New Zealand society is generally accepting of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) peoples. The LGBT-friendly environment is epitomised by the fact that there are several members of Parliament who belong to the LGBT community, LGBT rights are protected by the Human Rights Act, and same-sex couples are able to marry as of 2013. Sex between men was decriminalised in 1986. New Zealand has an active LGBT community, with well-attended annual gay pride festivals in most cities. The 2021 Household Economic Survey, conducted by Statistics New Zealand, estimated there to be 169,500 LGBT+ people aged 18 and over in New Zealand, 4.4 percent of the adult population. History Pre-colonial The Māori language word had historically referred to devoted relationships between people of the same sex, but in modern terminology encompasses LGBT identity and sexuality. The word (literally 'to become a woman') describes those who were assigned male at birth but are female, while the term has the opposite meaning, that being a person assigned female at birth but is male. Homosexuality and same-sex relationships, gender diversity, and people of diverse sex characteristics, have been documented in Aotearoa for centuries. Academic Elizabeth Kerekere has found that prior to the imposition of colonial law and morality, takatāpui were simply "part of the [family]." Same-sex relationships and activities appear to have been acceptable amongst pre-colonial Māori. Some stories, for example that of Tutanekai and Tiki, centre on same-sex couples. A British missionary, Richard Davis, found homosexual relationships between men to be a familiar part of Māori life, and although homosexual relationships between women have not been well documented, they were certainly not condemned. Colonisation and criminalisation Some of the earliest European colonists in New Zealand were Christian missionaries who arrived in the early nineteenth century and eventually converted most of the Māori population to Christianity. They brought with them the Christian doctrine that sodomy was sinful, meaning many Māori were forced to hide or destroy evidence of their takatāpui selves. Despite this, one missionary, William Yate, was sent back to England in disgrace after being caught engaging in sex with young Māori men. When New Zealand became a British colony in 1840, British law was adopted in its entirety, making "buggery" illegal and a capital offence. In 1893, all kinds of sexual activity between men was criminalised, with penalties including imprisonment, hard labour, and flogging. Sexual acts between women were never criminalised. Underground