Events In History
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9 July 1986Homosexual Law Reform Bill passedWellington Central MP Fran Wilde's bill, which came into force in August, removed criminal sanctions against consensual male homosexual practices. Read more...
Articles
Homosexual law reform
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 27 years ago, in July 1986.
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Page 2 – Setting the scene
There is a long history of opposition to sexual activity between men and an equally long history of legislation that criminalised this activity.
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Page 3 – Birth of the gay movement
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.
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Page 4 – Reforming the law
To bring about change in the law, the gay movement needed a parliamentary champion. It found one in Member of Parliament Fran Wilde.
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Main image: Lord and Lady Cobham
Lord and Lady Cobham are carried ashore at Pukapuka Island in the Northern Cooks in 1959. Lord Cobham, the governor-general, turned down an invitation to become patron of the Wolfenden Association (later the New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform Society).
