In 1986 Stephen Rainbow marched with HUG, Heterosexuals Unafraid of Gays, while living as a married father who had not yet come out. Forty years after the Homosexual Law Reform Act passed, he joins Dane Giraud to argue that the reform was, above all, a free speech fight.

Rainbow describes a country in which living openly was, in his word, inconceivable. Consensual sex between men was a criminal offence. Men left for Sydney, San Francisco and London to find a life they could not have here. He recounts the campaign led by Dame Fran Wilde, and the 18 months of hate mail and threats she absorbed. Opposition came from social conservatives in both major parties of the day.

The conversation keeps returning to speech. Rainbow argues that democracy is what lets silenced groups be heard, and that the reform succeeded because people were willing to say in public what had been unsayable. Giraud puts the harder question back to him: whether today's speech restrictions, including those sought by minority communities themselves, risk silencing the dissenters within those same communities.

Free to Speak is the official podcast of the New Zealand Free Speech Union. Uncensored conversations on free speech, civil liberties, and the people defending them. Hosted by Dane Giraud.

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