Around one hundred people met at the bucket fountain in Wellington's Cuba mall yesterday afternoon for a rally against the ‘Homophobic Panic Defence'.

The Defence allows a murder defendant to claim that he was the object of sexual advances by the victim, and found these advances so offensive that he was driven to murder in a psychotic state. If the defence is accepted, the murder charge is reduced to manslaughter.

The ‘Safe On Our Streets' rally included speakers Labour MP Charles Chauvel, Claudia McKay of transgender advocacy group ‘Agender', Maddy Drew from UniQ at Victoria University.

"New Zealand we pride on giving everyone a fair go, but the existence of the Homosexual Panic Defence is plainly unfair to Gay, Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Kiwis," Chauvel told the assembled crowd.

"It is an archaic provision and has no place in our modern legal system.”

Rachael Hadwen, one of the event organsers, recited the names of LGBT victims of violence going back to 1944.

Chauvel later told Radio New Zealand that the law of provocation that allows 'Homosexual Panic Defence' has to be removed. "I see it as a way we normalize violence in New Zealand in an unacceptable way, just like we did with section 59 with kids, just as with many years trivialized domestic violence against women."

A banner for the new group, AllOurRights was unveiled at the event. The group's new website, AllOurRights.co.nz, has been launched to provide a resource for future actions on the issue.

Click the link below to hear Radio New Zealand's coverage of yesterday's rally.