Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986

New Zealand's Homosexual Law Reform Act, introduced by Labour MP Fran Wilde and passed by a narrow 49 to 44 vote before receiving royal assent on July 11, 1986, decriminalized consensual sexual activity between men and set a uniform age of consent of 16 for both same-sex and opposite-sex relationships. It removed provisions from the Crimes Act 1961 that had made male homosexual acts a criminal offense, a prohibition tracing back to British colonial law that had once carried capital punishment before being reduced to life imprisonment with hard labor. The bill's sixteen-month passage drew fierce opposition, including a petition its opponents said carried some 800,000 signatures, but the government that passed it was re-elected, and further protection against discrimination followed in the Human Rights Act 1993, well before same-sex marriage was legalized in 2013.