Category: Opinion
As the dust settles on Pride Month, Michael Stevens investigates the parent company of Auckland Pride’s principal partner and believes they have teamed up with a bad cookie. In November 2022, Auckland Pride announced that Oreo had become a “principal partner” for the 2023 festival. Oreo is owned by Modelez International, a vast multi-national with […]
George Fowler is so in love with being queer he wants to shout it from the rooftops, but it wasn’t always like that. Here he shares his journey of becoming, truly, proud! I didn’t always think it was a good thing to be queer. In fact, I remember the exact moment the dread kicked in […]
Artist Sung Kwan Bobby Park presents two unique, yet intertwined exhibitions this Auckland Pride Festival. Here he shares his frustratingly complicated and contradictory journey of being othered by his intersectionality. When making work in an environment as an outsider, be it a queer individual in a heteronormative society, an Asian living in a Pākehā colonised […]
Do you want to flop it out and measure who is the most gay? Jessie Lewthwaite refuses to rank sexuality and says it’s time we embraced all queer women. When I was 19, I kissed a boy in my local gay bar for a shot. In my defence, the patrons had just found out we […]
The Rainbow Tick will celebrate its tenth birthday next month, but for many it’s not a milestone worth celebrating. Express talks to former staff members and the programme’s founder, to find out what’s gone wrong. Launched with much fanfare at Auckland Pride in 2013, Rainbow Tick will celebrate 10 years of operating in February. Supported at […]
Undetectable = Untransmittable. Michael Stevens says it’s time New Zealand law caught up with the modern day realities of Safe Sex. December 1 2022 – World AIDS Day – I’m glad I’m still here to mark it, when so many others aren’t. Keeping our communities safe from HIV is an ongoing task, and for a […]
In her brand new express column, Jessie Lewthwaite navigates being a visibly queer butch lesbian; a life filled with privilege and misjudgements. I’m at a bar and I’m trying to drunkenly decide if it is safe for me to go to the bathroom. It’s a straight bar, so that’s already not a great start… and […]
Why should there only be a Transgender Awareness Week? With George Fowler’s guide, you can make 2023 your Transgender Awareness Year. Another Transgender Awareness Week has been and gone. November 13th marked the start of five days dedicated to raising awareness and celebrating queer visibility, and with it comes the glorious litany of pastel pink […]