Barnett Tim: Civil Union Bill — First Reading 
Barnett Tim: Civil Union Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:618;Page:13943] 
TIM BARNETT (Labour—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 I am who I am as we all are in this House. Each of the 120 members of Parliament here is heterosexual homosexual or bisexual. I did not choose my sexuality; no one does. It was in me from when the genetic strands started to gather in my mother’s womb. I spent my teenage-hood in trauma not understanding why I was not driven by what drove and excited most of the boys I knew. I was 21 before I met someone who described himself as gay. I was 24 before I came out to myself. As the mist lifted I told person after person about my new discovery with what Paul Adams might recognise as evangelical zeal. 
Back in 1986 this House recognised that homosexuality was a reality when it decriminalised gay sex. In 1993 it banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. But laws can do only so much. Some in society see homosexuals as a threat to be resisted. If they are physically rather than mentally strong they attack us. In hate crimes they target our mouths our genitals and our anuses—symbols they believe of our sexuality. Those who have the power freeze us out of jobs. Many tell lies about us: that we attack young boys that we are poor parents and that we are incapable of a monogamous one-to-one relationship. Anyone who denies the reality among New Zealanders of hatred based on homosexuality need only read a handful of the emails that we have all received in the past few days. That hate hurts. It costs lives. And what else explains the suicide attempt rate among young lesbians and gay men—six times that of other young people? 
So how is the Civil Union Bill relevant to all of this? Of course many more heterosexuals than homosexuals will benefit from this bill but I will speak from the perspective of this nation’s thousands of lesbian and gay people living in same-sex relationships and seeking a name for and an acceptance of those relationships. 
There are three reasons why voting for this bill is as important as voting for the Relationships (Statutory References) Bill. First there is discrimination in the Marriage Act. That is why the Court of Appeal decided in 1996 that although lesbian and gay people could marry—someone of the opposite sex of course—Parliament should address the issue of the status of same-sex relationships. That is why 20 Parliaments worldwide have given legal recognition to same-sex relationships. That is why complaints that our Marriage Act breaches the Human Rights Act on the grounds of sexual orientation are weaving their way through our legal system. Discrimination can be removed or broadly equally alternatives can be provided. The Civil Union Bill is an acceptable alternative; marriage can remain untouched. 
Second the difference between me and a heterosexual member of Parliament is pretty tiny. It lies in our sex life in who and how we love and in our life experience. As the UK law lord Baroness Hale said this week: “Homosexual relationships can have exactly the same qualities of intimacy stability and interdependence that heterosexual relationships do.” So why should the State which has since the start of this nation chosen to offer a self-funding legal status to heterosexual couples not do the same for homosexuals? No reason I suggest. 
Thirdly a civil union gives status. It makes it easier to prove a relationship. It provides a start point and an end point. It provides a chance for a great party! It protects children of rainbow families and it harms no one. 
Finally I give one personal reflection. In a conscience vote we identify what is right and we support it. I congratulate the British Conservative leader Michael Howard and most of his Tory colleagues for backing legislation in the British Parliament very similar to our bill. What insight do they have that so many National MPs here seem not to have? Both the bills before us today are acts of acceptance that we are here and we are citizens worthy of what comes with citizenship.