One Vote. That's All That Saved New Zealand's Gay Rights Bill.

On July 2, 1986, opponents of New Zealand's Homosexual Law Reform Bill moved to kill it entirely. The closure motion failed by one vote - 41 in favor of killing the bill, 42 against. One MP held strong. One week later, on July 9, 1986, Part 1 passed 49 to 44, and gay men in New Zealand were no longer criminals. This episode tells the full story of that nail-biting fight - and why it matters forty years later.

Before British ships arrived in New Zealand, the Maori people had a word: takatapui - intimate companion of the same sex. There was no concept of same-sex love as criminal. Then came 1840 and the Treaty of Waitangi, which brought British law with it, including sodomy statutes that originally carried the death penalty. New Zealand didn't invent homophobia. It imported it. And it took 146 years to undo.

This episode traces that undoing - from the Dorian Society in 1962, to Ngahuia Te Awekotuku's denied US visa in 1972 that galvanized a movement, to the failed reform bills of 1974 and 1979 where activists refused to accept second-class legislation. Then in 1985, Labour MP Fran Wilde introduced the Homosexual Law Reform Bill and faced sixteen months of debate, death threats, a stalker, a vandalized car, and a fraudulent petition claiming 800,000 signatures - one in four New Zealand adults - that investigators found had pages with multiple signatures in the same handwriting and boxes submitted as full that were nearly empty.

The episode also celebrates what came after: the Human Rights Act of 1993, the Civil Union Act of 2004, marriage equality in 2013 - the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize it - and the public gallery breaking into a Maori love song after the vote passed. A colonized people's love song celebrating the end of a colonial law. And it reflects on what it means to be that one vote in your own life - to hold strong to what you believe is right even when the pressure is enormous, because you know what you're actually protecting.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

One vote, one single vote gave New Zealand its gay rights. Hi there, I'm Chris with a K, and welcome back to This Week in Queer History, where we find hope-filled, inspirational, and strategic moments from queer history that we can use today. This week we're traveling to Aotearoa or New Zealand, where 40 years ago this week, Parliament voted to end over a century of criminalized homosexuality. It's a story of colonial laws, massive oppression, death threats, a fraudulent petition, and a bill that survived by one single vote. Let's get into it. This week and queer history. Stories filled with love and gleam. Before British ships ever arrived in New Zealand, the Maori people had a word, Taka Ta Pui. It meant intimate companion of the same sex. There was no concept of same-sex love as criminal, no shame attached, it was simply part of the fabric of life. Then came 1840 and the Treaty of Waitangi. With British sovereignty came British law, including sodomy statues that originally carried the death penalty. New Zealand didn't invent homophobia, it imported it. And that imported law would take 146 years to undo. By 1861, Britain replaced the death penalty for sodomy with life imprisonment, and New Zealand followed in 1867. Then, in 1893, the statutes expanded so that all sexual activity between men became criminal, even if fully consensual. The penalties included life imprisonment, hard labor, and flogging. The Crimes Act of 1961 consolidated things under sections 140 and 141, criminalizing sex between men with penalties of up to seven years in prison. It was a slight improvement, but slight doesn't mean just or equal. So here's where the fight begins. In 1962, the Dorian Society was founded. It was named after Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray, and it became one of New Zealand's first gay rights organizations. It created space for men to connect and organize in a country where their existence was literally illegal. And it took some time, but the movement caught fire in 1972 when, and you're gonna have to forgive me because I may mispronounce this, Ngahuya Te Awe Kotuku, a young Maori academic and lesbian activist, was denied a US visa because of her sexuality. Yeah. The US State Department called homosexuals persons of moral turpitude. The publicity from her case galvanized the formation of gay liberation groups across New Zealand, in Wellington, Christchurch, and Auckland. The first legislative attempt came in 1974. National MP Van Young introduced a reform bill, but it proposed a higher age of consent for gay men than for heterosexuals. Gay organizations refused to support a bill that codified them as second-class citizens. It was defeated 34 to 29. Another attempt by MP Warren Freer in 1979 and 80 hit the same wall. Activists held the line, no half measures. Then in 1985, everything changed. Fran Wilde, a labor MP from Wellington Central, introduced the Homosexual Law Reform Bill. She crafted it with two parts. Part one would decriminalize consensual sex between men and set an age of consent at 16, equal to heterosexual law. Part two would add sexual orientation to anti-discrimination protections. Part one was the floor, part two was the ceiling. But here's the thing the opposition was enormous. The Coalition of Concerned Citizens organized a petition against the bill. When it was presented to the parliament, it claimed over 800,000 signatures. In a country of 3.3 million people, that's roughly one in four adults. The Salvation Army was heavily involved in the campaign. Anti-gay churches mobilized. It became the largest petition in New Zealand history. But parliament didn't fold because the petition was a fraud. Investigators found sheets with multiple signatures in the same handwriting. Boxes submitted as full were nearly empty. The Parliamentary Petitions Committee rejected it. Cheating. They were trying to cheat. What followed was 16 months of debate, one of the longest in New Zealand parliamentarian history. Fran Wilde received death threats. She was stalked. Her car was vandalized, but she kept going. Then came the night's edge. On July 2nd, 1986, opponents moved a closure motion to kill the bill entirely. It failed by one vote. 41 in favor of killing it and 42 against. One MP's courage saved the entire thing. Then, one week later, on July 9th, 1986, part one passed, 49 to 44. Gay men in New Zealand were no longer criminals. But part two, the anti-discrimination protections were stripped from the bill and failed. The ceiling didn't hold. Only the floor survived. But this matters because it took seven more years, seven more years before the Human Rights Act of 1993 finally added sexual orientation to discrimination protections, completing what Park 2 had tried to do. Then the Civil Union Act in 2004 gave same-sex couples legal partnership. And in 2013, New Zealand became the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize marriage equality. Louisa Wall's bill passed 77-44. MP Morris Williamson gave what became known as the Big Gay Rainbow Speech, telling opponents that the sun would still rise tomorrow and their cows would still produce milk.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

So don't make this into a big deal. This is fantastic for the people it affects, but for the rest of us, life will go on.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

It went viral around the world. And after the vote was finalized, the public gallery up above broke into Poca Re Kare Ana, a Maori love song. Think about that. A colonized people's love song celebrating the end of colonial love. And New Zealand kept going. The Criminal Records Expungement Act of 2018 allowed men convicted under the old laws to have their records wiped clean, accompanied by a formal parliamentarian apology. In 2022, conversion therapy was banned. But this story isn't finished here. More than 64 countries still criminalize homosexuality today, and the vast majority of them inherited the exact same British colonial law that New Zealand just spent 40 years undoing. Even the Cook Islands, a New Zealand territory, only decriminalized in 2023. Growing up in Utah, I knew almost nothing about New Zealand. It was a faraway island, and really all I knew was that Lord of the Rings was shot there, and there was Gandalf, Hobbits, and these really amazing landscapes. That was all that I knew. It wasn't until undergrad and then grad school in Hawaii that I actually met people from New Zealand. People with Maori roots. And I learned about the culture and the people, and it just was so fascinating. They are so brave and bold and strong. And in grad school, I learned that Maori culture is a sister culture to Hawaii. It's a little more rough and tumble, and it may look that way, at least from the outside. But they have a little more rocky shores and it's not as flowery, maybe, as Hawaii, but they are connected deeply in a way. So spending all of that time in Hawaii and then learning about that culture there, I really found researching this story so fascinating. Before I continue, I want to take a moment to thank the members of this channel. Your support keeps this history alive and helps me bring these stories to you every single week. And if you're not a member yet, consider joining. It means more than you know. Link is in the description. Now let's dig into that petition. 800,000 signatures. One in four adults in New Zealand at that time. Hmm, interesting. And did they all really feel that way? I have my doubts, especially when they found out about the fraud, of course. And I think about Prop 8 in California and how murky propositions can be. People don't always read what you're signing, and people don't always understand what they're voting on. Petitions and propositions can be shady. So I take that number with a grain of salt. But what I cannot take lightly is that one vote. One vote on July 2nd that kept the closure motion from killing this bill. One person who held strong. That's the part of the story that I keep coming back to. Be that one person who holds strong to what you believe is right. Don't be swayed by what looks like the majority because it may not be the truth and it may not be the right thing to do. I think about my own life. I don't want kids anymore. I did, but not anymore. My brothers and my sisters have kids, and I I love my nieces and my nephews with everything that I've got, but that lifestyle is not for me anymore. And I would never ever try to stop them from having what they want. So why wouldn't they extend the same courtesy to me? Let people live. As long as two consenting adults are making their own choices, let them live. I think so much of this comes down to fear and power. If you can keep people scared, if you can keep people feeling like our way is the right way and they are the enemy, you create tribes. You keep people coming back and paying that money and tithing, that's how it works. But as we grow and develop as a species, the more we can allow people to simply be, the better. I think for me, what I found is that if we find our own values and our own ethics and stay true to those, even in hard times, that is the true test. What do you believe? How do you stand up for that? And how do you let other people live their lives and let them live the life they want to? It's like a grocery store. If somebody wants to pick out whatever fruit they want and eat it, let them. It's not hurting you, let it go. Be that one voice in your own life that lets other people have choice. That's how I'm gonna live. At least I'm gonna try. It's hard sometimes, but think of who you're helping. Think of tomorrow and how tomorrow will be better because of what you do today. Be that one vote, stand up for people who don't have a voice, and let people live. But I'm preaching to the choir, you know this. Anyway, I would love to hear what you think about New Zealand's journey. Did any of this surprise you? Was anything fascinating? Please drop your thoughts in the comments down below. And you can always check out more queer history with the video popping up right now. You know, I've got a whole lot of other videos reaching back all over. So a lot of fun things that you can check out. And if you want to stay connected, please click the link down below in the description. Share your email so that we can stay connected. Until next time, stay strong, stay bold, and keep making history.