Dorian Society

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Dorian Society (1962–1988) was New Zealand’s first club for gay men. It began on 27 May 1962, founded by Cees Kooge, John McKay, Brett Rawnsley, and Claude Tanner, who became the first President-Chairman. At first it was mainly a social club and did not push for political change.

In 1963 it formed a legal subcommittee, collected books and resources, and offered legal advice to members. By 1967 it asked for advice from the English Homosexual Law Reform Society and the Albany Trust about changes in the law, which helped spark a New Zealand group focused on law reform. Its first project was a petition signed by 75 prominent citizens and sent to Parliament in 1968, which Parliament rejected.

On 17 April 1967, about 150 people met in Wellington to form a group to work for law reform. They called themselves the Wolfenden Association after Lord Wolfenden’s 1957 report urging the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, but it soon became the New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform Society. Lord Cobham, a former governor-general, was invited to be patron but declined, saying that these people were mentally sick and that legalising the offence could be seen as contagious.