This issue:
A delegation will address the May Auckland City Council meeting to request the formation of a committee to advise Council on lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. Representatives from these communities are now being sought to form the delegation.
A small group approached council under the umbrella of the Pride Centre in repsonse to the reported support of the Mayor and city councillors during the build-up to the local body elections last year. An appointment to address Council has been confirmed for Thursday 16 May 1996.
"Homophobic attitudes among members of Council may have caused problems with queer issues in the past," said an organising committee spokesperson. The aim of participation with Council would be to positively influence its policy. It is hoped that Council would become more senstive to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues as a result.
It is envisaged that the committee would look at issues such as queer representation on Council, housing, and funding for queer initiatives. The committee would have the potential to improve Council recognition of public events such as Hero and HIV/AIDS fundraisers. It could also make Council more accommodating of the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.
The organising committee believes that it is important that the delegation be made up of a diverse representation of the lesbian, bisexual, transgender and gay communities. Members are networking amongst the communities and invite anyone interested in supporting the delegation to contact the Pride Centre on +64-9-302-0590
The inaugural meeting of the New Zealand Gay & Lesbian Tourism Association (NZGLTA) was held on the Saturday 30th March 1996 in Wellington.
The meeting was attended by 10 interested gay and gay friendly tourism providers, who agreed that the establishment of a professional gay tourism association was necessary to encourage the development of New Zealand's gay tourism industry.
The main aims of NZGLTA is to foster the development of a gay tourism infra-structure, to promote gay tourism to and within New Zealand, maintain standards of service, hospitality and travel related products and is committed to the welfare and satisfaction of the gay lesbian and bisexual traveller.
NZGLTA can be contacted via email at irez@actrix.gen.nz or by phone +64-4-384-1877.
Nelson gays and lesbians had a very successful street stall on April 4th protesting Nelson Bay TV's decision not to screen Express Report, said Henry James, Spectrum secretary.
They gained a lot of support and a number of signatures including that of Nelson Mayor.
They intend to keep up the pressure on Bay's TV and are looking at whether Express Report can be screened on the other Nelson region television channel.
(The following letter first appeared in the Seattle Gay News on 22 March 1996 - due to the Easter holidays I haven't been able to obtain any comment from the Hamilton Custom's office.)
To the editor:
I am a 50-year-old man who recently spent two months hitchhiking around New Zealand on a very basic journey to see the countryside. While returning to New Zealand from Sydney, Australia, I had the following experience at the Hamilton (New Zealand) airport, which I am certain will be of interest to your readers.
The fiftyish customs officer was all smiles at the rural Hamilton airport until he saw a book, entitled "Growing Up Gay in Australia" protruding from my bag, which had a torn zipper. The smiles turned into a frown, which became a scowl and progressed into a rage.
He immediately called over two nearby officers (there were only four officers on duty at the time) and exclaimed that I was in possession of what he deemed "indecent material". He called for a thorough luggage search and body search. While the other officers searched me and my baggage, he perused the book. The most explicit photos he could find were some shots of Gays and Lesbians sitting together or holding hands. But he argued the mere title made the work "indecent".
The other officers soon found some phone cards advertising the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney and also an insert from an Australian newspaper, promoting the agenda of the Mardi Gras. In the older customs officer’s opinion, this was more "indecent material".
The other officers were younger (25-ish) and wanted to drop the matter, but this man who was apparently their supervisor, pushed on.
Did I know that being in possession of such material could prevent my reentry into New Zealand? (This was a real problem since I had an outward ticket from Auckland to Los Angeles to Seattle in four days, and obviously if I couldn’t reenter the country, I could not go back to the U.S.) And obviously if I had such material, I must be Gay. Why did I have the book?
I replied that I purchased the book for a friend, but my sexual orientation was none of his business and had no bearing on my eligibility to reenter New Zealand. (I am a heterosexual male and I realized it would be to my benefit to state this, but I wanted to "play" with this jerk a little bit.) This flipped him out, and he shot back, "I’ll judge your eligibility, not you!"
About this time one of the other officers, who frankly seemed to be tiring of this charade, found a photo of an attractive lady friend of mine in my backpack. The senior officer again asked if I was Gay; again I said this had no bearing on my eligibility to reenter New Zealand.
So he shouted, "If you won’t say you’re not Gay, the answer must be yes! But why do you have a photo of a woman in your bags?"
When I declined to answer, he tried another tactic. "What is your opinion of Gay people?" he asked. This question I did decide to answer.
"I feel most, or at least the ones that I have been able to identify as being Gay, are generally more polite, intelligent, and economically better off, percentage wise, than most of the heterosexual population," I said. ("Certainly much more intelligent than yourself," I was tempted to say, but I needed to enter New Zealand.) This really irritated the bloke.
I asked to be put in touch with this man’s superior. The three officers went into a conference.
I needed to look for accommodations in Hamilton and needed to get my passport stamped to enter New Zealand. One of the young officers returned the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras phone cards to me. He said apologetically that the book must be placed in the "amnesty box", which is really a container for prohibited food products, or that I could not have my passport stamped for reentry.
I could see he wanted to go home and have no part of this. Reluctantly I agreed, but if I had had more time and didn’t really need to enter New Zealand so badly, I would have stood my ground. The younger officer stamped my passport and even helped me repack my bags. He seemed as disgusted as myself, and as I left he even whispered in my ear, "Welcome to New Zealand".
- John Daugert
Television
Express Report every Monday 10pm on ATV, Capital City, Coast to Coast, Southern and CTV.
And The Band Played On, Sky TV Monday April 8, 10:15pm, Tuesday April 16, Midday, Wednesday April 24, 4:40pm
Radio
Regular gay and lesbian shows
Auckland - G & T Show, 810AM Access Radio, Thursday 7 to 8am
Auckland - This Way Out, 810AM Access Radio, Saturday 11:40am
Auckland - In The Pink, 95BFM Student Radio, Sunday 8 to 9pm
Auckland - Girls Own Show, 95BFM Student Radio, Sunday 7 to 8pm
Hamilton - Different Strokes, Contact 89FM, Sunday 6 to 8pm
Wellington - Gay BC, 783AM Access Radio, Gay BC, Saturdays 11:15 - 12:15
Wellington - Reading Lesbian Writers, 783AM Access Radio,Saturdays, 1.00 - 1.15
Wellington - Lesbian Radio Programme, 783AM Access Radio,Sundays, 10 - 11 am
Wellington - Boy Trouble, 89FM Student Radio, Sunday 6-7pm
Top of the South - Dyke FM, 99.4FM Fresh FM, Sunday 10am
Top of the South - Gaytime FM, 99.4FM Fresh FM, Sunday 11am
Christchurch - RDU 98.3FM Student Radio, has no specific queer show but does have queer news, play queer artists and all the rest as part of their daily programme.
Christchurch - Outwaves, Plains, 96.9FM , Monday 8pm
Christchurch - Lesbians on Air, Plains 96.9FM Monday 9.30 - 10pm (note 9-9.30pm from 18th March)
Dunedin -Dykes on Mikes, 91FM Radio One, Tuesday 8pm
Dunedin -Tea with the Boys, 91FM Radio One, Sundays 9-10pm
For more information on the above shows check out http://nz.com/NZ/Queer/media/radio.html
None this week.
More details on the above events can be found on the web at http://nz.com/NZ/Queer/calendar/1996/
AIDS Hotline - Auckland +64-9-3580099 Toll free 0800-802-437 24 Hours
Whangarei Gay Help - +64-9-437-7620, Tuesday and Thursday 7 to 9.30pm
Auckland Gayline - +64-9-303-3584 10am to 10pm weekdays, 2pm to 10pm weekends.
Hamilton Gayline - +64-7-854-9631, Wednesday 8 to 10pm
Rotorua Gayline - +64-7-348-3598, Tuesday 7 to 9pm
Napier Gayline - +64-6-835-7482, 5pm to 8am.
Palmerston North - +64-6-358-5378 24 hour answerservice.
Wellington Switchboard - +64-4-385-0674, 7.30pm to 10pm
Wellington Lesbian Line - +64-4-389-8082 Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 7.30 to 10pm.
Greymouth/Reefton Gayline - +64-3-768-4366, Wednesday to Friday 6 to 9pm.
Westport Gayline - +64-3-789-6027, Friday 7-8.30pm
Hokitika Gayline - +64-3-755-6270, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 7-10pm
Christchurch Gayline - +64-3-379-4796 Mondays 8-9pm, Saturday 7.30 to 10pm
Christchurch Gay Information line - +64-3-379-3990 24 hour recorded service.
Dunedin Gayline - +64-3-477-2077 24 hour recorded service. Answered on
Wednesday 5.30 to 7.30pm, Friday 7.30 to 10.30pm
Dunedin Lesbian Line - +64-3-477-2077 24 hour recorded service. Answered
on Tuesday 5.30 to 7.30pm
Some background information on NZ AIDS Foundation major research project Male Call is now available at http://nz.com/NZ/Queer/NZAF/MaleCall/.
Overseas media who utilise any or all of the above material please credit QNA as your source. Thank you.
QNA is a weekly news service of events, activities and other items of interest that are happening in the queer community in New Zealand. The news is distributed via the QNA mailing list (email proffitt@iprolink.co.nz to be included on this list), posted to soc.bi, soc.motss and nz.soc.queer.The news articles only are distributed via the GLBNews and Queerplanet mailing lists. A special sports edition is distrbuted via lgb-sport mailing list.
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