40 Years of the Homosexual Law reform, its impact on 12 year old me and why it’s the same now
‘Some would stop at nothing to prevent it’ – homosexual law reform 40 years on
The Homosexual Law Reform Bill, which decriminalised consensual sex between men aged 16 and over, passed by just four votes on July 9, 1986. It transformed the lives of generations of rainbow New Zealanders and paved the way for reforms that followed, including civil unions, marriage equality and greater representation across public life.
TVNZ
I was 12 years old when the Homosexual Law Reform Bill passed.
I was never really a God boy. The sleepy little Dairy Flat I grew up in was VERY Christian and I had run ins with my school all the time over why the Christ I was being forced to do Bible Class on a Wednesday in a secular school.
It always seemed to me to be an excuse for the Teachers to have a coffee and smoke ciggies for half an hour as local Christians came in to teach the gospel.
I would go out of my way to ask questions all the time that the Christians didn’t like.
For me, the idea that you would follow an invisible flying magical wizard for your day to day morality seemed ludicrous, even as a child, so for me Christians were eye rolling nerds who believed in ghosts who weren’t to be taken seriously.
And then the Homosexual Law Reform Bill surfaced.
Up until then, Christians were the butt of a joke, but were tolerable because they were harmless.
That perspective changed for me dramatically during that debate.
I didn’t understand why being Gay was illegal in the first place so I was genuinely curious to hear why anyone had any actual problem with it and sweet risen zombie Jesus did I get an education.
The venom and fucking evil hate these dorky Christians I had spent so long mocking and rolling my eyes over became a horror show.
Previously mild mannered God botherers foamed with spittle at the mouth in their denunciation of gay people.
At 12, I didn’t even know any gay people, but the manner in which so many redneck Christians went old school medieval on them was so repugnant to me, that it bonded a forever support of gay rights, civil unions and ultimately marriage equality.
I fear that same level of malice has formed today with Christo fascism on the rise and the extraordinary backlash to Trans rights.
I never thought heterosexuality was a disability, but look at this…
…it’s like her entire policy platform is ‘I have a heterosexual vagina’.
I’m not sure having a heterosexual vagina is enough to be a political representative to be frank.
A liberal progressive democracy vales many things:
- Free Speech
- No taxation without representation
- The recognition of the rights of the individual
- Freedom of religion
- Separation of Powers
- Rule of law
- and an independent judiciary.
The promise of democracy is you are empowered by your intrinsic human rights to live your own agency.
I disagreed with the manner in which the Trans community, fourth wave feminists, non-binary activists and middle class woke went about attempting to gain their rights and the destructive culture war backlash it generated, but the Trans community are still human beings with intrinsic human rights that deserve respect and the capacity to go about their lives with the same agency we all take for granted.
I am fortunate to have witnessed the Homosexual Law Reform Bill, it gave me a comprehension of how utterly unhinged many religious freaks are while teaching me to be tolerant of those very same religious freaks.
The gay community won us over with their truly inclusive message of family. They asked us to only accept that they love like we loved and it was a national embarrassment that it was still illegal to be gay in 1986.
I salute all those who fought to make NZ a less morally frigid country and one that actually lived up to our egalitarian principles.
In solidarity ✊
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I remember the comments at the time that world would end if they legally allowed queers and poofs to have sex.
The law was changed but it has taken decades to change long held prejudices and hatred directed at this part of our communities. Many ended their lives through suicide rather than face ridicule and bullying for being different and those who came from families and whanau who would never accept or allow their family reputation to be at risk if their child was not ” straight”. The black sheep would be known as the ” brown sheep ” by the most hateful bigoted Mothers and Fathers.
Shunning or publicly exposing those who certainly were not ” out ” and had their professional reputation in danger will exposed to blackmail or worse.
In human rights terms it has been one of our most important law to have been passed in the history of our parliament.
There is much to be proud of and to celebrate and this law has paved the way for future generations of our rainbow communities.
As the economy, and society, sails of a cliff we can rest easy in the knowledge that Helen doesn’t the like the rug.