"Around 2013, before same-sex marriage was legalised and debates raged publicly, someone from my family neighbourhood asked my mother if I could help them use skype, on our computer, as she had an important national meeting to attend. I obliged, and we invited her into our house.
The meeting turned out to be a collection of church elders associated with a conservative lobbyist group, discussing ways to oppose the marriage amendment act by Labour MP, Louisa Wall. I sat in the next room and listened to community elders, including someone I had known for years, actively try to block a hard fought for progression in social equality.
Twelve years later, I am planning my own same-sex marriage celebration, and this photo (circa 1920?) has a significant pull to me. Being devoid of people, set up in anticipation for a quaint wedding reception at home, it could almost be my own lounge waiting for mine and my partner's families.
However, this image is from a time where homosexuality was regarded as a sickness and immoral. It is striking to think at this time queer men could face life imprisonment if they were prosecuted. Homosexual relationships were illegal in New Zealand until July 1986, only half a century after this image was taken, and only 40 years before my own marriage, to another man. (Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation only became illegal in 1993)."
