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Kia ora koutou te whanui a Tara. Kia ora koutou e nga takatapui. Kia ora koutou e nga Irawhiti. Kia ora koutou e nga homi. Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou. K- tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. Nau mai ki tenei hui. Um, hi, I'm Tristan Cordelia. I'll be your MC for this afternoon. Um, I'm going to call, um, Kōwhai up to do a karakia, [00:00:30] and then we will open things up, have some speeches, and then if we have time, we'll have an open mic at the end. Um, welcome to 40 years of homosexual law reform. Whakataka te hau ki te uru, whakataka te hau ki te tonga. Kia mākinakina ki uta, kia mātaratara ki tai. E hī ake ana te atakura. He tio, he huka, he hau hū, tihei mauri ora! Kia ora. [00:01:00] So we are gathering here today to celebrate 40 years since homosexual law reform, or as I like to put it, the legalization of sodomy. Um, because as much as it is, uh, kind of the, the done thing these days to refer to ourselves as the rainbow community and sanitize ourselves, we ultimately are here because so many of our forebearers were locked up and had their lives destroyed [00:01:30] just for wanting to have sex with other consenting adults. Um, and yeah, sometimes that's messy, sometimes it involves, like, bodily fluids, sometimes it involves, like, diseases that we have to keep ourselves safe from, um, but we don't wanna sanitize things, and today is essentially the activist part of the celebrations. We've had a lot of other celebrations for the 40th anniversary of homosexual law reform, um, [00:02:00] meeting in some, like, really nice places, um, putting all our best dresses on. Um, but today we're here together in a completely open environment, open to the sun, um, open to one another, to celebrate the fact that this has been a fight, but it's been a fight that we, yep, 40 years ago, had a really great victory on. Um, and we've got four speakers here to, who are gonna talk about this, um, and then if we have time, we'll [00:02:30] open the mic up so other people can speak. So I'm going to call our first speaker, um, Kofie, up to the mic. Welcome. Tena koutou katoa. Ko Taranaki, ko Ngati Porou, ko Ngapuhi, ko Ngati Tuwharetoa nga iwi. Ko Takatapa ui aho. Ko Kowhai toku ingoa. We gather here today to celebrate forty years of homosexual law reform. When this [00:03:00] bill was passed, I was not born yet. I was born in 2009, close to when same-sex marriage was legalized, legalized, and we could adopt children, I believe. Though I've heard many stories about when the law reform was passed. It was a big deal, still is a big deal to the New Zealand queer community. Without it, the government could still bully gay men and lesbians. National opposed the reform. At the time, Winston Peters was in National. Why is this all relevant? Fast-forward to the '90s, [00:03:30] Winston Peters resigns from National and founded New Zealand First. Now fast-forward to May 2026. The definitions of a man and woman bill is being debated in Parliament. "This will protect our boys and girls," they said. This is the same rhetoric they used when they criminalized homosexuality. This is the same exact thing when they criminalized queerness. The whole reason homosexual law reform was passed was so we could love freely. Now we wa- now they want to force our community back into [00:04:00] boxes that do not work for us. It is a spit in the face of those both passed on and still here. We're s- we're forcing children to go through a puberty that is painful for both, for them both emotionally and mentally via the banning of puberty blockers. As Gerard Way of My Chemical once, My Chemical Romance once said, "In the face of extermination, say fuck you." Kia ora, and apologies. Thank you, Kautai. Um, I next welcome up to the microphone [00:04:30] my comrade Bill, who was involved in the campaign 40 years ago. Welcome, Bill. Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. 40 years ago, queerness was a secret. Jobs were precarious, and people were excluded from families. Police harassment was routine, [00:05:00] and the local sauna was raided by the cops. I knew men who were blackmailed, and others who were subjected to electric shock aversion therapy. Then an extraordinary thing happened. Right here in this building, Parliament did something useful. It passed the Homosexual Law Reform Bill. [00:05:30] It stopped treating the private lives of gay men as crimes, and that was a breakthrough for all queer communities. But Parliament did not simply wake up one day enlightened. We won because we organized. The campaign took place at the height of the hysterical, poisonous AIDS pandemic. [00:06:00] There was even widespread fear that AIDS could be caught from door handles. We never actually discovered what people were doing with their door handles- ... but such fantasies fueled the panic. The public discourse was often nasty. Our opponents claimed reform would spread disease, corrupt the young, and bring an end to [00:06:30] civilization. Senior politicians told us to get back into the sewers where they said we had come from, but we kept going. We refused to live like that any longer. The campaign brought together radical lesbians, uh, gay men of every imaginable description, socialists, liberals, church people, health workers, students, and trade unionists. It brought together [00:07:00] responsible, respectable professionals, and people who oppose any form of respectability whatsoever. We disagreed about every tactic, but we agreed that anti-homosexual laws must go. We were pressed to compromise. Some politicians were prepared to decriminalize men over 21, but left- leave younger [00:07:30] men criminalized. We refused. The principle was clear: stand by the most vulnerable in our communities. Now, freedom is never a gift from the politicians. It is won through struggle, organization, and alliances. Parliament changed the law because a movement outside parliament changed what is possible. [00:08:00] But freedom, any freedom, one is fragile. So long as the capitalist system remains, it's reversible. Queers are a minority, and minorities need allies. Maori and Pacifica, women's organizations, churches, student bodies. Above all, we need the social power of the workers' [00:08:30] movement. We seek allies not by hiding who we are or softening our demands, but by showing that our struggle is part of a wider struggle for freedom. Now today, trans and non-binary people are being made a special political target. A bill before Parliament right now seeks to impose crude, rigid definitions on the complexities of sex and gender. [00:09:00] This attempt grows out of a politics of conservative family values, puritanism, and authoritarianism, the same politics that shaped homophobia and now prepares the ground for the far right. Hardened definitions of men and women threaten all kinds of queerness and ultimately every kind of freedom. We must [00:09:30] defend the most vulnerable and remember the lessons of history. They isolate one group. They lie about it. They claim to protect children. They test how much cruelty the public will accept, and they move on. 40 years ago, we learned that panic can be beaten, bigotry isolated, allies won, and organized people can change the [00:10:00] law and the country. So let us celebrate our victory. Let us defend it. Let us reach out outward. We will remain united and stand by the most vulnerable, and when authority tries to relegate any part of our communities to the sewers, we will answer now as we answered then: no. We are here, we are queer, and we're not going [00:10:30] anywhere And I'd like to thank Bill, um, for that speech. And on that note, um, before we move on to the next two speakers, let's do some chanting together if you're all keen. We're here, we're queer, get used to it. Get used to it. We're here, we're queer, get used to it. We're here, we're queer, and we will resist. We're here, [00:11:00] we're queer, and we will resist. Now let's alternate them. See if we can do this. We're here, we're queer, get used to it. We're here, we're queer, and we will resist. We're here, we're queer, get used to it. We're here, we're queer, and we will resist. Thank you. Um. I would now like to welcome up to the stage, um, Alexi.[00:11:30] Hello. My name is Alexi, and I'm a young person who is involved in LGBT activism. I am very grateful that homosexual law reform has allowed myself and, uh, all of the fantastic lesbian, gay, and bisexual people I work alongside with in, um, queer endurance and defiance to live out in the open without fear of possible legal repercussions. The amazing [00:12:00] progress that has been made ... sorry, towards homosexuality becoming more accepted wouldn't have b- been possible without this law reform. Unfortunately, we have seen multiple anti-trans policies in the last year, and it is upsetting that this has coincided with the 40th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality. This also serves as a reminder that the fight for all LGBT people to be free to live without discrimination did not end in 1986. Two recent pieces of legislation that [00:12:30] specifically come to mind are the proposed ban on puberty blockers and the definitions of a man and woman bill. The puberty blocker ban would force more trans youth to experience unwanted and permanent changes by restricting access to medications that are extremely important. Um, the definitions bill would define man and woman in an unnecessary and illogical way. Both of these policies send the message that trans people should not have the freedom to live the way that they want to live and were introduced to cr- create c- [00:13:00] controversy and bring public focus onto trans people. Politicians propose anti-trans policies because it's easier to gain support by riling people up and appealing to fear or anger than it is to make robust policies that can actually be backed up. I am disappointed to see that it is still considered acceptable for politicians to use these harmful tactics and that it still works. You would've thought that humanity had learned from the last thousand times a minority population had been blamed for all the world's issues, [00:13:30] yet here we are. The world keeps creating new ways to frame these same ideas that have been used to oppress people who do not conform to traditional concepts of gender and sexuality. The expectation that men should be masculine and provide for their families and that women should be feminine and take care of children and do housework is a huge part of this. Gay and lesbian people challenge these norms because they don't support the traditional ideal of a family being made up of man, woman, and children. Trans people [00:14:00] challenge these expectations because they show that gender can be entirely independent to these constructed gender roles. However, we are standing here in solidarity today as a way to say, "We didn't tolerate this 40 years ago, and we never will again." Love will always win over hatred, anger, and fear, just as it did when homosexual law reform was passed. We stood together 40 years ago, and we need to stand together in these modern times to show our oppressors that all policies fueled by hatred will fail in [00:14:30] the face of love. The definitions bill and puberty blocker ban have gotten international attention. If they fail, it will show the world that hateful policies scapegoating trans people are not a guaranteed easy win, and this will give trans people hope in such uncertain times. Thank you. Kia ora, Alexi. Um, I would now like to welcome [00:15:00] Amal up to the microphone. Kia ora, Amal Gosh, I've never had a lectern at a parliament rally. We're getting very fancy. 40 years on, homosexual law reform is often remembered as if it belonged to a smooth national story of progress. It did not. As Bill talked about, the campaign was fought in a period of severe anti-gay reaction. Gay men were cast as a threat to children, [00:15:30] families, and to public health. AIDS was turned into a weapon of panic. MPs and respectable public figures said things openly that many would now prefer to remember as fringe. They were not fringe. They seemed to be the mainstream. Even the left liberal progressive politicians of that time were mostly quiet when it came to gay rights. They did not want to seem fringe. HLR won anyway. That [00:16:00] was true for HLR, but the present anti-trans backlash, backlash as well Reactionary turns in politics have a way of repeating themselves. First, a minority becomes visible. Its demands become harder to ignore. The old prejudices stop sounding quite right in their old form, so they are repackaged as caution, safeguards, parental rights, fair balancing of concerns with other groups, and political compromise. Thus, a situation is created [00:16:30] in which most people disagree with outright reactionaries, but few are willing to fight them openly. That is the stage that we are at now. There are attacks on trans healthcare, in, uh, on trans issues in schools, trans people in sport, and attempts to write trans people out of legal recognition. The Rāwhiti have to deal with not only that, but attacks on tino rangatiratanga too. But these are issues our main opposition party has been pretty damn quiet about. Yeah. [00:17:00] Will a Labor-led government move against the rightward tide on trans rights, or will it prioritize coalition deals and concerns about electoral performance? The many labor and center-left parties around the world who have been ratcheted rightwards on this issue provide something of an answer. One narrative upholding this is that trans rights have moved too fast and have to be balanced with other concerns. That is exactly backwards. Backwa- backlash that foregrounds nebulous other concerns is not [00:17:30] proof of overreach, but proof that people who are expected to remain silent have been too, have, have become too difficult to ignore. That was true in the 1980s. Criminalization was not just an old law. It was part of a system of keeping people ashamed and isolated. Outright reactionaries were only one of the pillars of this system. Cautious liberals were another. The campaign forced that system into the open and then defeated it. It did not win respectability for everyone, so much as it [00:18:00] overcame the question of respectability altogether, at least for a moment. So the question is not whether we can avoid reaction against our mere existence. We cannot, no matter how small a target we present. The question is what we do and who we follow when it comes. The people who fought for law reform were told that they were dangerous, excessive, and taking things too far, too fast. They won anyway. They were strategic about it, but being strategic did not mean [00:18:30] becoming respectable and subordinating the fight for their rights to the temporary victory of mainstream left liberalism over outright reaction. Too often these things are conflated, especially in election years. Thank you. Kia ora, Amal. Um, we have time for an open mic, um, and I will get that started in a second. Um, but firstly, I just wanted to share a few words with you about why it's important that we keep showing up [00:19:00] and we keep standing up for ourselves. On the 26th of June this year, the trans march in San Francisco was attacked by armed police in riot gear who charged into the crowd and made indiscriminate arrests for alleged spray painting. How terrible. The following night, police again attacked a peaceful demonstration against their actions by charging into the crowd with their batons and their riot gear. This was in San Francisco, of all places. On the 25th of [00:19:30] July, just this weekend, during Berlin's Pride Parade, one person was killed and 29 were injured when a man in a van drove into the crowd. And around the world, we see reports of Pride events being canceled due to safety concerns. For example, in Florida, security firms have been massively increasing their insurance premiums at the start of June and dropping them at the end of the month, making it financially impossible for Pride Month events to afford protection in a state with high g- private gun ownership.[00:20:00] It is understandable that Pride organizations respond to increased threats by canceling events and staying at home, but if we do that, we are telling our enemies that their intimidation tactics are successful, encouraging them to keep threatening us. We need to stand up, but to do so, ins- we need to stand together in such, such massive numbers that we can protect one another. We are celebrating the state dropping anti-sodomy laws 40 years ago, [00:20:30] but we cannot rely on the state to protect us. We can only depend on one another. So we must stand together in solidarity, practicing kotahitanga, finding strength in unity. We were born this way, and we will not go away. You cannot silence us. In each other we trust. Your busted fears of our gay display will rust away like tears in the rain, and we will rise again hand in hand to not just love one another, but to rail each other with pride in our sex and [00:21:00] dreams. So, um, we have some time for an open mic. Um, we do have a priority, um, that we would like to follow for this. Um, firstly, in celebration of 40 years of homosexual law reform, um, we would ask older generation, and essentially our elder queers, um, especially people involved in or shaped by [00:21:30] the homosexual law reform struggle, to come to the mic first. Um, and then secondly, people living with the direct legacy of that period, including HIV and AIDS, um, HIV and AIDS activism, and groups affected by recent government policy. Um, and then thirdly, elected representatives. Um, and then fourthly, um, anyone remaining who doesn't fit into those groups. Um, so, um, group one. Okay.[00:22:00] Kia ora. My name is Kay. I'm bisexual, and I've been out since I was 15. Whoo. I'm now, I'm now 67. And during homosexual law reform, I attended rallies, I wore badges at work for which my boss told me to take them off because, um, or it might upset the customers. He was a closeted gay. We all knew it, but he still- as a public servant, had to take that stance. They didn't do anything about those wearing religious, you know, a cross around their [00:22:30] neck. Yeah. It was all part of the thing of h- h- a level of hypocrisy that some displays were acceptable. So during the years, I've been an activist in lots of different groups. Um, I note that lovely pink banner behind us has lots of different representation. Bisexual is still invisible. There are members of Parliament currently who are still invisible, probably because they're on the government side of the benches. So as a Queer [00:23:00] Avenger, we took up the, um, cause of fighting against transphobia. We glitter bombed Germaine Greer, who is- ... you know, those, you know, old-school sort of feminists who didn't like women who they didn't see as women. But that's the thing. Like, who do you see as humans? Who deserves human rights? So people who are bisexual, people who are non-binary, disabled people, lots of us are invisibilized, and we don't count, unless, of course, we [00:23:30] become activists and put our hands up. And every single select committee I go to, I've got my badges to sort of show some of the causes I stand up for, and I can do that because I am old, and I've got a Gold Card and an income. Lots of younger people don't have that luxury. But if you do have the luxury, or even that small bit of activism, of talking to somebody who's in your family, your friend circles, about the fact that you don't like the hatred you see, and you'd really like it [00:24:00] if they could think about how to support others. So, you know, it's a, it's a cause for loving inclusiveness as a form of activism, too. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Kay Kia ora koutou. My name's Val. Um, I'm a lesbian, queer, uh, non-binary, um, uh, dyke, a GOD- Whoo ... which is a grumpy old [00:24:30] dyke. Um, I was started coming out in my 20s just when the homosexual law reform was being debated. It was a really scary time, hearing our leaders talking about telling us to get back to the gutters where we belonged. Well, some of us were in the gutters, but we were looking at the stars, and we do that today. Um, I was disgusted actually to see our friend Winston out here just before. That was a bit disappointing, um, but I hope you read my T-shirt. Um, when I was growing up, [00:25:00] um, I never felt like I fitted as being a girl. I was never a girly girl. I would rather be skateboarding or playing in the mud than doing the stuff that the girls were doing. Um, I didn't... I hated wearing skirts and dresses. I used to wear shorts under my school uniform. Um, and I used to call myself a tomboy, and I was so proud of that label, and thanks to this generation today, I have a new label for myself, which I am so proud of, to be called non-binary. So, um, I just wanna say a big shout-out [00:25:30] that, um, yes, young people, please look to o- the, us oldies, but also we look to you because you are paving the way for all of us. So I just wanna- ... do a big shout-out to our young rangatahi who are so, so incredible. Um, yeah, and peace out. Oh- Whoo ... and also, um, Jeri, the Speaker of the House, wanted the unicorns to be moved off the forecourt for some reason. Who hates unicorns? Like, what is that about? [00:26:00] Damn it. So, um, I could get arrested at any moment, so yeah, get your cameras out, people. Buona tarde. Um, uh, the walking stick's a bit of a prop. It's, um, i- just for emergencies. Uh, it's new. I'm still getting used to it. Uh, two things. Uh, one is, uh, in [00:26:30] 1967, um, I was at a student gathering, and we were very gung ho against the Vietnam War. And then, uh, you know, we s- uh, there was sort of... We sort of felt we could actually do something. And then Shirley Smith, you may have heard of, a lawyer, got up and, uh, w- married to Bill Sutch, who if you, if you remember him, uh, got up and said, "Oh, [00:27:00] my dears, I remember the Spanish Civil War." And that was 30 years earlier, and it's, uh, now 90 years earlier. So you... We were... You know, she was a, w- you know, we thought, we thought we could change the world. Uh, you know, and we didn't, but, you know, fasci- fascism was eventually overthrown. These things take time. There are f- steps forward and steps [00:27:30] backward. Uh, you, you can't do it all at once. Every little bit helps. Um, and so I would li- I would rather li- would like to think some of you young ones, 40 or 60 years from now, will retell that story when it'll be sort of like comparable to somebody who remembers Napoleon. Now, the other thing I'd like to say is mockery helps. Um, it's... I've been very pleased to see in [00:28:00] the popping up posters I created for this very space 40 years ago, uh, mocking the signa- signa- signatories to the anti-homosexual law petition. Uh, one of them says, "I signed 27 times." One, one said, "I signed because I was afraid of being called a poofter." That was on TV the other night. So, uh, you know, laugh at them. It makes them weaker. क्या हो रहा [00:28:30] है? Kia ora. Um, does anyone else, um, want to speak who was around during homosexual law reform, um, or who was personally affected by it or impacted by ongoing persecution of queerness? Um, and if not, um, do any of our elected representatives wanna come up to the mic?[00:29:00] Well, kia ora, everybody Woo, woo, woo. Um, my name's Kahu Carter. I am a Green Party list MP based in Christchurch Central. I am a cis takatāpui wāhine, and I'm so proud to be here with you all today. 40 years of homosexual law reform. What the heck? Woo. We are standing on the shoulders of so many [00:29:30] people, people who have paved the way for us to be ourselves, for us to just exist, do the shopping, take the kids to school, you know? Exist and fully participate in society. And we've heard many stories of these giants and how they put their lives, their bodies, their families, their jobs on the line in the name of what is right and good, which is being gay.[00:30:00] Giants like Dame Fran Wilde, and Louisa Wall, and Georgina Beyer. Some, and some of the stories of these giants aren't so well known. It was so wonderful to hear from, um, the previous speakers about your stories to get to where we are today. And one of the stories that I wanna tell you today is about my nan, Laurie Watatini, who was a cis queer woman who was born in 1939. We grew up in a [00:30:30] tiny, tiny country town, and she was out and proud until her very last day. Nan was known as a protector to our queer and trans whānau, and I know that she's here and celebrating with us today. So who wants to hear a little bit more about my nan? Yeah. Yes. So Nan moved to Tāmaki when she was around 19 or 20, um, from our little country town, and [00:31:00] was a bus driver, like lots of the lesbians were. Um, and it was at a time when being homosexual was still a crime in this country. Her and her lesbian mates started a softball club, which was code for an illegal gay bar on K Road. Woo. Now, Nan's role was the protector because of her fierce nature, and her quick wit, and her disarming laugh. The club was a home and haven [00:31:30] for the dolls and the gays, and Nan was always the one who met the police as they tried to raid the club. They would have, like, spies out there, and they would, like, get this little call that, that the police were coming to raid. And my nan was sent down the stairs to talk to them at the door, really, like, just make sure they didn't come in. The softball club had, was up the stairs, and Nan was blocking the police from coming in up the stairs.[00:32:00] And at the top, the gays and the dolls were all sort of gathering round listening at this- Top of the stairs trying not to be seen by the police, and Nan was saying, "No, you cannot come in here. This is a softball club. This is a softball club. Go away, you're not a m- member of this club." And gay lore has it that as the cops were just about to go away, everyone was leaning over, and one of the dolls rolled all the way down the stairs and then splayed in front of the police. And the [00:32:30] police officer said, "Who's this, then? How do you explain this?" And my nan, quick as a button, said, "Oh." Said, "That's my husband." And she sent them on their merry way. So this is our challenge, to keep fighting in rooms that our queer and trans and intersex and the LGBTQAs are not in. Fight and be loud and proud. [00:33:00] And today, as we celebrate looking back 40 years, we must look forward to the next 40 and the next 40, and that is the mahi that you are here doing just by existing, finding joy, and paving the way for our next generations so that they can just be who they are. They wouldn't even need to come out. They can just... It's like, "Cool. Good for you. Let's do this. Let's go do the washing. Let's go get some groceries." As we stand up for trans [00:33:30] rights, human rights, consent in education, healthcare for all, the pay gap, there are many actions that you can take. The Greens have an open letter to the Prime Minister right now to say, "Hey, we don't like it when you're mean to trans people. Stop it." So you can find that on our website. Thank you for being here. Thank you for shining your light bright. And I can't speak today without honoring our former colleague, uh, Green MP, and the first openly [00:34:00] non-binary MP, Benjamin Doyle. You deserved better. And we appreciate you for who you are and all you do. The Green Party will continue to unapologetically stand for the liberation of all queer people. Mauri ora. Uh, kia ora. Ko Georgie Danze ahau. Uh, ko mema [00:34:30] o te Pāremata o te rōpū Reipa. Ko takatāpui ahau. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa. I stand here with my Labour Party colleagues, with you all, on a momentous day, in a momentous year, to celebrate 40 years of homosexual law reform. It has been sensational to spend so much time with so many, uh, queer people and with our allies a- across the last few weeks as we [00:35:00] celebrate this legislation. I have really enjoyed hearing from our activists, 'cause we know that at the end of the day, it is the amazing activists within our queer community that make real change for people across Aotearoa. Thank you for the work you do. I- I wanna talk about, as well as that celebration, the mahi that has been done over those 40 years. And up until the last [00:35:30] government, we had marriage equality. We still have marriage equality, but we passed that through legislation. We were working on legislation that would ensure, uh, that our surrogacy laws were up to scratch. We banned conversion therapy, and the list goes on. We were making so much progress for our queer and rainbow communities, and I am devastated that now we stand here with a government that is taking away the rights of our people.[00:36:00] We have had attack after attack on our trans communities, and this recent bill, the Man and Woman Definition Bill, is just another attack on transgender, non-binary, takatāpui, and intersex people in Aotearoa New Zealand. And I'm here to say that the Labour Party, Te Rōpū Reipa, stands strongly against this bill and with our communities. We will continue to fight, like we have for the last 40 years and [00:36:30] before that, uh, to ensure that our voices are heard in Parliament. Whoo. Kia ora. Um, look, I'm feeling, I'm feeling quite good today because Lawrence Chu Nan said that I was looking quite lesbionic. And I quite liked that word, but hey, what I do do is I aspire to be like Val. In the future, I hope to be a GOD, a grumpy old dyke. For now, what I'm doing as, as Labour's [00:37:00] rainbow spokesperson is advocating every day in Parliament for you. Please keep turning up and being the incredible, diverse community you are. Keep knocking on our doors because we need it. I appreciate the honest and frank conversations about what our communities need. Now, the mahi is change the government in 100 days to have a government that supports our communities. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou. Kia ora.[00:37:30] Um, all right, but we have a bit, a little bit more time left, um, if other people wanna come up to the mic. Um, but first of all, I just wanna give a shout-out, um, to a couple of groups of queer elders. I was born a year before this law passed, um, which in certainly the trans community, if not the wider queer community, means that having made it to the ripe old age of 41, um, I think I am something of an elder now.[00:38:00] But, um, so firstly, to all the dudes that I blew at the start of the century who would tell me stories about trying to get their game on before this law passed by meeting up in public toilets, um, and being profiled by the police, and having to work out if the dude in the stall next to them showing interest was an undercover cop or not. Secondly, um, to all the dolls that I worked with on Marion Street in the middle of the last decade who would tell me stories [00:38:30] about being in the industry before prostitution was legalized, when the police would be able to blackmail them into, um, giving them free services. Um, there are more accurate words for that phrase, um, but just gonna use that one for now. Um, because if they didn't, then the police could lock them up. This is all stuff that happened, um, within our lifetime, within many of our lifetimes, um, and certainly me during my sexually active lifetime. And so [00:39:00] even if it seems these days like being queer is mainstream, it, it wasn't very, very recently. It wasn't within living memory, and there is a huge pushback against us just having the right to be ourselves. Um- Boo. Yeah, and it's... That will... If we don't stand together and stand up, then that tide will roll over us. But that doesn't mean we need to be afraid and that we need to [00:39:30] cower at home because we're afraid of going out. We, we, we gather together in places like Pōneke Wellington to be together, um, not just to hook up with each other, though that's great, but to stand together in solidarity to protect ourselves from the police who don't care about us. And as good, as important as it is to pass laws to protect us, the police aren't interested in enforcing those laws. And so we need to work together to make sure [00:40:00] that the laws that we fight for in Parliament are respected on the street. Um, yeah. Does anyone else wanna come up to the mic, um, before we close off? There is one thing that I didn't, I forgot to say, which is this whole month there has been so many incredible, incredible, uh, events all over. We had this amazing gala in here, um, where Linda Top was the emcee, and [00:40:30] shirts may have come off. There was sparkles, there was, there was more DJ-ing. And I just need to say thank you so much to Craig. Thank you so much to everybody who has put in so much effort to organize this national festival for the 40th an- anniversary. Thank you all so much. Thank you Kia ora. Um, well, I'd like to give a shout-out, um, to, to Kowhai, to Bill, to Alexi, and to Amal. Um, and it's been, [00:41:00] particularly it's been great working with you, Bill, over the last five years and learning about your experiences in the movement for homosexual law reform and how we can apply those, um, to our movement for trans rights. Um, so I would like to call Kowhai up to, um, close us off with the closing karakia. Um, and then afterwards we can all... We're gonna have a bit more music, um, and we make our way safely together back into our lives to keep being fabulous, [00:41:30] um, and ridiculous and amazing together. Kia ora. Kia tau te manaakitanga ki runga ki tēnā ki tēnā o tātou. Kia piki te ora, kia piki te maramatanga, kia hoki pai atu, kia hoki pai mai. Tūturu, tūturu whakamaua kia tīna. [00:42:00] Haumi e, hui e, tāiki e kia ora! And the trumpets of Morning Report. Good morning, Jeff Robinson and Kim Hill here. In the program today, the controversial Homosexual Law Reform Bill is passed in Parliament. We'll be talking to those who support and oppose the measure. Starting with our man Peter Price. Good morning. The controversial [00:42:30] Homosexual Law Reform Bill was passed to its final stages in Parliament last night. The bill legalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults over sixteen was passed by forty-nine votes to forty-four, a margin much greater than many expected. The debate was bitter to the end. The bill's promoter, Wellington Central MP Fran Wilde, was cheered and applauded by her supporters. But one of the main opponents of the bill, from the Carter Reform [00:43:00] Jersey-
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