2010 Big Gay Out

Yesterday was the annual Big Gay Out celebration (we were out of town, so weren’t there). The video above is of Prime Minister John Key’s appearance. GayNZ.com (who also supplied the video) reported that around 12,000 people took part.

Beside Key, politicians who attended were Labour Leader Phil Goff, gay Labour MPs Charles Chauvel, Chris Carter and Grant Robertson, lesbian Labour MP Maryan Street, gay Green Party MP Kevin Hague. National Party MP Chris Finlayson, who’s reportedly openly gay, did not attend, but heterosexual National MPs Nikki Kaye, Melissa Lee and Pansy Wong were there. So, too, was Auckland Mayor John Banks—somewhat surprisingly, considering his previously anti-gay record in politics and on his former talkback radio show.

The Big Gay Out is a stand-alone event that took place during the Auckland’s defunct HERO Festival, which was wound up beginning in March of last year, after almost two-decades. HERO began as a mega dance party, added a parade (which ended years ago), and had many side events, two of which, the Big Gay Out and Heroic Gardens Festival, remain. HERO wound up, in part, because a conservative majority on the Auckland City Council wouldn’t give any support to the festival, a situation that may very well change when the new Auckland Council is elected later this year.

At any rate, a new festival called OurFest began this year, about which I know nothing, apart from what’s on their website and what’s been mentioned on GayNZ.com. Over time it could build into something.

I’ve always thought it was a shame that Auckland (or New Zealand as a whole, for that matter) doesn’t have more organised GLBT communities, but, then, that’s not uncommon in places where fundamental rights are guaranteed by law. For example, there’s no national or Auckland-specific GLBT political organisation, which means that when the newsmedia need someone to provide GLBT commentary on a news story, journalists turn, more often than not, to the New Zealand AIDS Foundation. To me, that’s not ideal for a lot of reasons.

It’s good to see that the Big Gay Out continues to thrive and that our leading national politicians see it as important and are relaxed and comfortable attending. This is a very different place than the one I left.