History and Law Reform
Homosexual intercourse became illegal in New Zealand when the country became part of the British Empire in 1840 and adopted British law making homosexual sex punishable by death. Capital punishment was never carried out in New Zealand for any reason than murder or one case of treason, and was abolished in 1961. In 1893 the law was broadened to outlaw any sexual activity between men. Penalties included life imprisonment, hard labour and flogging. Sex between women has never been legally prohibited in New Zealand.
Attempts to change the law included a petition presented to Parliament by the Dorian Society (the first New Zealand organisation for homosexual men) in 1968, and steps taken by National Member of Parliament, Venn Young, in 1974.
In 1986, the Crimes Act was changed with the passing of the Homosexual Law Reform Act, removing the offence of consensual sex between males over the age of sixteen. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was outlawed several years later in amendments to the Human Rights Act.
Read more about this topic: LGBT Rights In New Zealand
Famous quotes containing the words history, law and/or reform:
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“I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one state, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“It is doubtless wise, when a reform is introduced, to try to persuade the British public that it is not a reform at all; but appearances must be kept up to some extent at least.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)