entertament, civil unns, adoptn, as well as HIV health and preventn programs.

What is a proper agenda: assiatn or queer distctn; -your-face erotic energy or subdued hetero-like hhed sexualy; is homosexual orientatn a proud inty or a meek label sendary to other cultural distctns such as reer or fay or fancial stat? Sce New Zealand lbigay cizens are no longer ncerned for their legislative safety and legal stat, as many wtern societi, the subsequent generatn of issu facg the larger global gay muny often turns to inty, appearance and exprsn as well as equaly of opportuny-issu that are more difficult to foc and agree on.

Eugene is a very-out human rourc nsultant who nfers wh rporatns, ernment agenci as well as the ary branch to te them about lbigay issu such as harassment, discrimatn, tolerance and workplace attus. As an expat he also sensed a certa adolcent arrogance Amerin gay attus that do not prevail his adopted untry, an attu “that seems to e om a buff-gym-narcissism rerced by money”.

START MEETG SGLE GAY MEN NEW ZEALAND

Strollg down the ma street of Dannevirke the next day was not the place I expected to fd a new gay novel stg very obvly among recent paperback releas at the lol bookstore, s ver face up showg a pretty boy clad only his unrwear- the ont wdow.

Perhaps most typil of this tegratn was the lotn of Bo Jangl, a gay bar/dis that opened 1997 and was, for a uple of years, one of the more popular venu town. On my way to fdg the bars, I stopped to ask strangers (an apparent straight uple) for directns and we wound up a thoroughly helpful nversatn about which gay bars had closed and opened recently the area-and why. Stoppg at both Whull’s Booksellers and Uny Books, two cha stor throughout the untry, I saw a healthy llectn of lbigay publitns both om New Zealand and abroad.

GAY CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND | THE ESSENTIAL LGBT TRAVEL GUI!

I bought ‘Emergg Tribe’, a journalistic acunt of the NZ gay muny the 90’s, and ‘Tellg Our Story’ which chronicl the experienc of dividuals g out and strivg to live acknowledged liv. Although very pleased wh the progrs so far, she felt there was still work to be done orr for women to have te equal rights, rpect and reer opportuni a society that was willg to value lbigays and Maori people. In her far rangg review of New Zealand life, Alayna also gave a quick summary of Wellgton’s lbigay venu, namg bars and clubs that have closed as others have opened.

It was clear om listeng to her that the new generatn of young lbigay lears was rryg the torch of the ‘pneers’ of the seventi and eighti and vigilant matag the qualy of gay life New Zealand. To him, havg his lover referred to as his ‘partner’ and not ‘iend’ is a seemgly small but important piece of tablishg gay history on his marae (rervatn) near Kaaia. In Wellgton, a night at the Trekkers Hotel, a gay iendly hotel that ters a lot to backpackers and other laid back travelers was rmal, pleasant and full of travel rmatn.

I told him about the gay and lbian program and wh no hatn he tried to fd on the telly, but alas this ltle town on the northern ast did not get that channel om Christchurch a hundred overland across the mountas.