News Archives

Photos from our Marriageathon

We held our ‘Marriageathon’ First Thursdays event a few weeks ago at our drop-in centre. Some hilarity and matrimony ensued! Here’s a quick look at what happened. To take a squizz at all of the photos from the night, check out our album on Facebook . 

The New Zealand Constitution

 

The New Zealand Constitution – what’s it to you?

 

The government is conducting a review of the New Zealand constitution and has set up an advisory panel to report to them what New Zealanders think.

Some of us don’t think we know much about constitutional issues but we can see some things that are going well in New Zealand and others that seem to be going badly wrong. We can use this opportunity to think about how our constitution can make sure we don’t lose the good bits and about whether it could help change the bad things.

Julie Watson from the Human Rights Commission is coming to Rainbow Youth to do a Constitutional Workshop -She can facilatate us to work out how what we want for  NZ in the future and feed our priorities into the Commission’s submission on the constitution.

Saturday 25 May

1pm – lunch provided

Rainbow Youth, K Rd

Please RSVP for catering purposes and with any dietary or accessibility requirements

There is no charge for the workshop

To Julie juliew@hrc.co.nz, 3062651, or TEXT ONLY 0211377337

Rainbow Youth is hiring!

We have 4 new positions opening up at Rainbow Youth. 

The newly created roles of General Manager, Centre Administrator, Fundraising Coordinator and Campaign Coordinator replace the existing roles of Executive Director and Fundraising Projects Manager soon to be vacated by the departure of Thomas Hamilton and Sam Shore.

Please email all applications, including a C.V. and Cover Letter toemployment@rainbowyouth.org.nz.

 

Say WTF?! to Bullying

Pink Shirt Day (PSD) is a national campaign to raise awareness about the power we all have to prevent bullying. PSD aims to reduce bullying by celebrating diversity and promoting the development of positive social relationships. An annual event celebrated throughout New Zealand and the world, Pink Shirt Day aims to foster a society where all people feel safe, valued, and respected.

 

PSD began in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 2007, when a group of students stood up to defend a kid who was bullied because he was wearing a pink shirt. His fellow students took a stand by wearing pink shirts to show solidarity, and handing out pink shirts to their classmates.

 

  

 

This year, Pink Shirt Day Aotearoa is Friday May 17, 2013, and we here at Rainbow Youth want to stand up and say WTF! to homophobia and transphobia in schools, the work place and at home. Get on board with us and wear a pink shirt this Friday May 17th! If you don’t have one, check out these awesome designs by Mr Vintage. 

Marriageathon at Rainbow Youth

Craig Hoyle recaps the fantastic First Thursdays event held at Rainbow Youth on May 2nd:

Marriage equality for the rainbow community was celebrated on K’ Road last week with a “marriageathon” hosted by a local youth group.

Rainbow Youth board member Aych McArdle said it was about commemorating the historic passage of the legislation.

“We were so excited to see Louisa Wall’s marriage equality amendment bill pass through parliament a few weeks ago, and we thought we’d have a celebration,” they said at the event.

“We’ve got cupcakes and tinsel and glitter, and we’re just having some fun with it.”

People were able to ‘marry’ whoever or whatever they wanted as part of the marriageathon, and dozens took advantage of the opportunity to tie the knot with friends or partners.

Rachel and Alex got married after walking in off the street, and agreed it was a good way to celebrate marriage equality.

“We were together for four years,” said Rachel.  “We’re just friends now, but we still have a deep bond and we love each other very much, so we were like this is cute!”

“Exactly,” said Alex.  It was a nice thing to do spontaneously, yeah, to celebrate the special kind of love we have.”

Rainbow Youth Executive Director Thomas Hamilton officiated as ‘celebrant’ at the event, and said the event made a statement about the inclusivity of marriage.

“This is a message about what we can do to make marriage even more inclusive,” said Mr Hamilton.  “What is the next phase of equality when it comes to relationships and marriage?”

Mr Hamilton said that while same-sex marriage is an important step, further steps should also be taken to ensure marriage equality for all New Zealanders.

“How can we make it that it’s not just a duality or a binary?  We’ve gone beyond the binary, but there are these other things,” he said.

“What is a relationship?  In regard to the state it’s two people who are getting married together, but what happens if you’re three people?”

Mr Hamilton said the marriageathon was hosted as part of First Thursdays, an event which celebrates the K’ Road community on the first Thursday of each month.

“We wanted to celebrate our human rights victory in a fun way that will engage young people and engage with our community on K’ Road,” he said.

Aych McArdle said it also made a statement that marriage equality is here to stay.

“We’re here, we’re queer, we’re fabulous.”

 

Letter to MP Maurice Williamson

By now, most of you have probably heard the news about Pakuranga MP Maurice Williamson whose speech in support of the Marriage Amendment Bill went viral on YouTube. The reaction the the speech has caught the attention of Ellen Degeneres who invited him to appear on her show! Maurice is donating his appearance fee to a charity and Rainbow Youth are putting our best foot forward to be that chosen charity.

Here’s our letter to Mr Williamson. We’d love for you to give it a read and share it around:

 Kia ora Maurice, 

Over the past few days, as we as an organisation have continued to discuss the passing of the Marriage Amenment Bill and the impact it will have on our country, your speech has been making an impact on the world. Fifteen Million hits on youtube is enough to have any young, techno-savvy kid weeping with envy! It truly is an impressive feat, and stands as a testament to the truths you conveyed in your speech that it resonated with people all over the world.

Last Wednesday evening a group of queer and trans* youth gathered at Rainbow Youth headquarters to watch the third reading of the Marriage Equality Bill.

We laughed and cried and made our own running commentary through the speeches while eating pizza and chatting about changing the world. As we listened, the words of each speaker resonated around the crowded room. The “big, gay rainbow” you mentioned stretching over Pakuranga was seen by some of our youth group members from your electorate that same day. The fourteen year old kid Grant Robinson talked about – he was in our midst, watching and feeling that hope which Grant described. When Mojo Mathers talked about seeing her daughter go to her school formal with her girlfriend, there were daughters and sons sitting at Rainbow Youth, thinking about their own formals and wanting to be treated the same as their siblings.

When the votes were read out, and Parliament broke out into a Waiata, everyone watcing at Rainbow Youth felt a collective sense of pride and belonging. You, and all those who have supported this bill, have contributed to the work of our organisation in ways that go far beyond just giving speeches – you allowed all of us to feel equal in the eyes of the law. To feel valued and included by our country.

To then have you asked to go on The Ellen DeGenres Show is just something else! Ellen is someone who has also given great inspiration to millions of queer and trans* youth, including members of Rainbow Youth. Through her work against youth suicide and bullying, as well as her own monumental coming out, Ellen is pretty much as cool as they come.  

So, it would just be the cherry on top of our marriage equality cake if you were to support Rainbow Youth through your appearance. Last Wednesday evening was a huge movement forward for us, but there is just so much more work to be done and as a youth-run, youth-led charity we are always seeking support in the form of donations and awareness-raising.

To give you an idea of who we are and why you should support us, here’s some of things we do in Auckland and around New Zealand:

-        We are a non-partisan youth run, youth led charity providing support, information, advocacy and education for queer and trans* young people in Aotearoa New Zealand.

-        We’ve been delivering education workshops for schools, community organisations and tertiary institutions for the last 10 years, looking at sexual orientation and gender identity issues, the impact of homophobia and how to create a safer school environment for all students.

-        We’ve created national network Curious.org.nz as an online resource hub for young people around the country who are questioning their sexual or gender identity and want to link in with support groups in their region

-        In Auckland, we facilitate youth groups around the cities and train young people to lead these groups – we even have a local chapter in your electorate called Out and About, which caters to queer and trans* youth in East and South Auckland

-        We initiated and continue to work on our grass roots and internationally recognised awareness & fundraising campaign WTFNZ.

All of this is done on the sniff of an oily rag. That pot of gold at the end of the rainbow isn’t coming to us any time soon.  Our staff, our board and our volunteers work tirelessly to make things happen. Like your speech, your support would continue to help us in so many ways.

We run a drop in centre at 281 Karangahape Road and we would be honoured if you found the time to pop in and say hello. We are also always looking for inspirational voices to be heard through our Rainbow Youth and Curious websites and a interview with you would be a particularly special voice to us.

Once again, thank you for your speech. But mostly, thank you for your honesty. You put the truth as plainly as can be and it has made people sit up and listen. We hope you consider us as part of the message you want to continue to promote, and look forward to hearing from you about your upcoming trip to appear on Ellen.

Naku noa, nā  

Thomas Hamilton and Duncan Matthews, on behalf of the Rainbow Youth membership

 

 

 

 

 

Play to see: Queen

Queen is a scream. Queen is a sass.

Queen is a laugh. Queen is a cry.

Queen is a voice.

Smoke Labours Productions is proud to present this new play by Sam Brooks that puts the everyday plights of the gay man under the spotlight and explores the contradictions, difficulties and joys of being a young gay man in today’s society. Queen is all the parts of being gay that people don’t talk about: the community, the everyday mundanities and missing out on vital parts of life that come so easily to everybody else.

Queen is a voice where there needs to be one. It’s angry, it’s funny, it’s unflinching and it gets to what it means to be gay here and now.

Writer Sam Brooks is 22 and graduated from the Unitec writing course in 2011. Since then, he’s put on three plays; Goddess, Mab’s Room and And I Was Like. Rainbow Youth had a quick chat with him before the final few days of the showing of Queen.

“Queen was inspired half by my own experience and half by other people’s own stories. I feel there’s a wealth of gay literature and theatre that has covered what it’s like to be gay and a bit more adult, but there’s not a whole lot of stuff that really covers the day-to-day life of being gay; the lack of role models, the identity crises and the relationships. So the lack of these stories really inspired me to write about them!”

“I think it’s important to give a voice to young gay men in the modern world because we’re in a state of such rapid change that so many stories of kids growing up gay in this transitional period in society’s attitudes towards gay people are being lost. There’s also just the fact that we aren’t seeing these stories in the media or in literature and I think it’s important for us to see them and discuss so we can move forward a a community. It gets better is a great motto, but it doesn’t convey the reality of being young and gay in today’s society.”

Queen is running at The Basement Theatre until the 25th of April. Head over here to book tickets!

18 April 2013- Today is a Good Day

Yesterday, I woke up to rain. Over the summer it barely rained, but it rained yesterday and sort of set the scene. Rainbows everywhere.

In July of last year, I wrote this little spiel on my thoughts about gay marriage. Essentially, it was me trying to map out why I cared so much. At the time, I was single, young, and far far far too poor to get married (I’m still two of those things). But writing it made me realize is that the Marriage Amendment Bill is not really about giving people the right to marry whoever they want. Well, I mean yeah, it is. But for me it resonates much deeper than that.

It goes back to when I had my first ever kiss with a girl and knew that something had shifted in my life and would never shift back. It goes back through my whole childhood to the fact that I have always, always been happy to call myself a New Zealander. But today, on this day, I am honoured to call myself one. Because today my country validated my struggles, it validated any shame I’ve ever felt at landing somewhere outside the sphere of normality. It told me that I am allowed to feel those things but I am not less because of them. I can walk through the world knowing that my home, my whenua, has told me that my love is something to be proud of.

Last night, our Parliament voted through the Marriage Amendment Bill at 77 votes to 44 and, maybe without fully knowing how or why,  they gave a nuanced gift to any queer and trans* person who has ever felt that their world was a little off kilter.

And today, we have equality.

Today is a good day.

–Toni Duder