It’s been 50 years since Aotearoa’s Pride movement began to grow, the rainbow community has gained greater freedoms but many say there is still room for progress.
Activist Shaneel Lal told 1News, “I am told that New Zealand is becoming a more tolerant society, but there’s nothing to tolerate here, queer people do not need to be tolerated we need to be liberated.”
Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Gay activist and academic, added we can legislate on paper but “the real challenge is changing people’s hearts and minds".
In 1972 Te Awekotuku was denied entry to the USA on the grounds she was a lesbian.
The incident was a catalyst for gay liberation.
Support groups like OUTLine, the AIDS Network, and Rainbow Youth followed.
Events like New Zealand’s first ‘Gay Day’ took place. Chris Carter came out publicly and became our gay Parliamentarian.
Homosexual Law Reform came in the form of a rejected petition in 1985. However in 1986 the Bill narrowly passed, decriminalising sex between men and making discrimination illegal.
A decade later our census finally recognised same-sex couples.
Te Awekotuku said it was difficult growing up gay, saying, “It was an ongoing fight with myself and how I thought I should be and how I wanted to be.”
“We lived in fear as camp women, of losing our jobs, of losing our children if we were mothers,” she said.
In 1971 Te Awekotuku was given an award to study in the US but the American Council denied her a via saying she was a “known sexual deviant”.
It was this that sparked the founding of gay liberation and more than 10 years later, homosexuality was decriminalised in 1986.
Despite significant progress half a century later, today's rainbow generation say there's a long way to go.
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