The title of this recording is "Fran Wilde - Rainbow Voices of Aotearoa New Zealand". It is described as: Interview with Fran Wilde, from the documentary Rainbow Voices of Aotearoa New Zealand. It was recorded in Rainbow Room, Parliament buildings, Molesworth Street, Wellington on the 11th June 2019. Fran Wilde is presenting.  Their name is spelt correctly but may appear incorrectly spelt later in the document. The duration of the recording is 7 minutes, but this may not reflect the actual length of the proceedings. A list of correctly spelt content keywords and tags can be found at the end of this document. The content in the recording covers the 2010s decade. A brief summary of the recording is: In a recording from the Rainbow Room of the Parliament buildings in Wellington, New Zealand, captured on June 11, 2019, Fran Wilde presented a historical account of their experiences and challenges faced during the campaign for gay law reform in New Zealand. The discussion centers around the activist initiatives of the 2010s, highlighting Wilde's political journey and personal struggles in advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. Wilde was elected to the Wellington Central seat in 1981, becoming a member of the opposition under Prime Minister Muldoon's National Party. As a single parent of three, the presenter shared the unique challenges faced within the political sphere. Throughout the electoral campaign, Wilde was approached by members of the gay community inquiring about their stance on gay law reform. After the election, a group sought Wilde's support to introduce and campaign for a bill to prevent it from stalling in Parliament. Wilde recounted the introduction of the initial Equality Bill, which failed to gain traction, followed by the introduction of the Homosexual Law Reform Bill post-1984 election, which comprised two parts - decriminalization and an amendment to the Human Rights Act. Wilde described the campaign as bitterly fought, extending beyond the Parliament to streets, workplaces, and communities. The petition presented during this period became infamously noted for allegations of fraudulent and coerced signatures. The campaign faced significant opposition, including from fundamentalist Christians, who Wilde believed were supported by material and personnel from the United States. The campaigners argued for the education of the New Zealand public on the realities of being gay to gain support for the bill. Initially, support in Parliament was limited, with only 19 MPs reportedly committed to backing the bill. Throughout the campaign, Wilde and others endured aggressive opposition, hate mail, and even death threats, requiring police intervention. Despite this, they also experienced support, such as an anonymous gift of spring bulbs. The speaker emphasized the bravery of gay men who publicly came out during the campaign, risking criminalization if the bill were to fail. While the second part of the bill focused on human rights was voted down (later addressed by Catherine O'Regan), the decriminalization part passed, albeit not with an overwhelming majority. The success of the bill was in part attributed to tactical voting, as the age of consent remained at 16, despite pressure to increase it to 18. The passage of the law marked a significant step for LGBTQ+ rights in New Zealand, achieving one of the primary goals of the campaign and avoiding a potential domino effect on progressive social legislation. Reflecting on the impact, Wilde expressed pride in their contribution to what they considered seminal legislation, impacting countless lives. The narrative ends by restating the importance of the bill and acknowledging the milestones achieved since its implementation. The full transcription of the recording follows.  It includes timestamps every thirty seconds in the format [HH:MM:SS].  The transcription begins:  So I was elected to Wellington Central in 1981, uh, for Labour and I went into opposition because the National Party with Muldoon as the Prime Minister was still in government at that stage. I was a young solo mother with three primary school aged children. And that was a bit different at the time. I don't think anyone had tried that before. Um, but I, it made me a little bit aware of being slightly marginal in a big institution. [00:00:30] Uh, during the campaign, the gay community members had lobbied me as all candidates, where did we stand on gay law reform, and of course I said I supported it. And after the election, a group came back to me and said, look, we need a bill introduced by somebody who will actually.. promote it and run a campaign. You can't just introduce a bill into parliament and let it go because it will die. So I thought about it for a very small time and said, yes, I would do it. I have to say, I did [00:01:00] not understand then just how. huge and how terrible it would be, and what a big impact it would have on my life and the life of my family. But I've not regretted doing it, obviously, but it was much bigger than I thought. So the first bill that was drafted was called the Equality Bill, that didn't even get to first base, and after the 1984 election, I introduced what was then called the Homosexual Law Reform Bill. Two parts. Part one was decriminalisation. Part two was an amendment [00:01:30] to the Human Rights Act. Uh, it was a very bitter campaign. It was fought not just in Parliament, but on the streets, and right around in workplaces, etc, etc. The famous petition, uh, has now gone down in, um, infamous history in New Zealand. Supposedly the biggest petition ever. In fact, many of the, uh, that many of the signatures were either fraudulent, we went through every single one, [00:02:00] or we found that people had, people said I was forced to sign, or they wrote to me, many people wrote and said look I didn't want to sign but I was in a group of people in. pretty much I had to. There's a lot of peer pressure. The Fundamentalist Christians ran a big campaign. We believed there was money and campaign material and in fact, speakers coming from the US and we had to learn a lot from the US about how to fight. That rhetoric as well. Um, [00:02:30] essentially we were running a campaign for the hearts and minds of New Zealanders. We felt if we educated them about the reality of being gay and what it was not. Uh, then they would give their mps permission to vote for the bill When it was first introduced, we had, we thought, 19 mps who would vote for a third reading. So not a show, but sporting agreement. In those days, everybody voted for the [00:03:00] first, for the introduction, which was great. That allowed us to get it onto the table in the house and to start talking about it publicly. Um, The campaign was huge and it was very difficult. We ran a massive campaign right through the country in every city and the small towns as well. I did a lot of travel and talk back with some of the most vicious opponents sitting. sharing a microphone with Norm Jones while he, when he said if his son were gay, [00:03:30] he'd put him in a mental institution. I mean, it was, it was pretty ghastly. There was a lot of hate mail. There were death threats. The police were very good. Um, and, uh, generally there was some. civil disorder about this bill. Uh, but there were wonderful moments as well and I do remember when the petition was being heard in the select committee and I had to come up for air at one stage, it was very foul what was being said and I went up to my office and just as I arrived, a messenger arrived with a [00:04:00] huge bunch of spring bulbs, beautiful perfume, and I thought, ah, that's lovely. So it was just somebody I didn't know, I think, in the gay community who'd sent me these flowers, and of course, they were very supportive. The real heroes were, um, the men who came out during the campaign, because visibility was really important for us. Uh, we had to prove to New Zealand that Gay men were not a threat, they were just [00:04:30] the person they worked with, the person next door, their colleague, um, or their son, or in some cases, sadly, their husband. So, many men came out, and of course they took a huge risk because they were criminal. And had the bill not succeeded, that would have been the most terrible blight on their lives. forever. The other thing was we knew that if the fundamentalist Christians succeeded in voting, getting this bill voted down, they would in fact then move on [00:05:00] to other progressive social legislation as well. And clearly they had women's rights in there. in their sites as well. Um, AIDS had just arrived and we knew we had to have a way of, um, getting gay men to go to health clinics and, and clearly they weren't going to go if they were criminal. So there were a whole lot of reasons for getting it through. Uh, in the end, MPs voted down the part two, the human rights part, which was promoted later and Catherine O'Regan [00:05:30] did a, have to acknowledge her for what she did on that. And that was a kind of insurance policy. So MPs could say, well, I voted down the human rights, but I felt I had to vote for decriminalization. The other interesting thing was that the, the people opposed to it, um, decided in the committee stages of the bill in the house that, If it had an age of 16, it would be too radical for some MPs, because many had said to me, I'll vote for it if it were 18. We had [00:06:00] decided to stick to 16, and when they voted with us for 16, that was a really interesting moment because the antis thought we would lose the legislation, but I knew that the ones who had said I want 18 wouldn't risk. voting down the bill just because of the age of consent. So we actually got it through as we wanted it, that decriminalization part. So it was, it was great. It wasn't a huge majority. Um, there was a lot of tactical [00:06:30] voting and the whole time it progressed through the house was pretty torrid. Um, Terrible things said to and about all sorts of people. But we got it through and of course the sky didn't fall in. Western civilization didn't collapse. The world just went on. Um, and for me, it was, um, I did a number of other things that I'm very proud of when I was in Parliament. But this is probably the one bit of legislation that has had the most impact on the [00:07:00] most people. So, I'm still very proud that I was able to do it. 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: 2010s ; Aotearoa New Zealand ; National Party ; Parliament buildings ; People ; Rainbow Room ; Wellington ; age of consent ; children ; community ; consent ; death ; equality ; family ; flowers ; gay ; government ; hate ; hate mail ; health ; history ; human rights ; insurance ; justice ; law ; legislation ; other ; petition ; policy ; primary school ; rainbow ; reading ; rhetoric ; running ; school ; select committee ; social ; sport ; talk back ; threats ; time ; travel ; understanding ; visibility ; vote ; women's rights. The original recording can be heard at this website https://www.pridenz.com/rainbow_voices_of_aotearoa_new_zealand_fran_wilde.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.1089884. Fran Wilde also features audibly in the following recordings: "25th anniversary panel discussion on homosexual law reform", "The Legislative Process", "Parliament: introduction of the Homosexual Law Reform Bill (8 March 1985)", "Parliament: second reading debate - Homosexual Law Reform Bill (9 October 1985) - part 1", "Parliament: Petition report back debate - Homosexual Law Reform Bill (5 November 1985)", "Parliament: Committee of the Whole House - Homosexual Law Reform Bill (5 March 1986)", "Parliament: Committee of the Whole House - Homosexual Law Reform Bill (26 March 1986)", "Parliament: Committee of the Whole House - Homosexual Law Reform Bill (9 April 1986) - part 1", "Parliament: Committee of the Whole House - Homosexual Law Reform Bill (9 April 1986) - part 2", "Parliament: Committee of the Whole House - Homosexual Law Reform Bill (16 April 1986)", "Part 1 - Opening ceremony at Parliament - Wellington Pride Festival 2016", "Opening of Out in the Park (2016)", "30th Anniversary of the Homosexual Law Reform Act", "Ideas: 25th anniversary of homosexual law reform", "Rainbow Voices of Aotearoa New Zealand documentary", "35th anniversary panel discussion on homosexual law reform", "A Queer Existence launch", "Our Forgotten Epidemic. Part Three - our communities take action", "Beacons of Hope 1993" and "40 Years Since Homosexual Law Reform". Please note that this document may contain errors or omissions - you should always refer back to the original recording to confirm content.