We asked high-profile young New Zealanders about their reflections of 2013, and their hopes and resolutions for the New Year.
Duncan Mathews, 26, the general manager of Rainbow Youth.
The biggest thing from 2013 is obviously marriage equality. Being able to get married itself doesn’t have a lot of meaning for me personally – of course it does in a way – but I think it’s a lot about what was attached to the symbolism of marriage equality. People being able to look and say “well, I can have that same relationship, family path…there’s no difference now”.
Personally, it also gave me a platform to talk with some family members about disagreements we had in that area. The public, national conversations that have been happening, and the acknowledgement and engagement from the Government on more levels than just marriage equality has been really exciting.
I don’t think any other military in the world has ever so publically stood up and supported their queer service men and women.
Despite the fact that America is still in the Dark Ages somewhat, I think we have President Obama, who publically stood up and said “I support same sex marriage” to thank for giving Prime Minister John Key permission to stand up and say the same thing, which had a flow-on effect.
One other thing that has come up in the media quite a bit which has been quite positive, I think, is starting to identify the lack of access to healthcare for queer, and specifically trans*, people. Starting with mental health support, and services not being particularly friendly, and going through to the actual availability of things like gender reassignment surgery. Things like that are now being publically talked about, which is exciting in terms of an acknowledgment that there’s work that needs to be done in this area, and it’s not just being swept under the rug anymore.
Having the Auckland Pride [parade] publically funded by Auckland Tourism was a huge milestone. Just an acknowledgment that there needs to be that representation, and that public presence. I think that was really awesome, and the fact that they’ve confirmed funding for 2014 is fantastic.
I’ve just come back a few of weeks ago, is the Pride In Defence conference, the New Zealand Defence Force forming Overwatch, and them marching in uniform in the beginning of the year. That actually was a world first, I don’t think any other military in the world has ever so publically stood up and supported their queer service men and women.
In 2014, I hope that the public conversations continue. Around things like adoption, and specifically I hope some action happens around trans* access to health care. I think this is an issue that is moving incredibly quickly. If you look even six years ago, when the Human Rights Commission report To Be Who I Am was first released, there was not a huge amount of acknowledgement. And there’s still not, but there’s been small pockets of support that have allowed a significantly larger number of people to live openly and identify, and to some degree transition, with the support of medical professionals. So I hope that in 2014 that becomes the government, or the DHB, issue, where they tackle it as a national issue, not just because we happen to know a surgeon who will sneak someone onto the mastectomy list.
