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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol. 37, No. 7. April, 17 1974

Gays: Up against the repressive society

Gays: Up against the repressive society

Photo of the Gay Liberation Conference held at the VUWSA student union building

A well attended public forum brought the four day Gay Liberation Conference in the Union Building to a close. A panel including a gay male, a gay female, a transvestite and a member of the society for homosexual law reform gave their views and answered questions. This forum was a vital part of the conference as ignorance is the main enemy of Gay Liberation.

Reform or......

Jack Goodwin from the NZ Homosexual Law Reform Society was first to speak. He said that his society had the image of being a bunch of oldies but in fact they and Gay Liberation had a lot in common.

Goodwin spoke of the difficulties in getting reform through Parliament. He praised the organisation of the National Party Conference which had passed a remit favouring law reform with a considerably larger majority than a similar Labour Party Conference remit. A number of Cabinet members and Parliamentarians are supporters of the NZHLRS. The parliamentary process is inhibiting their wish to introduce a law reform bill. Cabinet members cannot bring private members' bills into the House, and MP's in marginal seats have been discouraged from introducing such a controversial bill for fear of jeopardising their seats and the Labour Party's majority.

The Society had been concerned with the very narrow area of discrimination in law against gays, whereas Gay Liberation took on the fight against much wider areas of discrimination, said Mr Goodwin.

Photo of students at the Gay Liberation conference

The Society does recognise that a new law alone is not enough, but until glaring legal discrimination is removed there isn't much chance of further progress.

New Zealanders are a timid people, with particularly timid members of Parliament, he said. You have got to say the same thing over and over until what you're saying is no longer strange and people can accept it.

.....Revolution

"I'm as fed up as you are with society," Jack Goodwin told the conference, "but short of revolution we're doing all we can to change it."

"Let's have a revolution, then," murmured some of the audience in reply.

"Well if you want a revolution there may not be much hope for gays," replied Goodwin. "Look at Cuba."

Jack Goodwin's final remarks were on the need for unity between his society and the more radical members of the Gay Liberation.

Blackmail and beatings

The second speaker Dick Morrison said that sodomy laws were directed against gay men, and that this repression was driving many neurotic. "The cops have broken in on gay couples at two in the morning—they have to if an anti-gay neighbour complains. And then, if they won't admit to the 'crime' of being homosexual, they must submit to a degrading physical examination. Cops also threaten gays with arrest under indecency laws."

He said there was no acceptable place for gays to meet, which left them in the degrading positon of having to frequent public toilets to meet their own kind. Gays are continually harrassed by police; there are cases of blackmail and beatings, and some have tried—even succeeded—to kill themselves after being arrested. Gays must live in continual fear of the police.

All of these laws have been set up for a definite purpose: to maintain the heterosexual nuclear family unit which present society depends on. People must be forced into definite sex roles to maintain it. "The law is oppression codified and enshrined"; and of course it reinforces peoples' prejudices—"Well, if it's against the law, it must be wrong."

Crumbs from the table

These laws affect the quality of life of every gay. They must be scrapped. He said that gays demand full equality, the law repeal will be a major reform, but it must include the same age consent as for heterosexuals—not at 18-20, which he called "crumbs from the table of the rich white straight male-dominated society."

Sharon Alston then spoke for the gay women. She expressed her agreement and solidarity with Dick, saying that the audience might wonder why it was that gay women should be involved. The law did affect gay women. She said that the laws on sodomy were ridiculously vague: they refer to penetration, but don't say of what and with what. She said that gays did not want concessions—they want a total ban on all discrimination.

The third sex

A representative then spoke for the third sex, the transvestites. She acknowledged the work of the NZHLRS but wanted far more than they were offering. She knew of people who had been kicked out of their jobs for no other reason than their gayness. One such woman was a lesbian who told the managers of a team of marching girls she led that she intended appearing on television to express her views, and would they mind? They said no, they wouldn't mind, because she didn't have a job with them any longer.

Drags have another problem with toilets. They can't legally enter a woman's toilet, but don't like using the men's. Even transexuals who have had surgery can't get a sex change on their birth certificates or passports. She finished by insisting that people stop waiting around and start taking action against discriminatory laws.

People were then invited to ask questions Many came from the gays themselves, especially asking the NZHLRS to justify its meagre demands. Mr Goodwin was asked what it was going to do once these immediate objectives were achieved: he envisaged proceeding to further reforms.

Repression

Some of the other laws which discriminate against gays were discussed: these included the prohibition of adoption; total lack of taxation relief for dependents in gay marriages; lack of other privileges for the married such as purchasing rights, State Advances loans. Gays mentioned discrimination in employment and discrimination against children of gay parents.

Another form of discrimination was mentioned—female prostitutes are fined $40—$75 whereas males can get twelve months imprisonment.

A gay who had been through Teachers' College described his own harassment. It was impossible, he said, to be able to act straight all the time, and when the pupils found out they continually ridiculed him.

Another case was brought up by a lecturer who knew of a student who had been failed terms because the tutor knew the student was gay.

It was pointed out that there were even more hassles for school pupils, some of whom fail because of hangups about their sexuality. People get the impression that the best cure is to get out, screw some woman and settle down in suburbia; but the problem came back later even worse. One said that he had ended up in mental institutions. The psychiatrists themselves could not agree: Porirua had given him shock treatment to cure his homosexuality, which left him only worse; he overdosed and ended up in Sunnyside, where he was told there was nothing wrong with him and he needed rest.

Photo of two men kissing