Venn Young
The campaign for homosexual law reform began in earnest in the mid-1970s. Member of Parliament Venn Young introduced a Crimes Amendment Bill in 1974 to legalise private 'homosexual acts' between consenting adults. His bill – not passed into law – followed the British model, with a proposed age of consent of 21 (then reduced to 20).
Alfred Kinsey
Alfred Kinsey ran an institute of sexual behaviour and published his first major paper in 1948 and it received much opposition from society. He had created a scale that ranged from one to six, one being completely heterosexual and six being completely homosexual. He claimed that 37% of American white adult males had had some homosexual experience at some point in their life. He also came to the conclusion that 4% are exclusively homosexual. These statistics from Kinsey’s report were very influential in New Zealand and were quoted in reports written in New Zealand.
Fran Wilde
Fran Wilde moved the Homosexual Law Reform Act she was a target of hate mail because of her work to decriminalize homosexuality and she was told that God has cursed her. She also received gratitude from many people.
Article from New Zealand Herald about Fran Wilde's success of the homosexual law reform