Gays continue fight against discrimination

Press, 23 June 1981, Page 17

Gays continue fight against discrimination

By

JOHN WILSON

Homosexuals in Christchurch. and throughout New Zealand, are observing Gay Pride Week. It is an annual, world -wide commemoration «jf the “Stonewall Riots” in New York in 1969, when homosexuals responded with violence to what had been routine police harassment of gay bars in Greenwich Village. The riots are generally acknowledged to have been the starting point for the gay liberation movement. The career of the Gay Liberation Front as an organisation, first in the United States and then a few years .behind in New Zealand, was meteoric. The front made a brilliant flash and soon burnt itself out, but the gay liberation movement, as distinct from the front, is far from dead, as the full week of activities in Christchurch this week indicates. The situation for homosexuals in ’New Zealand is ver&different in 1981 from

what it was in 1969. There are now more than 60 gay groups throughout the country, serving different purposes and often taking different stands on gay issues. Many are loosely linked in the National Gay Rights Coalition (N.G.R.C.). There are nationally circulating gay monthlies — "The Pink Triangle” being the more political publication of the N.G.R.C., and "Out,” a somewhat slicker commercial publication produced in Auckland. .There is a lesbian quarterly and also local groups’ publications, such as “Aequus” in Christchurch. There are social venues for homosexuals in all the main cities, and also phone lines for both gay men and lesbians which offer help and counselling in times of crisis and also routine information about gay social activities. Although much attention in the gay movement is directed al helping individual homosexuals cope with the

stresses of living in a society which is still unsympathetic in many ways to homosexuality, and sometimes oppressive, the movement has continued to press, on the political level, for legal and other reforms to improve the status of homosexuals in New Zealand. Not all homosexuals support the N.G.R.C., but its aims are a fair statement.of what the more active among them are pressing for. They talk of a society free from repressive laws, discrimination,. oppressive social attitudes which cause fear, guilt, shame, and loneliness, and sexism and sexual stereotyping. The organisation is committed to working for the rights, interest, and wellbeing of all lesbians and gay men and to supporting the liberation of other oppressed groups. (As a manifestation of this last commitment, homosexuals have participated, as individuals and in groups, in

activities directed against the Springbok tour.) Although New Zealand homosexuals have, in the 12 years since the Stonewall, riots, built up a strong network of gay organisations, publications, and social venues, they have not made much progress in the crucial areas of homosexual law reform (homosexual acts between consenting adult males are still illegal in New Zealand — probably the country’s most broken law) and of protecting homosexuals against discrimination.

A discreet, somewhat tepid, Homosexual Law Reform Society was formed as long ago as 1968, with the limited aim of decriminalising homosexual acts between consenting adult jnales. When gay liberation burst on the scene in the early 19705, something of a split

developed between moderates, who wanted to continue to work through the system for law reform, and radicals more interested in raising the awareness of individual homosexuals and of ■ confronting the system which oppressed and discriminated against gay people. The defeat of' Mr Venn Young's private member's bill in 1974 apparently vindicated the contention of the radicals. that being moderate and reasonable was not going to yield results. Efforts at law reform hit a new low a few years later with the so-called ‘‘Freer Bill,” which foun•dered over arguments about the “age of consent” for • homosexual acts. Manyhomosexuals thought the bill inadequate and likely io cause as many new problems for them as'it would have solved. /The late saw., inter- i

nationally, something of a backlash against gay liberation. Homosexuals" themselves, to some extent, retreated into isolated “gay gheftoes” and away from addressing themselves to the issues of discrimination and anti-homosexual attitudes in society. But efforts at law and other reforms are continuing. An Equality Bill Campaign i was launched earlier this year. The campaign -centres ■ around pushing a comprehensive draft amendment to the present Crimes Act. The amendments would make uniform the law relating to i homosexual and heterosexual activity and end all legal i discrimination against homo- ; sexuals. ■ The proposed bill would i also introduce sexual orien- ] tation into the Human Rights i Commission Act as one of ] the grounds on which it i would he illegal to discrimin- i ate against individuals. 1 , This has been one of the - ’

major goals of New Zealand homosexuals in recent years. The ' Commissioner ’ for Human Rights has become one of the main objects of “gay anger” following a December, 1980, decision (it was, ironically, the month in which International Human Rights Day was observed) that the Commission would not recommend the inclusion of sexual orientation in the list of grounds on which discrimination is unlawful in New Zealand. Most homosexuals acknowledge that this, step would not solve the personal- and social problems of living in a predominantly heterosexual society which is sometimes antagonistic towards them. But they see it as a beginning in the long process of protecting the basic civil rights of homosexuals and preventing discrimination against them in areas like finding and keeping jobs and housing* obtaining public services, having homosexual re-

lationships treated at least in the same way as de facto" heterosexual relationships are treated and, of particular importance to lesbian mothers, child custody. The assumption often made in child custody cases that gay people who are open qbout their identity cannot provide ■ an environment that serves the best welfare of " children (the -assumption /is often, indeed, that such .people are a risk to children) is one of the most galling to homosexuals of the erroneous assumptions made about them. But other,..usually unspoken assumptions,, continue to make life difficult for homosexuals.,. '

This years Gay Pride Week activities in Christchurch are taking /place mainly within-the gay community,, but thWpublic fight for an end to legal and social discrimination against homo-; sexuals has certainly hot, been abandoned by the country’s gay and lesbians.