At the opening plenery of the Pan Pacific AIDS Conference this morning, MP Georgina Beyer discussed the rise of the extreme religious right and its effect on the glbt communities. Her speech followed an address by Fijiian Anglican Bishop Apimeleki Qiliho of the World Council of Churches, who discussed the massive shift towards inclusiveness of HIV+ people among some churches over the last year. The following is a slightly edited version of Beyer's speech: Please may I begin by saying how delighted I am to be able to come and speak here. Can I say since the conference is coming to an end – yes I've read about it, you've had great publicity, so congratulations to the organisers and sponsors for a great success – thank you to all the international, and more specifically Pacific delegates who have come to the conference here, this first very important one specifically focussing on HIV and AIDS for the Pacific regions. Bishop, may I acknowledge what you said before – it is encouraging to hear from mainstream Christian churches, and from leadership such as yourself. Those kinds of encouraging, co-operative desires to treat your flock. You are quite correct – we all have the capacity to be Christian, or whatever other religion we are. There would be some who call themselves Christian that don't believe there would be a spiritual bone in my body, or anybody else's for that matter. And I totally refute that, and have done publicly with a few of our little stirrers here in New Zealand (laughter). And that is what I'm going to talk about this morning. My topic, as has been written in the programme, is to discuss the rise of the Christian fundamentalist. Now can I say, before we start stigmatisation ourselves on Christianity, we ought to watch how we use that [term]. But it is fundamentalism. These people have to be of a Christian bent, but it could be Islamic, it could be anything else. This rise of moral conservatism is not particular to New Zealand, it is actually quite global. There is a very strong sense of it in places like the United States. It is, I suppose, a backlash – for want of a better term – [against] liberalising, empowering, human rights based legislation has been passed by authorities and other countries around the world, including New Zealand – which I would like to think has, in some respects, been world leading. In fact, we are held up as a model on a number of fronts. I would like to acknowledge our New Zealand AIDS Foundation for a moment, of which I was a board member for a couple of years in the 1990s. If it wasn't for the evolvement of that in the early 80s in New Zealand, and our addressing the issue of HIV and AIDS in this country, I shudder to think what might have happened if we hadn't had that collective responsibility that we took as a country. Generated by the gay community predominantly, but not of course without support from other people, until it became obvious that it was everybody's responsibility to take care of this. In New Zealand, we saw the arrival of a little girl called Eve Van Grafhorst, who had been somewhat shunned in her native country. And we offered a fabulous spirit in this country. I want to a see a return of that spirit. I want to see it across our society, frankly. And so therein lies this danger we have with the rise of this conservative moralism of a Christian bent. They are allowed to practice their democratic rights to free speech in this country, just like you and I are. And I will defend their rights to say what they think. But I want them to think for a moment, the messages they send to young gay people in particular, and to other significant minorities who may also get tarred with the same brush. In New Zealand, we've had the rise in the last four or five years of an organisation called the Destiny Church, headed by a man called Brian Tamaki. I never refer to him in his titulars that he has, in my opinion, bestowed upon himself one way or another...(laughter and applause)...but he does like to call himself “bishop” now, and has been so endorsed. I never refer to him as that myself. They have very strong views. They say they do not hate homosexuals – although I have accused them from time to time of having a hateful look in their eyes. But they have certain philosophies that I believe wish to wreak social and political damage, certainly to the queer community in this country in all its fabulous and diverse forms. He [Tamaki] can say that, but I like to stand there too and be the counter and say – no way. That is not the mark of a civil society. It is not the way you treat minorities in countries. Human rights based legislation is there to maintain and protect minorities from the tyranny of majorities. I begin to feel there's a sense from this Christian fundamentalist sector that they are now the ‘victimised minorities' in these countries. We must be careful not to make them feel that way. But if they come out and do things as they do – such as the march that occurred at our Parliament last year in Wellington...I was outraged by what happened at that march. He marched with his 8000 followers that day to purport to support family values, but in fact it was against the civil union legislation. And I would defend his right to protest about that. That is fine. But the sinister messages behind the march were visually obvious in their attitudes. The militancy. The definite ridding of this country of ‘social engineering', apparently by the likes of myself, and Tim Barnett, and Chris Carter, and anybody else who may happen to be queer or gay and working in our political system. Well, please. I suppose I should be flattered to think I can influence an entire nation in such a way, but that is not the reality at all. It is incumbent on us as we address the issues of HIV and AIDS that we must be a strong voice against the voice that is out there to counter us. And don't tell me that they are not being involved in the politics of this country. We have seen prime examples of this – the very Destiny Church organisation I talked about, who then decided they'd have a party – Destiny New Zealand. That's all very well. But don't lie to the nation and tell us that Mr Tamaki's influence and philosophy didn't spread into the philosophy of the party which he tried to sell the nation on. It simply was not credible. I'm pleased to say as a result of this most recent election not even all of the congregation came out to vote for the Destiny Church. And that should give us all some strength that New Zealanders, at least, are not stupid (laughter). We are not as intolerant as some, such as Mr Tamaki and his organisation, would have us believe. In fact I've had many letters and emails, particularly after the Destiny march and the subsequent week of hullabaloo in the media, and my head-to-head with him on television. I've had emails from people saying “thank you, we are not one of the 75% that he talks about that believes what he says is true regarding homosexuality” and that sort of thing. “I'm not gay” is usually the next line (laughter). But nevertheless, people were offended that he would make such assumptions, and he has a voice of course to get them out there. I think his credibility has been rocked, and a suspicious media is also a good watchdog on people like that. What was even more concerning, I think, was a church sect of the extreme Christian view known as the Exclusive Brethren, who were not up front about their platform at all. In the last week of our election, it was revealed that they had spent half a million dollars on a pamphlet drop to get rid of the Green Party, and I heard [Green co-leader] Rod Donald say the other day – it may have had some success. The sinister thing, the deceitful thing, about what the Exclusive Brethren did at that time, as opposed...and this is where I will complement Destiny Church – they are transparent in what they believe to us all. But the Exclusive Brethren and what they did to assist [the Natioanl Party], even though the National Party claimed they had nothing to do with it. Well, I'm afraid they're slightly tarred with that involvement. The idea was to politically intervene as best they can and provide influence. Can I just inform everyone who doesn't know – the Exclusive Brethren do not vote. They do not allow their congregation, by and large, to have access to the media, and therefore information. It is seemingly kept to a select few to understand what's happening in the outside world. Well, I have an opinion that's a form of control, and indeed, censorship of the realities of the world out there. So in reference to HIV and AIDS, how do we get to those kinds of communities, that are very shut off from mainstream society when it suits them, but then come out and make a big noise – a very big noise, I might add? This is the rise of the kind of Christian fundamentalist moralism that wants to have an effect because they are uncomfortable with liberalising, empowering legislation for people – and sometimes the distasteful, unlikeable issues of this world. But you know what? All of those issues are basic human nature. Basic human nature. Sex. We will have sex, for some reason. (laughter). That is one of the our very common links that knows no boundaries. We must be responsible. We must not continue the complacency that's been allowed to bed in in recent years, even among the most virulent communities that have been dealing with it responsibly. HIV and AIDS is not so much about death anymore, as about living. With having a life, a quality of life. And we need to be able to retain and maintain that quality of life for people so they are valued and wanted in our society. To be positive contributors, and to be able to practice their rights of citizenship with equality. It's vital, it's important to have that cross-social general acceptance as part of our collective responsibility. I have vehement opponents to my views sometimes. But I don't mind standing up and saying them. I don't mind taking the knocks to my credibility from time to time. Because you know what the consequences may be as we begin to feel the guilts again? Begin to feel ashamed of who and what we are again, if the attack on us is going to be that direct? We then run back to the dark recesses from whence we came, and what happened there? Well, nothing very pleasant or very positive. We don't need to go back there, we don't want to go back there, we will not. And so their voice is diminished, by our collective shout of – no. No, no, no. Absolutely not. Thank you. Georgina Beyer - 28th October 2005