Homosexual Law Reform hero Fran Wilde last night paid tribute to the MP who helmed the subsequent Human Rights Amendment legislation into place making it illegal to discriminate amongst glbti people in most aspects of life in New Zealand. Marilyn Waring, Fran Wilde and Katherine O'Regan, pictured last night Wilde noted that anti-discrimination components contained in her original HLR bill drafts had to be pragmatically jettisoned in order for the main part of the bill to stand any chance of success. That aspect of legislative change was eventually brought into Parliament in the early 1990s by then-national MP Katherine O'Regan who had earlier been the Electorate Secretary to lesbian National MP Marilyn Waring. O'Regan, who was at the Auckland civic reception last night to mark the 30th anniversary of the passing of Wilde's Homosexual Law reform Bill, oversaw the crafting and passing of a bill which folded glbti anti-discrimination measures into a range of categories such as age, health and physical disability for which discrimination was outlawed. She subsequently apologised to transgender people for the omission of gender identity from the human rights amendment, saying it was felt at the time "we knew the House would only go so far and rather than lose it all, we had to lose something.” Transgender activists and supportive MPs are still trying to address that omission.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 10th July 2016 - 8:57pm