Heritage et AL

Auckland celebrates its LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer) communities during the Pride Festival in February. Pride Festival has become an important part of the Auckland Libraries’ calendar, with a number of events such as pop-up libraries and storytimes programmed over the course of the month (including at the  same same but different festival ). However, as recently as the early 1980s not only was it legal to discriminate against a person on the basis of their (declared or suspected) sexual orientation, certain ‘homosexual behaviour’ was criminalised. At the time that Wellington Central MP Fran Wilde introduced the Homosexual Law Reform Bill in 1985, there was fierce debate both among politicians and throughout society about what the passing of such a bill might mean for New Zealand. In the Sir George Grey Special Collections reading room, Central City Library, the Homosexual Law Reform clippings scrapbook will be on display during February. ...

Ref: NZ Truth, 13 June 1929, Page 7. There have always been cross-dressing women in New Zealand, many of whom have worked in traditional male jobs, and lived in lesbian relationships. Occasionally in the past, they came to the community’s attention after being charged for criminal offences such as acting under false pretences. Hokitika-born Bertha Victor was taken into custody for vagrancy in Sydney , in 1906. Known as Bert Rotciv (Victor spelt backwards), she continued to cross-dress upon her return to New Zealand the following year and was charged several times for being a rogue and a vagabond, and for drunkenness while “masquerading in male attire”. Ref: NZ Truth, Issue 81, 5 January 1907, Page 5, "Bert Rotciv".