KEY POINTS:
Parliament now has a "Rainbow Room" to recognise gay, lesbian and transgender New Zealanders.
Creation of the room is one of Speaker Margaret Wilson's last acts before she retires at the election.
A statement from Ms Wilson said the room celebrated "the journey to full citizenship with equal rights" for the rainbow community.
The room is used for select committees, and joins others dedicated to Maori, the Pacific, the suffrage movement and, most recently, Asia.
Ms Wilson said the room "was supported by members of all parties represented in Parliament".
The room's opening on Monday night was attended by gay and lesbian MPs from the Labour Party - Tim Barnett, Charles Chauvel, Maryan Street and Louisa Wall.
Former MPs Georgina Beyer (the world's first openly transsexual MP) and Marilyn Waring (outed as a lesbian while an MP) were also there.
National MP Katherine Rich also attended.
The room has a poster showing key dates, from early English laws used here that made sodomy punishable by life imprisonment, through to homosexual law reform in 1986, the civil union act in 2004 and this year's amendment that allows birth records to reflect technological and social developments allowing lesbian couples to have children.
Mr Barnett said the room "recognises a group which has faced discrimination in society and faced a political struggle in getting representation in Parliament".
"In the case of women and Maori historically, and the rainbow community more recently, there has also been a need to work through legislative change to get that equality."
Reporters were not invited to the opening; a spokeswoman for Ms Wilson said it was an oversight.
Ms Wilson said MPs did their most "influential and intensive" work in select committees, and it was therefore "appropriate that it is with select committee rooms that we recognise all members of our society and they have taken to full citizenship with equal rights".
