Queer Activism in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1961 - 2013

This thesis traces the trajectory of queer activism in Aotearoa New Zealand from 1961 to 2013. It expands on prior historical studies that focus on gay men and lesbians by bringing the activism of transgender, bisexual, takatāpui, intersex, and more communities into focus. Working in a transfeminist framework, the word “queer” is used to foreground how the myriad communities of people with diverse genders, sexualities, and sex characteristics were materially entwined. Ten interviews were conducted for this thesis, and these are examined alongside intensive archival research to unveil activist motivations, strategies, theories, actions, fierce debates and moments of profound solidarity. Beginning in 1961, this thesis historicises the infrapolitical practices of resistance that characterised 1960s kamp communities. With the emergence of gay liberation, lesbian-feminism and trans liberation in the early 1970s, queer radicals gained a new language of liberation and explored playful and confrontational methods of protest. Queer people became politicised in ever-larger numbers. Activist groups were created in small towns, and a strong lesbian indigenous movement influenced by broader demands for Māori sovereignty emerged. Troubling linear and progressive accounts of queer history, this thesis demonstrates the contested politics and contradictory outcomes of law reforms targeting queer people throughout this period. The decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1986 encouraged an expansion of queer life, but only some communities found greater mainstream acceptance. Other marginalised queer communities became more vocal in their demands for rights, or in their opposition to assimilation. In the 2000s the legal recognition of same-sex coupledom was prioritised by some activists, while others maintained a critical view of reform and pursued queer liberation as part of a broader anti-colonial, anti-capitalist movement. This thesis ends in 2013, with the legalisation of same-sex marriage, and a queer movement that explored how to confront queer oppression in an era of legal equality. Over the five decades under review, queer activism was highly dynamic, characterised by a tension between liberalism and radicalism. While liberal approaches sought incorporation primarily through achieving legal rights, radical approaches targeted the structures of heterosexist domination as part of an anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-colonialist struggle. This study demonstrates that radicalism has been a core part of Aotearoa’s queer political histories, sometimes in conflict with liberalism, at other times in solidarity. Ultimately, this thesis argues that only through understanding the complex and fluid relationships between diverse queer communities can their activism and hopes for liberation be understood.