More than 100 Wellingtonians marched along the waterfront on Sunday to mark the 40th anniversary of Wellington Pride, the longest-running pride festival in New Zealand.
The Pride Hīkoi started at 9am in Civic Square, which had previously been closed to the public for seven years and had just reopened the day before, alongside the revamped central library.
Attendees held up a variety of rainbow flags and signs, which called for the protection of transgender people, rejected American “culture wars” from coming to New Zealand, and reminded people that “pride is still a protest”.
Wellington is the city with the highest proportion of queer people in New Zealand, with 11.3% of adults in Wellington identifying as part of the rainbow community in the 2023 Census.
Hutt Valley High School teacher Jill Skinner told the Herald she was marching in the hīkoi because she ran a support group for queer students at her school.
“I am here to stand up for all the queer students and queer adults ... to fight for the rights they don’t have yet and to celebrate the rights we have gained so far,” she said.
Hīkoi attendee Chris (no surname given) walked with his dog in tow and told the Herald he had been advocating for gay rights since the 1970s.
“What brings me here today is a sense of pride, a sense of history.”
He recalled standing up for people with HIV and being part of groups that rallied outside the Wellington police station for queer rights in the early 1980s.
Wellington Mayor Andrew Little told the Herald he was walking in the hīkoi because it was “important, as a civic leader, to support our LGBTQ community”.
Little said while Wellington was a “very welcoming” and “inclusive” city, there was still “a long way to go” to fight for the acceptance and human rights for queer people.
“We have a Rainbow Action Plan that the previous council signed off on and I’m keen to see that we stick to that.”
The hīkoi ended on the waterfront at Out In The City, a fair that included performances, food vendors and stalls run by queer businesses.
Speakers came up on stage to address the progress New Zealand had made with queer rights and acknowledged the 40th anniversary of the Homosexual Law Reform Bill passing through Parliament.
“We stand here today because of the bravery of those activists who came before us, who put their safety and their livelihoods on the line so that we can live as our authentic selves,” MC and drag king Homoneurotic said.
On March 15, 1986, the first Gay and Lesbian Fair was held in Newtown, an event which eventually morphed into Wellington Pride.
The original fair was organised by Wellingtonians Des Smith, James Hislop and Porleen Simmons to support the Homosexual Law Reform Bill, which passed through Parliament in July that year.
The organisers rented a school hall to host the fair, later finding out some of the school staff were unhappy to rent to queer people.
Reflecting back on that day, Smith said “the atmosphere in the hall was lively with music and bustling crowds”.
Rain (no surname given) was one of the stallholders at Wellington Pride this year, and said moving to Wellington was “really special” because the city enabled them to “fully be myself”.
They said they came from a small farming town and went to a high school where being gay or transgender was not accepted.
Rain said they wanted to run a stall at Out In The City because it was an opportunity to “show people who are walking past just how fun and amazing and diverse the community is”.
Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.