Historical gay crimes to go with law change

Gay men who have been ‘‘tainted with the stigma of criminality’’ for decades will be able to have their historical convictions for homosexuality wiped from official records, Justice Minister Amy Adams announced yesterday.

The Government wants to introduce a scheme allowing gay men with convictions, or their families, to apply to have their convictions expunged. Officials have estimated about 1000 people may be eligible.

The move comes after a petition to Parliament last July asking the Government to officially apologise to those convicted before homosexuality was legalised in 1986 and to begin a process of reversing those convictions.

Adams said that while previous Parliaments had chosen to make homosexuality illegal, ‘‘it’s clear those laws have not represented modern New Zealand for some time’’.

‘‘There is no doubt that homosexual New Zealanders who were convicted and branded as criminals for consensual activity suffered tremendous hurt and stigma, and we are sorry for what those men and their families have gone through, and the continued effect the convictions have had on them.

‘‘Although we can never undo the impact on the lives of those affected, it’s hoped that this scheme will provide a meaningful pathway for the conditions to be expunged.’’

Adams said anyone with a historical conviction for homosexuality, or the families of dead men with convictions, would be able to apply to have their conviction wiped and be treated as if they had never been convicted.

Anyone convicted of acts between consenting adults who were 16 or older would be cleared. However, those who had undertaken activity which was still illegal today would not be able to reverse their convictions.

Government records would be amended so historical convictions did not appear in any criminal checks, allowing those affected to declare they had no conviction when travelling overseas.

Asked why it had taken so long to address the issue, Adams said she had been looking into it for some time but a ‘‘blanket wiping’’ of historical convictions was not possible as the law of the time did not distinguish between consensual and non-consensual sex between gay men.

The constitutional implications of retroactively expunging convictions also had to be considered, she said.

‘‘This has never been done in New Zealand, we’ve never before had a scheme where we can expunge convictions because the views and the law has changed.’’

Adams said she was confident the legislation to create the scheme would win cross-party support, and she intended to introduce it before the September 23 election.

She would also speak to political parties about a motion of apology to gay men who had been affected by the historical convictions.

Labour MP Grant Robertson, who is gay, praised Adams for ‘‘righting a long-standing wrong’’.

‘‘It’s caused a lot of hurt, not only for individuals themselves who were convicted, but the families of people who have actually passed on now and they feel that this is a stain on the character of their relatives.’’

While it would have been better if the Government had acted sooner, ‘‘sometimes issues take a while to bubble to the surface’’, Robertson said.

However, it would have been better if convictions clearly for homosexual acts and no other illegal activity had been ‘‘quashed en masse’’ without the need to apply, he said. — Fairfax NZ