‘A political miracle’
ister, Rob Muldoon used to publicly ‘out’ people who annoyed him.
He used outing as a weapon to destroy people publicly.
It is in that environment that I was coming to terms with my homosexuality.
A friend was so traumatised by the reaction of his priest to his homosexuality that he went home and put his head in a gas oven.
Another came out to his parents and was immediately sent to a mental health institution where he received electric shock aversion therapy.
It was a terrible and frightening time to be gay.
It was in that environment and in my early 20s that I found myself as the General Secretary of the National Gay Rights Coalition (NGRC), joining a group of courageous, determined, politically savvy activists fighting for our human rights and decriminalisation.
An amazing experience for one so young indeed.
The first battle I was directly involved in was that to get the Human Rights Act changed to make it illegal to discriminate based on a person’s sexual orien- tation.
After one particularly frustrating meeting with HR Commissioners we, and the lesbian representatives held a press conference at Wellington University which was televised that night on the news.
And there I was, standing alongside the NGRC and lesbian leaders.
I was now publicly ‘out’ and dreading work the next day.
I was overwhelmed when I went to the cafeteria for lunch and staff clapped and cheered. That provided immense support.
The next battle was of course decriminalisation.
Several previous attempts had been unsuccessful.
My employers turned a blind eye to the mileage in my company car as I drove our leader Gavin, then Kevin to meetings all around the country.
Some of those meetings were pretty fiery and I learned to fight back, both physically and verbally.
My first date with my life partner John was an interesting experience for him.
We were going to the movies, ‘‘but we had to attend a meeting first,’’ I said.
That meeting was a demonstration march, the first of its kind in New Zealand, through Wellington, where we were jeered and tomatoes and eggs were thrown at us.
John is still with me some 35 years later.
Andrew Bayly and his wife Teena had attended our 25 year celebration and he remembered that story told at our dinner, which prompted him to acknowledge our contribution in the long battle to achieve human and legal rights to exist.
Whilst my echelon of activists did not achieve decriminalisation, our political networks, support of well-known and famous New Zealanders, and the relationship developed with Fran Wilde and Lloyd Geering set the scene for the Homosexual Law Reform Act, which was signed by the Governor General on July 11,1986 which came into effect on August 8 that year.
*Geoff Smith is a resident of Pukeoware, near Pukekohe, and a social services manager.