Ka mua, ka muri - look to the past

Contrary to recent claims by Wellington Pride supporters, LAVA members have been defending our right to exclude men from our groups and spaces for decades. This article is by Tighe, a LAVA founding member, who protested with us at the Ministry for Women and Michael Fowler Centre in March 2021.

‘The Issue of M-F Transsexuals’ looks at 2002 and before. It first appeared in the ‘Manawatu Lesbian Newsheet’ in 2002 when Tighe lived in Manawatu, which is in the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The local Lesbian Support Group had decided to say “No” to a man (who identified himself as a woman) who wanted to join us. He wanted lesbians to show his wife “how to be a lesbian” according to some lesbians who kindly supported him. 

This is the version of the article which was posted south and reprinted in OLO – the Otautahi Lesbian Outpost – the magazine that Tighe initiated and worked on for years before moving north to the Manawatu

Reprinted from the Otautahi Lesbian Outpost