A former sex worker has become a dame in the Queen’s latest birthday honours list.
Catherine Healy was put forward for the honour by New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in recognition of her work to decriminalise prostitution in the country.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
As in the UK, the honours are bestowed twice a year, on the Queen’s birthday and in the new year.
While working in a Wellington brothel in the 1980s, Healy and a handful of her colleagues decided to form a union in order to make their profession safer and less stigmatised.
In 1987, she became a founding member of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC), an organisation formed to advocate for the safety and wellbeing of sex workers.
“We just wanted to be treated like normal people,” she told Stuff.nz. “We wanted to change attitudes, we wanted acceptance. Most of all we wanted to change the law.”
The NZPC was instrumental in the battle to decriminalise prostitution, a battle which ended in victory in 2003 with the passage of the Prostitution Reform Act.
As well as campaigning for legal protections for sex workers, Healy also “championed Aids prevention, sexual health and human rights”, says Radio New Zealand.
Her public advocacy came at a cost. For years, “she endured the embarrassment of family members, which, over time, has turned to pride for the role she has played in the movement for change in the industry”, says Stuff.nz.
After decades of tireless campaigning to lift the stigma from sex work, the 62-year-old says she cried when she received the letter notifying her of her new title.
“I still keep thinking we are going to be arrested at dawn, not acknowledged,” she said. “I never, ever imagined this day would come.”
Healy is one of 192 New Zealanders named on this year’s birthday honours list, the first in which more than half of the recipients are women, says The Sydney Morning Herald.
-
Could Democrats lose the New Jersey governor’s race?Today’s Big Question Democrat Mikie Sherrill stumbles against Republican Jack Ciattarelli
-
‘Porsche’s luxury credentials are now hanging by a thread’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Choose your own wellness adventure in Greater Palm SpringsThe Week Recommends Hit the spa, try a sound bath or take a hike
-
Russia is ‘helping China’ prepare for an invasion of TaiwanIn the Spotlight Russia is reportedly allowing China access to military training
-
Interpol arrests hundreds in Africa-wide sextortion crackdownIN THE SPOTLIGHT A series of stings disrupts major cybercrime operations as law enforcement estimates millions in losses from schemes designed to prey on lonely users
-
China is silently expanding its influence in American citiesUnder the Radar New York City and San Francisco, among others, have reportedly been targeted
-
How China uses 'dark fleets' to circumvent trade sanctionsThe Explainer The fleets are used to smuggle goods like oil and fish
-
One year after mass protests, why are Kenyans taking to the streets again?today's big question More than 60 protesters died during demonstrations in 2024
-
What happens if tensions between India and Pakistan boil over?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As the two nuclear-armed neighbors rattle their sabers in the wake of a terrorist attack on the contested Kashmir region, experts worry that the worst might be yet to come
-
Why Russia removed the Taliban's terrorist designationThe Explainer Russia had designated the Taliban as a terrorist group over 20 years ago
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across SyriaTHE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
