‘Same love, everyone equal’
30 YEARS: OUT AND PROUD
Glitter was spread and colours were bright and bold as 700 people gathered to celebrate ‘‘one love’’ at last night’s Rainbow Gala.
The event celebrated 30 years since homosexual law reform – and it was ‘‘outrageously’’ in keeping with the theme.
‘‘It’s really great to see the rainbow community come out in force to celebrate this day,’’ said SkyCity’s Colin Espiner. ‘‘It’s pretty outrageous, as you’d expect it to be.’’
The night, ‘‘one great party’’, was hosted by Alison Mau and Colin Mathura-Jeffree. Fran Wilde who championed the law reform, gave a stirring speech at the start of the night.
Placards from protests, newspaper articles and adverts from newspapers urging people to vote against the reform were a reminder for the many young people who remember who fought for them to be ‘‘out and proud’.
Samuel Levi, 23, said he was glad to have missed the era where being with another man was a crime. ‘‘Being able to be out and be who I want to be and not have any worry about it has pretty much made me into the person I am today,’’ he said. ‘‘I just could not even imagine myself being back then, if I was in that situation I don’t think I probably would have handled it, or I would have taken a whole different avenue in life.’’
Now, 30 years on Levi said he could stand loud, proud and openly gay. ‘‘It shouldn’t matter, like everyone says – ‘same love, everyone should just be equal’.
‘‘The main thing is I’ll be celebrating them having the kind of freedom that I’ve been lucky enough to have been brought up with.’’
Even though New Zealand had legalised same-sex marriage and has a petition tabled in Parliament calling for a government apology for convicted homosexuals, ‘‘at the back of your mind there’s always something telling you, ‘am I going to get beaten up for this?’.’’
Wilde introduced the Homosexual Law Reform Bill after two attempts to decriminalise gay men having sex. Her previous attempts failed in 1974 and 1979. The Homosexual Reform Bill passed into law on July 9 1986 – 49 votes to 44.