1960s: Breaking Gay Ground?
July 29, 2019
By AHNZ
‘Breaking ground’ for this or that minority group is frequently being approved of and celebrated these days and it doesn’t even matter if any such ‘ground’ even had to ‘break’. Why let the truth get in the way?
Did ‘Hudson and Hall’ really ‘break ground’ for gay people on New Zealand TV? Did Frank Sargeson cut a path for homosexual writers? Did D’Arcy Cresswell break new ground for blackmailing homosexual Mayors?
Like them, and many others, Peter Sinclair just got on with his job and the population let him. There was no issue about mixing up gender with entertainment, it simply wasn’t anyone’s business anyhow. By the same token, Peter Sinclair (Hudson, Hall, Perigo, Prime,..) made no efforts to push their gender politics on the professional work they did.
Going backwards in time to impose modern judgements on gay or Maori people on TV is very silly. They were not trying to make a point, they were not conditioning us or ‘paving the way’; They were simply doing their jobs and being themselves like anyone else.
So often in our contemporary interviews people are asked to look back. “Did you know at the time you were breaking ground as a woman/homosexual/Maori??” Every time the answer is that the person in question did not even think of it. I’m getting really tired of all these Victimhood Culture era attempt to re-frame history. Next phase please!
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