The homosexual law reform campaign moved beyond the gay community to wider issues of human rights and discrimination. Extreme viewpoints ensured a lengthy and passionate debate before the Homosexual Law Reform Act was passed 25 years ago, in July 1986.
Social and political groups for homosexuals in New Zealand began with the Dorian Society in the 1960s. By the next decade, sexual and social liberation was in the air.
The 'Crimes against Morality' section of the 1893 Criminal Code included punishments of flogging, whipping and hard labour for homosexual acts. These provisions continued until removed under the Crimes Act 1961.
Venn Young (left) stands with two National Party members in 1980. In 1974 Venn Young introduced a Crimes Amendment Bill to legalise homosexuality for those 21 and over but failed to get it passed into law.
Many public figures were drawn into groups supporting or opposing law reform. Here reform supporters Sonja Davies (left) and Lloyd Geering (right) talk with the bill's sponsor, MP Fran Wilde, and Bill Logan of the Gay Task Force.
The word 'FAG' was scrawled on the floor of the Lesbian and Gay Archives by arsonists before they set fire to the premises. There was an upsurge in anti-gay activity during the campaign; bashings of gay men became more common.
The law reform campaign gained a high profile through marches, meetings and extensive media coverage. Street marches in Wellington drew several thousand supporters of law reform, including this group with their placard 'What are you afraid of?'
