The title of this recording is "Speeches before Marriage Equality march". It is described as: Audio of the speeches before the march for Marriage Equality on 29 August 2012. It was recorded in Civic Square / Te Ngākau, Civic Square/Te Ngākau, Wellington on the 29th August 2012. This is a recording of an event and features the voices of Andrew Cunningham, Brooklynne Kennedy, James Sleep and Joseph Habgood. Their names are spelt correctly, but may appear incorrectly spelt later in the document. The duration of the recording is 15 minutes, but this may not reflect the actual length of the event. A list of correctly spelt content keywords and tags can be found at the end of this document. A brief description of the recording is: Audio of the speeches before the march for Marriage Equality. Speakers include Brooklynne Kennedy, Joseph Habgood and James Sleep. The content in the recording covers the 1950s decade. A brief summary of the recording is: This abstract summarizes the speeches delivered before the Marriage Equality march in Civic Square/Te Ngākau, Wellington, on August 29, 2012, which were recorded and later archived. The speakers at the event were Andrew Cunningham, Brooklynne Kennedy, James Sleep, and Joseph Habgood. The central message of these impassioned orations was advocacy for the equal right to marry, irrespective of sexual orientation or gender identity. The speakers aimed to communicate that love and commitment between consenting adults are the fundamental principles of marriage - not sex, gender, or procreation. They argued against using personal dislikes or specific religious doctrines as a basis for public policy. In an illustrative and lighthearted analogy, Brooklynne Kennedy compared the push against marriage equality to a personal distaste for strawberries, provocatively suggesting that just because one does not like something does not mean it should be forbidden for everyone else. The speaker ridiculed the use of Levitical laws as an argument against the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals, pointing out the inconsistency and selectiveness in the application of these ancient codes. Kennedy also dismantled other common arguments against marriage equality, such as the idea that marriage should be for procreation only, or that it would somehow undermine the 'sanctity' of marriage. Additionally, Kennedy noted that the lawmakers should not impose their religious beliefs onto civil laws, emphasizing the nation's secular nature and the importance of separating personal beliefs from legislation affecting citizens' rights. Joseph Habgood's speech emphasized the values of tolerance and fairness, reflecting New Zealand's inclusive ethos. The speaker highlighted that preventing people from marrying was an affront to equality and individual rights. Habgood addressed the importance of the government sending a positive message to young people coming to terms with their identities, stressing that no individual should fear lesser rights due to their gender or sexual orientation. Conveying support for the broader struggle against discrimination, James Sleep stressed the importance of legal reform not only in granting rights but also in challenging and changing societal attitudes towards the LGBT community. Sleep invoked Harvey Milk's statement that human rights should not be a matter of compromise or expenditure, but a removal of repression - highlighting the simplicity of the principle of equality. Throughout the event, the speakers underscored the collective journey towards equality, drawing upon New Zealand's history of progressive law changes, including the decriminalization of homosexuality and the legalization of civil unions. They called upon the listeners to participate in the march with a sense of joy and history-making spirit, as the day represented a pivotal moment in the battle for marriage equality. The safety of the participants was also addressed, with acknowledgments to the New Zealand police force for their assistance and to safety officers in attendance. The speakers encouraged maintaining a celebratory atmosphere, even in the face of potential resistance, by simply responding with joy and a firm belief in the righteousness of their cause. The event was part of nationwide efforts leading to the eventual passage of the Marriage Amendment Act (2012), which legalized marriage between same-gender couples in New Zealand. The gathering was a milestone in the advocacy for marriage equality, reflecting the burgeoning support within the community and among political parties for fundamental human rights. The full transcription of the recording follows.  It includes timestamps every thirty seconds in the format [HH:MM:SS].  The transcription begins:  We are gathered here today to celebrate and to share our joy and our excitement and to show passionate support for the marriage of equality bill. Whatever brings you here today, whether you're here because you want to walk your daughter down the aisle because you want to support your gay brother, your transgender be grind your lesbian granddaughter, [00:00:30] your bisexual mum, because you like your son or your daughter to grow up, knowing that if they're gay, they will be treated equally and with respect and that their love will be seen as special as anybody else's. Whether you're here like me, because one day you'd really love to walk down the aisle and marry the love of your life. Or if you're just here because you genuinely believe in equality for all New Zealanders, Welcome before we get to Parliament today, [00:01:00] before we head to parliament today we have a few wonderful speakers to get us started, the first of which is the fabulous and beautiful Brooklyn Kennedy. Let's give her a round of applause. Can you hear me? I know you're expecting a speech about marriage equality, but honestly, that's [00:01:30] boring and expecting. Instead, I want to talk to you about strawberries. I hate them. They are disgusting and icky. They have no place in my kitchen or in the world. I want to campaign against strawberries. Let's rid the world of this scourge. This is how it works, right? If I don't like something, I can make sure no one gets to have it. No strawberries for you. No strawberries for you. No strawberry, [00:02:00] for all of you. We want Wait. That's not how the world works. I can just like something and it can exist. This means I think that I despise other people can participate in, like eating strawberries or being a national supporter, [00:02:30] huh? I guess I don't have to act like a petulant child. Why does it seem that a portion of our society hasn't seemed to grasp this concept yet? If you don't like something, don't partake in it. I don't like strawberries. I won't eat them. You can have my share. Don't like gay sex. Don't have it. I'll take your share. [00:03:00] Don't like a game. Don't want a gay marriage. Don't have one who I have yet to hear. A solid piece of evidence on why marriage equality shouldn't exist. And if I hear one more Leviticus quote, I am going to scream I as a Christian, I am very, very familiar with Leviticus. It's the boring chapter that tells you things that you can and cannot do, mostly those you can't. It's also the the Conservatives [00:03:30] Favour ammunition to fire at gay rights groups. The van is 18 22. States do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman. It is an abomination. Other things that Leviticus goes on to say. Our abominations are barred mixed fibre clothing, shellfish, bacon and all ham and burying a grudge. It further goes on to say, If your house gets mildew, you need to tear it down, wash [00:04:00] each stone and put it back together or else it is an abomination. Those who continue to live in it. Abomination. Kiss also says that you shall love your neighbour as you love yourself. Thus you shall not spread hate If you spread hate, you guessed it abomination. No one. No one abomination is greater than another abomination. All abominations are equal. So to those [00:04:30] Christians out there who are wearing their cotton poly bland suits eating their mint mint and cheese pies, spreading hate and buring a garage. I count five of our nations for you today, whereas I've only had gay sex. Perhaps you should worry about your own soul. Furthermore, the whole discussion about Leviticus would make more sense if we were a Christian nation, which we are not. Practise your beliefs and believe whatever you want. For all I care, you can worship your left [00:05:00] nipple as the great Holy nipple Lord. As long as you aren't hurting yourself or others, who cares? But here's the thing. I'll keep my beliefs to my life. You keep yours to yours. The other argument is it will damage the sanctity of marriage. Oh yes, two people who love each other vowing to love each other forever is so much more damaging to marriages sanctity than, say, divorce. Want to protect marriages, [00:05:30] sanctity and divorces. Oh, but also marriage is about procreation. Seriously, I mean, seriously. So when a man's going out to a bar, sees a girl he likes eventually gets engaged to her, his main thoughts are man. We will breed well together to have great Children. I don't think so. If marriage is just about procreation. Why do we let bearing women [00:06:00] and sterile men marry? Why do we let those past child bearing age marry? Why don't we annul all marriages that have gone 246 or 88 years without procreating? Because marriage isn't about procreation. Marriage is about love about commitment. Marriage is about sharing a bond and being with each other. Marriage Equality will not tear apart the morality of this nation or this [00:06:30] world. It will mean that more people who love each other will be able to marry. It will mean two people of any gender combination who love each other who can adopt a child and raise it in a happy home. It will simply mean more love. It will mean more happiness. It will mean more joy. If you disagree with more love, more happiness or more joy in this world, then you [00:07:00] are the sick ones. You are the abomination. Go! Go! Oh, are you speaking here? Here, bro? Thank you, Brooklyn. Our next speaker is the lovely Joseph. Yeah, well, everyone, Today is the day Today we [00:07:30] passed yet another milestone towards the New Zealand values of tolerance. A fair go for all and celebrating our distances being fully reflected in our laws. Among us today are people of different religions supporters of political parties across the spectrum, youth and adults LGBT, Q I and straight cisgender transgender and gender queer, all united by the common certainty that preventing people from getting married is just not safe. Today [00:08:00] we're marching for love and equality. We're marching to give all New Zealanders a fair go. We're marching so that we don't live in a society where the majority gets to decide how the minority has to live. But we're also marching so that our friends, our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, only just coming to terms with their own identity with their own sexual orientation and beset on all sides from religious bullying can look to the government of this country and hear them say with one resounding [00:08:30] voice. Who you are is OK. Oh yes, that is a message that needs to come across loud and clear, and that message is more important than any other that we hold against each other religious, political or otherwise. When a child realises that they may not be the gender that they were assigned at birth. That shouldn't mean that they know they get less rights as an adult. [00:09:00] When a young person realises they may be falling in love with someone and they're deciding whether they can fix that love or not. With all the heartache, headaches aren't cluttering. People are smart that that decision always goes with, even when you're not facing alienation from your friends and family. As a result, an obscure statute from the 19 fifties should be the last thing on their mind. We can all march today and the warm blow of knowledge that New Zealand is with us. The vast majority [00:09:30] of New Zealanders agree that love is love together. Let's all be empowered by their knowledge and thank the campaigners before us and their efforts in decriminalising homosexuality in 1980 1986 and making it a crime to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in 1993 and winning the debate to allow couples to enter civil unions in 2004. Let's march knowing that on our side as public opinion, the weight of history and love itself. Let's make this happen. [00:10:00] Who Who? Yeah, yeah. Thank you, Joseph. Our next speaker is James Lee told everybody. I just want to say like, what a glorious day to be here together, celebrating the advancement of human rights in this country. We're here today to celebrate equality, something as beautiful as [00:10:30] equality as equal rights. So every single New Zealander can marry the person they love. And so we need modern legislation to make that happen. And that's what we're going to see today and hopefully in the next few months. But I just want to say that this is deeper than in any institution. This is about eradicating Homo homophobia and stigma that continues to sit on the shoulders of LGBT people across this country. This is about law reform that has the potential to radically change attitudes in this country. And that's what this is about. That's what we're marching for. [00:11:00] It's equality, and I want to send a message to the MP S this afternoon who continue to sit on the other side of this debate, and I want to use, uh, I want to use a phrase from half milk, um, our inspiration from San Francisco and that is that it takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. And it takes no survey to remove repression. Kha, let's take this fight all the way to Parliament. [00:11:30] We were going to have an open mic section now and I'd like to sincerely apologise. We're running out of time to do that because we need to get to Parliament at one. So I'm sorry about that. Um, but we do have time for, um a quick message from our safety team. Officer Andrew, Open mic at the other end then, eh? Hello? Wellington [00:12:00] didn't know if that worked. That's kind of cool. Hi, guys. Uh, today I'm leading the safety team. If everyone looks around, we have safety officers at the back and these people in the front, they're all wearing orange, orange, high visor, and they're here to keep us safe. I don't think just a couple of notes of housekeeping. First [00:12:30] things first. We have been given the roads to be used by the New Zealand police, and they're here today to keep us safe. So let's give a big round of applause for them. We've had a series of really, really amazing speakers today, and I just want to say something about this rally. This is a celebration. We are here to celebrate [00:13:00] marriage, equality and the passing of today's bill. When we march down the street today, we will be smiling. Our safety team will be smiling because today we make history today, every single one of us, no matter who you love [00:13:30] or who you care about or what your gender or sexuality is Today we are all equal and we can show New Zealand that amazing. We have had a long, long battle for equality and today we can take a break from having to fight and we can finally sit back and celebrate as we move towards a brighter future. [00:14:00] Yeah, so on that note, let's show New Zealand that we deserve this, that we really do just on a final note. Just so you guys are aware we may be encountering some resistance that we've heard over the stuff website. I just want to say they have a right to talk to, but we are more [00:14:30] and we are more joyful and we are more happy and more celebrating than any other group. So when we see people who say that what we're doing is not right. All we do is smile straight at them because we know that we will win this. I don't do that. Let's make it happen that way. The full transcription of the recording ends. A list of keywords/tags describing the recording follow. These tags contain the correct spellings of names and places which may have been incorrectly spelt earlier in the document. The tags are seperated by a semi-colon: 1950s ; Andrew Cunningham ; Aotearoa New Zealand ; Book of Leviticus ; Brooklynne Kennedy ; Campaign for Marriage Equality ; Civic Square / Te Ngākau ; Harvey Milk ; James Sleep ; Joseph Habgood ; LGBT ; LegaliseLove (Wellington) ; Leviticus ; Marriage Amendment Act (2012) ; Marriage Equality ; New Zealand Police ; People ; Rally for Marriage Equality ; San Francisco ; Wellington ; abomination ; activism ; alienation ; celebration ; change ; cheese ; children ; church ; civil unions ; clothing ; community ; crime ; divorce ; eating ; equality ; family ; fire ; friends ; future ; gay ; gender ; government ; happiness ; hate ; history ; homo ; homophobia ; human rights ; identity ; individual ; inspiration ; kindness ; knowledge ; law ; legislation ; love ; love yourself ; march ; marriage ; marriage equality ; minority ; morality ; murder ; other ; passing ; peace ; police ; politics ; procreation ; public opinion ; queer ; rally ; reading ; repression ; resistance ; respect ; running ; sex ; sexual orientation ; sexuality ; sleep ; smile ; smiling ; social ; soul ; spectrum ; speech ; stigma ; straight ; support ; survey ; the other side ; time ; tolerance ; transgender ; unions ; values ; website ; witness ; women ; work ; worship ; youth. The original recording can be heard at this website https://www.pridenz.com/marriage_equality_march_speeches_29_august_2012.html. The master recording is also archived at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand.  For more details visit their website https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.1089506. Please note that this document may contain errors or omissions - you should always refer back to the original recording to confirm content.