Gay Hate Crime In Moeraki, New Zealand.

Two North Otago men accused of kidnapping a man last week are facing seven charges including  kidnapping and assault of a male at  Moeraki last Friday, unlawfully entering and remaining in his house and another house at Moeraki, threatening a second man and assaulting him twice.

The charges stemmed from an incident where the men allegedly ordered two men to leave town because of the mistaken belief they were gay. Source

The two accused, a 41 year old man from Oamaru and a 40 year old from Hampden, have had their names suppressed.

Hampden police Senior Constable Darrin Low told Dunedin District Court (on Monday) that one man who had been detained said he had “never known fear like it“. Source

Our thoughts are with the victims and we wish them a full and speedy recovery from their ordeal.
It’s good to see that police are taking this incident seriously and are prosecuting the alleged offenders, however it does highlight how shockingly bigoted and violent some of the more rural areas of New Zealand can be.

But is ‘gay bashing,’ in all its forms, limited just to the rural backwaters of New Zealand, or is there something dark lurking within the collective fragile Kiwi psyche  ?

Air NZ’s Gay Kiss Refusal



Following complaints from gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people Air New Zealand said recently that they will remove a scene from an in-flight safety video where All Black player, Richard Kahui,  refused to kiss a gay flight attendant on the cheek.

The video, which had already been shown to over two million people on Air NZ’s aircraft, apparently without any thought as to whether it may have marginalised or offended some people, also raised concern from a university professor who feared it may have caused gay male suicide. Is it any wonder in a country where ads like this next one are permitted, legitimising homophobia:

Low Carb Beer ‘Queer’




Earlier this month GayNZ reported on an ad campaign by Moa Beer, which suggested that anyone drinking low carb beer was ‘queer’:

“Moa Beer is offering to apologise in person to anyone offended by a t-shirt campaign which suggests low carb beer drinkers are queer, after an outpouring of disgust and disappointment on Facebook.

The boutique brewer’s marketing department was giving away t-shirts which said “Low Carb Beers”, with the a pink ‘Q’ superimposed over the letter ‘B’ so it read “Qeers”, promoting the fact that Moa’s brews are “full strength”.

When asked by GayNZ.com Daily News whether the campaign is saying that anyone who drinks low carb beer must be queer, Moa’s marketing manager replied “yes”, but also so replied “yes” to the question of whether Moa was bothered that it had offended some gay people.

The ensuing story sparked angry backlash on its Facebook page…” read the full report here

So what’s the message here – Homophobia in NZ is acceptable until it results in physical harm and assault?
Comments left on the beer company’s wall included:

“Yesterday a friend of mine was threatened with being bottled, sworn at and called a faggot because he walked down Ponsonby Road holding his boyfriend’s hand.
THIS is why, unfortunately, NZ isn’t mature enough for Moa’s advertisement. I know it’s meant in humour, there are too many people who see that kind of advertising as legitimising their homophobia. Take Toyota and the ‘bugger’ commercials. Suddenly it was acceptable. It was on wheel covers. It was publicly ok to say the word. This will happen with homophobia if advertisements like Moa’s are seen as ok.”

“It’s reading debates like this that I’m pleased I’ve left New Zealand. Considering it’s nearly 2011 it’s amazing how backward kiwis can still be. We need to be more accepting. To those that posted “PC madness” “take a joke” etc., it’s easy to say that when you are part of the majority. Try putting yourself in the shoes… of someone in a minority group and feel what it’s like to be oppressed; dealing with this stuff day in, day out.
ps I’m not gay.
pps won’t be buying the beer.”

“The only people that will take offensive to it are ‘Queers’, I don’t get mad at ads that take the piss out of woman, as a lot of beer adverts do, eg Tui…. I say grow a set of balls and laugh… by the way well done MOA by the reaction this has had it means your advertising has worked!!!”

“Another ‘Like’ just to post on your wall.
I really thought we had made progress, as a country, away from homophobic shyte like your QEER T Shirt campaign.
Like many, I’d never heard of you but the bad news is, now I have, I don’t like you.
Epic PR failure.”

Other stories presently in the NZ News you may be interested in:
Upset by sexual moves, murder trial told
Gay community calls for justice over banjo killing
Thanks to Readerofe2 for the links




Today's posts - click here

Departure Taxes and NZ Holding Countries to Ransom

Two tourism related news stories have been playing out in the NZ
press over the last few days.

The first centred around complaints that the country's national carrier Air New Zealand has been holding small Pacific Island nations to ransom - demanding millions of dollars more in grossly inflated subsidies for the privilege of accepting their services.

The small pacific island nations are heavily dependent on Air NZ flights for both for tourism and trade, which would suffer drastically if flights are withdrawn.

The islands of Samoa and Tonga are facing cuts in services from next week unless they cough-up more to keep Air New Zealand interested.

The Cook Islands has already agreed to the demands and will increase their payment from $2 million to $5 million. Their tourism minister Wilkie Rasmussen said his country had agreed to a new joint venture, to be signed within two weeks and said that the "flights were important to secure access to visitors from North America, the UK and Europe."

According to the NZ Herald, Samoa's Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni has said Air New Zealand is holding his country to ransom and he has "approached rival airlines about flying the Los Angeles route through Apia and Tonga."


The second news story concerns a massive storm of protest from New Zealand over Britain daring to introduce a 4-tier departure tax based on distance travelled (a form of carbon tax) with passengers on long haul flights to countries such as New Zealand hit the hardest.

Fears are that hiking the departure tax from the present equivalent of $113 to $240 will cause a massive drop off in visitors to NZ and have serious consequences for the NZ tourism industry, already hit by a fall in numbers due to the recession.

The irony of the two situations is not lost on some people.

On one hand the NZ government leaps onto its high horse about its tourism industry being threatened by high departure taxes and is worried that other countries will follow suit, whilst on the other its national carrier is squeezing small island nations whose small, tourism based economies are heavily dependent on Air NZ flights.

Before John Key sits down to talk to Gordon Brown he needs first to sort out what's going on in his own back yard.

Links:
UK Departure Tax overshadows Key's Meeting with Brown
Cooks Pays Air NZ to Keep Rarotonga Route