Manawatū Lesbian and Gay Rights Association secretary/treasurer Cam Jenkins with a flag that captures the whole community in different shapes and colours. Photo / Sonya Holm
Manawatū Lesbian and Gay Rights Association secretary/treasurer Cam Jenkins with a flag that captures the whole community in different shapes and colours. Photo / Sonya Holm
Manawatū Lesbian and Gay Rights Association was once housed down a back alley but is now more mainstream.
The longest-running gay and lesbian organisation in New Zealand, Malgra started in Palmerston North 46 years ago.
“As an organisation, we’ve gone from being down a back alley at Square Edge, running a night club, to not needing a nightclub but needing safe spaces for our community,” secretary/treasurer Cam Jenkins says.
The group’s remit has expanded since the 1970s, to capture the widest inclusion of both “identity and orientation”.
Jenkins uses various terms to cover the expanded membership: Rainbow community, LGBTQ+, gender diverse and glittfab.
Glittfab stands for gay, lesbian, intersex, transexual, takatāpui, fa’afafine, asexual and bisexual.
It includes the traditional Māori term takatāpui (meaning intimate companion of the same sex) and the Samoan fa’afafine, the practice of raising boys to undertake traditional female-gendered roles, Jenkins says.
Rainbow flags representing different sections of the community. Photo / Sonya Holm
Malgra is managed by volunteers, with funding from Palmerston North City Council and philanthropic groups.
Mondays are drop-in days, where “people can just come in, have a chat with us, pick up supports like books and resources”.
Appointments are available on other days via its website.
Malgra is part of the Rainbow Youth Group, helps facilitate a family and whānau group, and offers support and advice to other organisations and businesses.
It has a peer navigator based in its Hancock Community House office one day a week.
Reflecting on past gains of the decriminalising of sex between men, and the introduction of civil unions and marriage equality, Jenkins says the biggest issue today is health.
“For our trans community and gender diverse community, for them to be identified as their true identity, to fit in in the world, might require healthcare around surgeries, breast removal or gender reassignment surgery.”
Gender assignment is an elective surgery and is funded through public healthcare, but “the problem we have is we have one surgeon who can specialise in that in the whole country”.
Rainbow cats on the windowsill at Malgra's office in Hancock Community House. Photo / Sonya Holm
There is also a growing “anti-Rainbow movement”.
“The platform has now changed. I think we’ve got the same level of hatred and vileness, it’s now just amplified because 20 years ago we didn’t have social media.”
He is fearful hard-fought wins will be taken away.
“What we’ve seen can happen from our cohort in America, it only takes legislative change to go backwards.”
Despite the challenges, he is hopeful.
“I’d like to think the work that we’re doing now is setting it up for the next generation to pick up the flag and go ‘we want to do it this way and this is how we want the community to move’.”
This profile of a Te Pū Harakeke - Community Collective Manawatū member organisation is part of an occasional series.
Sonya Holm is a freelance journalist based in Palmerston North.
