42. Part 3 of the Inquiry’s final report, Whanaketia – Through pain and trauma, from darkness to light, sets out the circumstances that led to children, young people and adults entering State and faith-based care during the Inquiry period.

43. The circumstances that led to Takatāpui, Rainbow and MVPFAFF+ children, young people and adults entering State and faith-based care during the Inquiry period varied depending on the care setting and their own personal circumstances. However, the reason and intentions for some Takatāpui, Rainbow and MVPFAFF+ people entering care was discriminatory, underpinned by negative societal attitudes towards diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity. This was particularly evident in relation to entries into psychiatric care.

Discrimination led to entries into care

44. For many Takatāpui, Rainbow and MVPFAFF+ survivors, the circumstances that led them into State and faith-based care was based on negative societal attitudes, stigma and discrimination based on the view that they were deviant, sinful and needed to be ‘cured’. The lack of visibility, understanding and societal acceptance of the full spectrum of Takatāpui, Rainbow and MVPFAFF+ people also contributed to them entering care.

45. Some survivors were rejected by their families due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, which created a pathway into care. As one survivor put it, “[for some] it’s their ‘rainbowness’ that results them going into care – coming out can be a case for why they are placed in care (being rejected by their families)”.[27]

46. These effects could be compounded for Takatāpui, Rainbow and MVPFAFF+ survivors who were Māori and / or Pacific, as they were subjected to racism as well as discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Some survivors also experienced rejection by their whānau, kainga and communities due to the impact of colonisation and religion on indigenous attitudes towards diverse sexuality and gender identities.

Entries into psychiatric care

47. Discrimination towards people with diverse gender identities and / or sexual orientation resulted in people from the Takatāpui, Rainbow and MVPFAFF+ communities being admitted to psychiatric institutions.[28]

48. In the early part of the Inquiry period, psychiatry was still an emerging discipline. Psychiatrists lacked some of the tools and understanding of today, not only to diagnose and treat conditions, but also understanding of difference and diversity. Prejudice and a lack of knowledge and understanding of different behaviours or conditions saw some people admitted to psychiatric institutions for reasons that would be viewed as wholly inappropriate today – including admissions based on discriminatory views that homosexuality was a mental illness that could be, and needed to be, ‘cured’.

49. Until 1973, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders categorised homosexuality as a mental health disorder. This, coupled with the criminalisation of sexual relations between adult men (until 1986), established a pathway for Takatāpui, Rainbow and MVPFAFF+ survivors into psychiatric institutional care settings.[29]

50. NZ European survivor Joan Bellingham told the Inquiry about the homophobic attitudes that contributed to her being admitted into psychiatric care. In 1970, Joan went to Burwood Hospital in Ōtautahi Christchurch for nurses’ training at 18 years old. There, she experienced hatred and overt homophobia from the matron and staff once they found out she was gay. The matron told her homosexuality was wrong and said she would never be a nurse. The same matron later accused Joan of stealing drugs, which she said was completely false. It was after that accusation that Joan was told she needed treatment and was taken to Princess Margaret Hospital in Ōtautahi Christchurch, without any choice. Joan said:

“I didn’t have any clothes with me or anything. There was no choice in the matter. I was just told I that I was being admitted to Princess Margaret. I didn’t realise it at the time, but I would spend the next 12 or so years as a patient there.

“I was terrified and told them that this was a mistake, but they wouldn’t listen. They gave me drugs to quieten me down. I recall my mother also being deeply anxious I was in hospital and wanted to know why I needed to be there. But you didn’t question the doctor’s authority during those times. They were like gods. They thought I might have ‘neurotic personality disorder’. The worst part is that I never felt like I was given a genuine choice, or that the doctor was listening to me.” [30]

51. Pākehā survivor Dr Kyro Selket, who identifies as a gender non-conforming dyke, told the Inquiry that she had met many gay men who were put into Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital in Rangitikei. At Lake Alice those gay men experienced medical abuse in the form of conversion practices, for example, electric shocks.[31] Kyro described a gay couple being “tortured with electric stuff” at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital:[32]

“They’d been in Lake Alice for years. They were put there because they were queer. Their families put them there. I mean, as people said later, ‘Before conversion therapy, we had Lake Alice and Carrington’.”[33]

52. The Inquiry heard evidence of some Takatāpui, Rainbow and MVPFAFF+ survivors being misdiagnosed while in psychiatric care. Māori survivor Ms OF (Ngāti Kahungunu), who was placed into Cherry Farm Psychiatric Hospital in Ōtepoti Dunedin when she was aged 16, shared:

“I recall being told that I was a lesbian because of penis envy. That I had come out of my mother’s body the wrong way and I was damaged on the way out. I know now that wasn’t right. This is the way that I want to be and I was given a diagnosis of schizophrenia. However, I was never schizophrenic. I was simply a lesbian.”[34]

53. Religious attitudes that conceptualised homosexuality as a mental health issue also forced Takatāpui, Rainbow and MVPFAFF+ people to engage in psychiatric care and treatment, particularly for Pacific Peoples. Fuimaono Karl Pulotu-Endemann, the first registered Pacific psychiatric nurse in Aotearoa New Zealand, witnessed MVPFAFF+ people being placed in psychiatric care as a result of their sexual and gender identities.[35]

Footnotes