New Zealand’s parliament has passed legislation to erase historic convictions for engaging in gay sex, saying the bill would help right past injustices.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in New Zealand in 1986, but men who were convicted before then still had the offense listed on their official records.
Lawmakers late on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill allowing those convicted of consensual gay sex to have their records expunged.
“I would like to apologize again to all the men and members of the rainbow community who have been affected by the prejudice, stigma and other negative effects caused by convictions for historical homosexual offenses,” New Zealand Minister of Justice Andrew Little said.
“This bill sends a clear signal that discrimination against gay people is no longer acceptable, and that we are committed to putting right wrongs from the past,” Little said.
The New Zealand Ministry of Justice said the convictions related to three offenses that were dropped in 1986 — sodomy, indecency between males and keeping a place of resort for homosexual acts.
It estimated about 1,000 people will be eligible to apply to have their records cleared when the scheme takes effect next year.
To qualify, the sex that led to the conviction must have been consensual and taken place between those aged 16 years or older.
The repealed laws were first introduced in 1908. Under the new scheme, family members can also apply to have the records of a deceased relative cleared.
The scheme refers to men because the old laws specifically banned sex between males. Lesbianism was not illegal, although gay women also suffered social discrimination.
New Zealand passed laws banning discrimination against gays in 1993, and in 2013 became the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage.
Britain last year enacted “Turing’s Law,” giving a blanket posthumous pardon to almost 50,000 men convicted under old laws in England and Wales.
Named after the World War II code-breaker and mathematician Alan Turing, it also allows living people to have their convictions erased, although they must apply individually.
Turing in 2013 received a posthumous pardon from Queen Elizabeth II over a conviction in 1952 for gross indecency with a 19-year-old man, triggering calls for a blanket pardon for other men.
A number of Australian states, including New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, have also quashed historical convictions for homosexuality.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
RSS