Same Gender Marriage case

The case challenging the decision by the marriage registrar to refuse to give three lesbian couples marriage licences commenced in the Auckland High Court this week.

Both Dr Rodney Harrison, representing the three lesbian couples, and the Mr Neil McAteer, representing the Attorney General put their respective sides.

Dr Rodney Harrison argued that under the Human Rights Act and the Bill of Rights everyone had a right to be free from discrimination. He said it was not necessary to show that same gender couples were being denied a better or more advantageous stauts that they had at present, simply they were being deprived of a choice.

Mr Neil McAteer argued that marriage was primarily for procreation and nurturing of childred and therefore marriage between people of the same sex was not permissible. Any change in this status should be decided by parliament not the courts he argued. He also argued that the Marriage Act and several other New Zealand laws clearly envisaged marriage as between a man and women.

Dr Rodney Harrison argued that it was not enough to say it was the nature of things that marriage could be only be between a man and a woman. It had been argued in the past that God had put people on different continents in order to prevent mixed-race marriages. He said "the same argument has been used this century to deny women access to the legal profession, the medical profession, the clergy still to some extent and the right to vote."

Justice Kerr, who reserved his decision, said: "The arguments have been interesting. They have raised a number of matters which I consider will be dificult to determine but I will certainly do my best to do as soon as I can."

Meanwhile the Human Rights Commission has said that it is powerless to back the case as existing legislation is exempt from the Human Rights Act for another two years.

Jenny Rowan, one of the six women involved in the case, sais she was disappointed at this: "Essentially, for all their own reasons, they haven't come alongside at all," she said. "I would have thoguht they might have taken this opportunity to be a part of a process they will eventually going to be a part of anyway."

HIV Retests

The Ministry of Health has advised that anyone who tested for HIV between 1 July 995 and 1 April 1996 and whose blood was tested at one of the laboratories listed below should discuss with their doctor or clinic the need for a retest.

The Hospitals are: Southland Hospital, Hutt Hospital, Dunedin Hostpital, Rotorua Hospital, Timaru Hospital, Wellington Hospital, Christchurch Hospital, Tauranga Hospital, Nelson Hospital.

The community laboratories are: Northland Pathology Laboratory, Hamilton Medical Laboratory, Tauranga Medlab, Rotorua Medical Laboratory, Medical Diagnostic Laboratory Services, Valley Diagnostic Laboratories, Medical Laboratory, Nelson Diagnostic laboratory, Cardinal Community Laboratories Ltd, Medical Laboratory.

AIDS Film Protest

About 50 people made a noisy protest at the showing of a controversial film on AIDS in Christchurch. The film, "AIDS - what you haven't been told", was organised by the Potter House Christian Centre.

The film itself is anti-gay propaganda from the United States. The films message was that there was a hidden gay agenda with AIDS.

Dan Knowles, manager of the NZ AIDS Foundation Ettie Rout Centre in Christchurch, said that the film purported to unmask myths, cover-ups, and political manipulations concerning HIV and AIDS. People who went along to the film to learn something new and important about HIV would be very disappointed.

Hamilton Airport Custom Incident

In QNA Issue 26 (7 April 1996) we reported the Hamilton Airport Custom incident. To date we have received no response or acknowledgement to our letters to the Custom Department and the Minister of Customs.

Marriage Fundraiser

A very successful Outlaws and In-Laws Auction was held today in Auckland to raise funds for the same-gender marriage case. About 300 hundred people attended bidding on 80 items raising over $10,000 in the process.

A further fundraising auction will be held in Wellington on June 1.

A total of over $20,000 is required to pay for the cost of the case.

Insurance companies

Having just received another mail order offer on insurance I was suprised to discover that this particular company in there application specifically refused to cover people with AIDS or the AIDS virus. This of course is extremely amusing as there is no such thing as an AIDS virus but an HIV virus. Nowhere at all do they mention HIV. This could mean that any person who was HIV positive would be able to take out a policy. I suspect that this is not what was intended but it certainly shows the level of ignorance still in the insurance industry.

Gay TV and Radio

Television

Express Report every Monday 10.15pm on ATV, Capital City, Coast to Coast, Southern and CTV.

Shortland St, TV2, Monday to Friday 7pm.

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

Reviews

None this week

Events - Upcoming

More details on the above events can be found on the web at http://nz.com/NZ/Queer/calendar/1996/

Events - Previews

None this week

Gay Switchboards and information lines

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

What is happening on the Internet

This week two non queer but two sites which do link back to the Aotearoa New Zealand queer resources are the Internet University at http://www.internetuniv.com/ and the NZ Arts and Travel pages at http://url.co.nz/.

Copyright, Subscription and Contribution information

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 majordomo@i-max.co.nz with the message subscribe qna-list 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.

The news is also archived at Akiko International web site (http://nz.com/NZ/Queer/QNA/), the most current issue will be also found at the QRD (http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/pacific/nz/qna.html) and on Social Tendancies BBS (64-7-846-2603).

Contributions to QNA can be sent via email to proffitt@iprolink.co.nz, fax 64-9-3761404 or 64-21-787264 or toll free fax within NZ 0800-771-404 or snail mail or phone on 64-9-3769258 or toll free phone within NZ 0800-771-403.