Category: New Zealand

Gay father delivers a petition to parliament calling for fairer adoption laws for same-sex parents and others. Christian Newman and Mark Edwards have taken their fight to change New Zealand’s adoption law to Wellington where they hope lawmakers will finally act to change the 64-year-old Adoption Act.   Christian Newman has delivered a 30,000-signature petition […]

Ellis was just two months away from a supreme court hearing which may have vindicated him of historic sex convictions.  Peter Ellis has died aged 61 after a battle against bladder cancer. Ellis was convicted in 1993 of 13 counts of sexually abusing children at Christchurch Civic Centre. He was sentenced to 10 years and […]

Gareth Watkins looks back at the events that shaped Aotearoa’s LGBTI+ community. September 1863 Explorer and writer Samuel Butler wrote of his blossoming relationship with Charles Paine Pauli whom he met in Christchurch.  Butler recounted that a barman in California had labeled Pauli as “the handsomest man God ever sent into San Francisco.” After an […]

Auckland’s two separate Pride organisations will each produce a Pride Festival; giving us a full month of Pride celebrations in February but no full-scale parade. Auckland Pride has announced key dates for their festival including the return of the Pride Gala (1 Feb) and OurMarch (8 Feb) which will be followed by OurParty, “a free […]

Despite not securing ATEED funding for a full-scale parade; Rainbow Pride Auckland tell express they will still put on a ‘range of rainbow celebrations’ from 16-29 February 2020, which will run directly after Auckland Pride’s festival (1-16 February), giving us a full month of Pride events.  In a statement Rainbow Pride Auckland tells us:  “Rainbow […]

ATEED will not be funding Rainbow Pride Auckland’s proposed parade next year. Auckland Tourism, Events & Economic Development (ATEED) will not be funding Rainbow Pride Auckland’s proposed pride parade next year. ATEED has confirmed to express that due to the inability to find a suitable parade route, the council organisation would not be providing parade funding […]

The Snapchat comedian’s alter ego says she made the decision to run while drunk. Local comedian Tom Sainsbury has declared he or rather his alter ego ‘Fiona’ will be running for Mayor of Auckland against current incumbent Mayor Phil Goff and his primary challenger John Tamihere. ‘Fiona’ is just one of Sainsbury’s many alter egos. […]

NZ Police say they are changing the way they provide support to their LGBTI+ staff and won’t be refilling the Diversity Liaison Officer Coordinator position. Inspector Tracy Phillips [pictured, right] has left the New Zealand police to take up a new role with the SPCA. Phillips had served as the very first Diversity Liaison Officer […]