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Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986
The Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986 is an act of the New Zealand Parliament that legalised sex between men over the age of 16 — the same age as for heterosexual sex.
The act was sponsored by Fran Wilde, Labour Party MP as a private member's bill. All votes on the legislation were conscience votes, but they were made roughly along party lines. Most Labour MPs supported the bill and most National MPs opposed it.
Controversy
Many MPs who voted against the bill said publically that they would have voted for the bill if it had carried a higher age of consent. The vote would have been guaranteed if the supporters of the bill had compromised on the age of consent. The supporters, however stood their ground and the legislation passed anyway.
A group of churches led by the Salvation Army organised a large movement of opposition to the bill, and claimed to have a petition with 750,000 signatures. Closer inspection of the petition demonstrated that many of the signatures were duplicate, fraudulant or belonged to children.
One of the major motivations for the bill was combatting the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It was argued that decriminalising homosexual acts made it easier to provide information and health services to the gay community.
Coming into effect
On 9 July the legislation passed its third reading with 49 votes to 44. The legislation received the Governor-General's assent on 11 July and came into effect 28 days later, on 8 August 1986.
Section 7 of the Act had a retrospective effect, protecting men from prosecution for past offences, so the threat of incrimination for gay male sex had been lifted.
Fran Wilde was subsequently elected mayor of Wellington, the nation's capital.
See also
| This article is based on a GNU FDL LGBT Wikia article: Law Reform Act 1986 Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986 | LGBT |
