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From GayNZ.com New Zealand Daily News
A select committee room in Parliament has been dedicated to New Zealand's LGBT history, and a sizable group which included some of the country's recent queer history-makers met in Parliament yesterday evening for its launch event.
Select committee room 11 - now dubbed 'the Rainbow room', will stand as a testament to the struggles queer people have faced in New Zealand, and the struggles they continue to face today. It joins already existent Pacific, Maori, Asian, and suffrage rooms.
The room features photographs by David Hindley from the campaign for homosexual law reform in the 1980s, on loan from the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand.
In attendance were many of those who have recently fought for queer rights in Aotearoa, including lifetime activist Marilyn Waring, famous for causing the snap election that ousted Robert Muldoon's conservative government in 1984.
Waring recalled past parliamentary debates on homosexual law reform, especially those of 1974 and 1986, as being "cruel, so cruel".
"This room needs to have a board with the worst things that were said [in those debates]," she said. "So we can see what the denial of human rights and human dignity looks like."
Others in attendance included Katherine Rich, Georgina Beyer, Bill Logan, Jacquie Grant, and outgoing MP Tim Barnett who worked hard to see the Rainbow room come to fruition before leaving parliament.
Speaker of the House Margaret Wilson, who officiated the launch, described the dedication as an important new date in the chronology of queer history in New Zealand.
"It is a milestone in a long journey to full citizenship for gay, lesbian, and transgender New Zealanders," Wilson said. "Our parliament is a house of representatives, and it gives me great pleasure to know that in 2008 it is increasingly reflective of our diverse population." © Copyright GayNZ.com |
