| Homosexual Law Reform Act |
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The Homosexual Law Reform Act was introduced by New Zealand Labour MP Fran Wilde in 1985. After substantial debate, it removed provisions from the New Zealand Crimes Act that had previously criminalised consenting gay male sex. Originally, the bill had two parts- one decriminalised male homosexuality, while the other provided anti-discrimination law protections for lesbians and gay men. While the first part passed narrowly (49-44), the second failed, but was incorporated into a supplementary order paper added to the New Zealand Human Rights Act 1993, and passed then. It faced fierce opposition from fundamentalist Christian political activists such as the late Keith Hay , Peter Tait and Norman Jones (National MP for Invercargill), as well as the Coalition Of Concerned Citizens that they created to distribute a flawed petition against homosexual law reform. According to Laurie Guy, many of the signatures on the petition were found to be faked, and therefore the petition in question was treated as fraudulent. While the Coalition of Concerned Citizens threatened electoral reprisals, the Fourth New Zealand Labour Government was returned for a second term of office, losing only one constituency seat to the National Party Opposition in 1987. Homosexual law reform had proven a devastating defeat for New Zealand conservative Christians, as Guy has admitted in his historical studies of homosexual law reform in New Zealand (see below) BIBLIOGRAPHY
ISBN: 0864734387
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