On Thursday 9th July, some of our team based in Te Whanganui-a-tara attended the beautiful 40 Years of Homosexual Law Reform – Community Celebration at Parliament to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the historic passing of the 2026 Homosexual Law Reform Bill. Our CE Judy joined an incredible lineup of speakers speaking to the future of queer advocacy to close the celebration.
We want to extend a huge thanks to Craig Watson and the whole organising committee for bringing us together for a joyful celebration and commemoration.
You can find Judy’s speech, along with the full transcript, below.
Theydies and gentlethem.Ladies and gentlemen.People of every shape, size, sexual orientation, gender identity, iwi, culture, postcode and tax code.Malo elelei, talofa lava,Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.Tonight Craig asked me to speak to the future of queer activism. And at InsideOUT, we’re in the business of future-building. Every day we work with schools, communities, and professionals to help create an Aotearoa where takatāpui and rainbow young people can thrive. We strive to be good ancestors, to thrive inside and out, to create a vibrant national presence that amplifies the voices of young leaders, and channel community wisdom to equip adults with the tools to meet the needs if young people. To grow a generation of confident, capable, connected rainbow leaders.I’d like to acknowledge our founder Tabby Besley who built InsideOUT as a 19 year old with a dream. I’d also like to acknowledge our team here tonight, Val, Red, and June, who make magic happen every day.40 years ago I was one of those twinkles Matua spoke of earlier. So while I cannot claim to remember the debate, I was very busy being created. My whole life has been shaped by what happened in this place.Before I knew I was queer.Before I knew I was trans.Before I knew I would stand here one day, legally female, legally married, and legally entitled to an amicable divorce should the need ever arise…again.I met my first husband at the 20th anniversary (you can laugh, it’s okay).Forty years ago, this country had a choice, and that choice was never just about sex.And our opponents knew that. That’s why they fought so hard.They called homosexual law reform the “thin end of the wedge”.They warned that if it passed, society would change, that decriminalizing sex between men would inevitably lead to gay bars, same-sex marriage, and adoption rights.And I have to say, they were right.Not about the moral collapse, obviously. We have excellent catering, a reasonably functioning democracy, and I haven’t seen a single horseman of the apocalypse tonight. They weren’t invited.But, the detractors were right. The law reform would be the beginning of something bigger.That the thin end of the wedge was never just about consenting adults doing what they love.It was about whether queer people could exist in public.Whether we could love without fear.Dance without shame.Hold hands.Raise families.Be gainfully employed.Become MPs.Grow old.Become the sort of people our younger selves desperately needed to see.Well look around this room tonight!Look at this glittering conflagration of activists and allies, heroes and sheroes, nonbinary finery, iconic legends. Does this look like the thick end of the wedge to you?The thick end of the wedge is not about rainbow people being allowed into Parliament for one night, one beautiful night.The thick end is when we do not need the wedge anymore.It is when the door has not just been wedged open, but when we’ve taken the door off its hinges! And stopped asking who is allowed through, and knocked down the wall!That is the future of rainbow advocacy in Aotearoa.No begging for tolerance.No being grateful for conditional acceptance.No squeezing ourselves through institutions built without us in mind and calling that inclusion.The future is possibility.It is a transgender child in Canterbury who was excluded from school sport last week. Knowing they can play sport with their friends, stay fit, and grow old.It is a takatāpui rangatahi seeing their whakapapa and their identity held together, not pulled apart.It is the 5000 rainbow students who stayed home from school last year because of bullying, and the 40% of rainbow rangatahi who considered ending their own lives, going to school next week more worried about their maths homework than whether they will be safe at lunchtime.It is healthcare that treats intersex bodies, intersex people, with dignity.It is rainbow families and teachers celebrated in schools as leaders never having to worry about being labeled as groomers.It is community organisations funded to build sustainable futures, to nourish today’s young leaders and channel community wisdom.And it is joy! It’s unbridled joy!The sweaty dancefloor at the kiki Ball kind of joy. The loud kind.The “we survived, and we are fabulous, and we are still here, not going anywhere” kind.So tonight we honour the people who carried us here.Those of you who marched, organised, spoke publicly, lost friends, lost family, lost safety, and still chose courage.They gave us an instruction: make the world freer than you found it.That is our work now.There are still people trying to make our rangatahi feel small.Still… dressing prejudice up as piety and a concern.Asking whether some of us have gone too far, when all we have done is exist too visibly for their comfort.Forty years ago, they called us the thin end of the wedge.And here we are.Thicker.So let the legacy we inherited become the legacy we create.Let it be said of us that we do not mistake progress for permanence.That when the door opened, we held it, pushed it, brought the lesbians and their toolbelts, and the bisexuals with their spreadsheets. We appreciate the spreadsheets.And when the time came, we did not simply ask who was allowed through.We mobilised, unified, bashed in the door and knocked down the wall.And for those who will stand here forty years from now, Older. Younger. Māori. Pasifika. Asian. Pākehā. Disabled. Intersex. Trans. Non-binary. Bisexual. Lesbian. Gay. Queer. Takatāpui. Māhū. Vaka sa lewa lewa. Palopa. Fakafifine. Fa’afafine. Akava’ine. Cyborg. Questioning. Certain. Glittering.Hopefully they’ll look back and say:“Thank God they did not stop at the thin end of the wedge!”– Judy O’Brien