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New Zealand society is generally fairly relaxed in acceptance of gays and lesbians. The gay-friendly environment is epitomised by the fact that there are several Members of Parliament who belong to the LGBT community, gay rights are protected by the New Zealand Human Rights Act, and same-sex couples are able to marry as of 2013. Sex between men was only decriminalised in 1986. Statistics New Zealand currently doesn't readily record the sexual orientation of people in New Zealand, meaning there are very limited statistics on New Zealand's LGBT population. However, at the 2013 Census, there were a recorded 16,660 people living in a same-sex couple in New Zealand - 7,340 male and 9,310 female. ==History== Same-sex relationships and activities appear to have been acceptable amongst pre-European Māori.〔Clive Aspin, ('The Place of Takatāpui Identity within Māori Society: Reinterpreting Māori Sexuality within a Contemporary Context )' A paper presented at Competing Diversities: Traditional Sexualities and Modern Western Sexual Identity Constructions Conference, Mexico City, 1 to 5 June 2005.〕 Some stories, for example that of Tutanekei and Tiki, seem to be about same-sex couples. A British missionary, Richard Davis, found homosexual relationships between men to be a familiar part of Maori life, and although homosexual relationships between women have not been well documented, they were certainly not condemned.〔Eldred-Grigg, Steven, ''Pleasures of the Flesh: Sex and Drugs in Colonial New Zealand 1840-1915'', A.H & A.W Reed Ltd, Wellington. pp. 47〕 In modern New Zealand, a common label adopted by LGBT Māori is Takatāpui, a term that has been revived from pre-European times and popularised since Homosexual Law Reform in 1986. The term roughly translates into English as ''intimate partner of the same sex''. Some of the earliest European settlers in New Zealand were Christian missionaries who arrived in the early nineteenth century and eventually converted most of the Māori population to Christianity. They brought with them the Christian doctrine that homosexuality was sinful. Despite this, one missionary, William Yate, was sent back to England in disgrace after being caught engaging in sex with young Māori men. When New Zealand became a British colony in 1840, British law was adopted in its entirety, making sex between males illegal and a capital offence. In 1893, all kinds of sexual activity between men was criminalised, with penalties including imprisonment, hard labour, and flogging.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Setting the scene - Homosexual law reform - NZHistory, New Zealand history online )〕 Sexual acts between women were never made illegal, which could be the result of many social factors of the time. Despite discriminatory laws, a small gay subculture developed. A number of gay men were involved in New Zealand's even smaller literary subculture, including Frank Sargeson. However even in these circles, homosexuality was not always accepted. Lesbian subcultures are more difficult to detect, but in late 1971, the KG (Kamp Girls) club for lesbians was formed in Auckland. Violence against gays and lesbians was often condoned. In 1964, Charles Aberhart was beaten to death in Christchurch's Hagley Park by a group of men who claimed he had propositioned them. They were tried for murder but found not guilty. As in many countries, homosexuals were often committed to mental institutions and given 'treatment' for what was rendered a mental illness. In 1961, the Dorian Society was founded in Wellington. Two years later, it established a legal subcommittee out of which the Homosexual Law Reform Society emerged.〔 In 1972, the Gay Liberation Front was formed in Auckland by Ngahuia Te Awekotuku. In the following decades, numerous gay and lesbian rights groups were formed across New Zealand.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Birth of the gay movement - Homosexual law reform - NZHistory, New Zealand history online )〕 After several attempts, the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986 was passed, decriminalising sexual activity between men over the age of 16. In 1993, discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation was outlawed. In 2004 the Civil Union Act was passed, giving same-sex couples an equivalent to marriage.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Reforming the law - Homosexual law reform - NZHistory, New Zealand history online )〕 New Zealand was unique in passing homosexual law reform in the midst of the AIDS crisis. Supporters of reform argued that removing the stigma from homosexuality would help prevent the spread and aid the treatment of disease. AIDS has primarily affected the gay male community in New Zealand (since records began in 1985, 53.7 percent of new HIV cases have been reported to be acquired by "male homosexual contact".), and gay men are prominent in AIDS fundraising and in running organisations such as the New Zealand AIDS Foundation. New Zealand's first gay pride week was founded in the 1970s in the wake of the Stonewall riots in New York of 1969, the symbolic start of the modern Gay Rights Movement. In 1991, New Zealand's most prominent gay pride event, the Hero Parade, was founded in Auckland. This developed into a festival that became burdened by financial problems, leading to the last Hero Parade being held in 2001. However, the parade returns as Auckland Pride Parade in 2012. Smaller scale parades were held in Wellington in the 1990s. The Sisters for Homophile Equality (SHE), a Lesbian Feminist collective, formed in Wellington, New Zealand in 1973. In December of that year, they began to publish ''Circle'', later renamed ''Lesbian Feminist Circle''. The magazine continued to publish until 1986.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=A Chronology of Homosexuality in New Zealand - Part 2 - Queer History New Zealand )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「LGBT in New Zealand」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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