20 years out!
'Go back into the sewers where you come from' was the advice of one New Zealand politician to homosexuals. The comment summed up one side of the bitter public and political debate that swept New Zealand in the mid 1980s during the homosexual law reform campaign. On the other side of the issue, gays and lesbians were urged to 'come out now ... be visible ... be blatant.'
The Homosexual Law Reform Act, which was signed by the governor-general on 11 July 1986 and came into effect on 8 August that year, decriminalised sexual relations between men aged 16 and over. No longer would men having consensual sex with each other be liable to prosecution and a term of imprisonment. Sex between women was not illegal, but many lesbians suffered the same social discrimination as gay men and were staunch supporters of the reform movement.
The campaign to reform the law moved beyond the gay community to wider issues of human rights and discrimination. Extreme viewpoints ensured a lengthy and passionate debate. The outcome would mean that gays and lesbians could be out and about, or the New Zealand family would crumble and AIDS would spread through the community.
'20 years out!' Homosexual law reform in New Zealand
To mark the 20th anniversary of homosexual law reform in New Zealand Radio New Zealand added rare audio recordings to its website. The rich assortment of audio was drawn from 20 years out!, a Radio New Zealand documentary broadcast on National Radio on 9 July 2006, the 20th anniversary of the final vote.Much of the protest and rally sound was originally recorded for Access Radio programmes made by the Gay Broadcasting Collective (Gay BC) and had never before been heard nationally. There are also reflections from gay men who faced personal discrimination during the heated debate.
Listen to the recording now at www.radionz.co.nz/national/documentaries/20yearsout
