History 'quite a sobering force'

Some of the anti-queer views being currently voiced loudly are sounding scarily similar to views expressed during the 1990s, according to an expert on the queer history of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Professor Chris Brickell, of the Sociology, Gender Studies and Criminology Department, features in Queer Aotearoa, a documentary examining historical treatment of members of Aotearoa’s LGBTQIA+ community. The documentary was made live on TVNZ+ on 1 February.

In the 1990s, LGBTQIA+ people were portrayed quite negatively in the news media, Chris says. This was a topic he explored in depth in his PhD at the time.

He says looking back at that media coverage now it seems old fashioned, but, it also bears some disturbing similarities to the “new anti-queer” views on display now.

“One of the things that struck me was both how far we've come in some ways, but also how tenuous our rights are. And I think one of the reasons to look at history is because history has lessons that we need to learn.”

History is “quite a sobering force”, he says. “You can actually see that there are forces who would actually see LGBTQIA+ rights go backwards. So it’s quite useful to know what backwards looks like.”

While there has been positive legal changes for queer people since the 1990s, Chris refers to a recent episode when members of a prominent church disrupted a drag story time event.

Chris attended the SameSame But Different queer  literary festival in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland last year, where a man wearing a mask filmed everyone as they entered and uploaded the footage onto a news site. And at a Pride event in Ōtepoti Dunedin, security was needed on the door

“I’ve never encountered that at pride events before … This is not the New Zealand I’ve been used to living in in recent times.

“I think history is quite an important teacher in terms of thinking about how we maintain our position in society.”

Chris is passionate about queer history and has written several books on the topic, including Mates and Lovers: A History of Gay New Zealand. This book caught the attention of Queer Aotearoa director Harry Wynn.

He didn’t hesitate when asked to take part, Chris says.

“It’s my long-running research project and it keeps taking new forms. So whether it’s looking at imprisonment, material culture, HIV and Aids or same sex marriage,  I like exploring it all .

“It’s quite a cool thing to do because it’s relevant to the community that I’m a part of. And also, you keep discovering things… people’s lives take interesting turns or have layers of complexity we wouldn’t otherwise think too much about.”

The second episode of the documentary – which was filmed last year - features Chris discussing the period of pre-homosexual law reform which took place in 1986.

“Sometimes we assume history is  one dimensional, but I'm interested in the complexities of the past, and I think the series brings out that range of voices really nicely.

“There's a real focus on people's voices about their own  experiences, as well as the historical context. There's also some really great retro footage in there as well.”

-Kōrero by Koren Allpress, Internal Communications Adviser