Fun Fast Facts
- Sex between men decriminalised in 1986.
- Same-sex civil unions legal in 2004.
- Same-sex marriage decriminalised 2013 (on the date of the episode).
- Georgina Beyer first transgender member of parliament.
- Navy and police force have gay-friendly policies.
LGBT organisation: Christians for Marriage Equality
- Religious organisation working to create an inclusive, hospitable, open, justice-focused perspective.
- Helped fight for civil unions and marriage equality.
- Engage in Facebook and lobbying activities.
W3JOY interviewed: Cory Joseph, political blogger
It’s not about the wedding cake, it’s about protecting us from the bad times…Our children and our partners are protected, we can get hospital rights, we can ensure that things happen the right way should something bad happen to us. That’s what it means to me. It’s about equal recognition in the eyes of the law.
I don’t think it’s going to make a huge difference in the day to day life of most New Zealanders. New Zealand has been a pretty acceptable society for a long time. There’s not a lot of homophobia. It’s not like the United States.
There hasn’t been these huge ‘hellfire and brimstone’ arguments that were made when the Civil Union movement first came around.
There’s been a lot of reluctant acceptance….There’s just been an acceptance of this as the right way to move forward.
I think the media has been pretty good at reporting the facts as they happen.
W3JOY interviewed: Dr Margaret Mayman, Christians for Marriage Equality
We’ve been an inclusive organisation for 23 years now…when the ballot opened, we thought it was important to have an inclusive, hospitable, open, justice-focused perspective that was shared.
I think we all woke up today and thought it was a beautiful day. I know there are a number of couples around the country getting married today.
There was a lot more opposition in New Zealand towards the Civil Union movement in 2004.
I was particularly impressed with the passion that young people felt about this.
There are people who are still predicting that the sky will fall…but they are in the minority.
Published on: Nov 7, 2013 at 21:18
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