When Cross Dressers were men wearing dresses

One of the people I most admire in modern New Zealand is Rob Moodie. A man who wore kaftans and dressed as Alice in Wonderland to go to the High Court.  What a man. What a great man.

Here was a bloke, a former copper, politician, lawyer and mayor . A man who was the former Secretary of the Police Union and fought to look after police in troubled times.

Rob Moodie was a man among men and an example of how New Zealand has and always will be a tolerant Nation. All of this rubbish that we hear today and see today about the Conservatives that hate people who are part of a minority need to have a wee look at Mr Rob Moodie, alias Alice in Wonderland.

A heterosexual man who was happily married with 3 children and liked to wear women’s clothes.

All of the people who question their sexual orientation today and are gender confused or angry at the so-called lack of tolerance of people who are a tad different need to learn about this remarkable New Zealander and reflect.  Are you gender confused? Or are you being sold a porkie? Maybe you just need to be a bit more like Rob Moodie.

Kiwis, like Australians and Americans have always been tolerant people. We judge people on their merits, not their quirks of individuality.

So many today are too young to remember this controversial figure in New Zealand’s past. So here is a crash course.

Rob Moodie had a tough start in life. One of 10 kids, he was placed in a boys home when only seven years old. His Dad had passed from TB and his Mum, unable to cope, had to surrender him to the state. He grew up in care with his foster parents. At age fifteen, he left school and got a job as a freezing worker, a fencing worker and joined the police aged nineteen years.

Hardly a privileged start to life.

Yet he went on to rise through the ranks in the police, reach the rank of Inspector and then go on to study Law and graduate with a First Class Honours Degree.  He did a PhD. He was a self-made man. His aspiration to greatness had not been stifled by excuses or reasons – and there were clearly many that he could have used to justify his failure.

Yet he did not fail. He succeeded.

Rob Moodie became the Police Association Secretary and was, as I vividly remember as a then wife of a copper, seen often dressed in a kaftan whilst he represented the rights of police throughout New Zealand. And the police loved him.

So all the leftie luvvies out there – we were “woke  “  a long time ago. Only in those days we saw it as meritorious acceptance of excellence in whatever guise. Not acceptance of guise disguised as meritorious.

Rob went on to act for a couple in one of the most famous cases in New Zealand legal history – when he defended the Berryman’s whose farm happened to have a bridge built by the New Zealand Army Engineers. The bridge collapsed, killing a local beekeeper. The Coroner held that the Berryman’s were responsible for his death.

Rob Moodie did not agree. He took the case to the High Court and won. 

And he did it dressed as Alice in Wonderland. Wearing a dress sewn by his wife.

My personal feeling is that he felt empowered as a woman because his father passed when he was so little and his Mother was so overwhelmed with responsibility and hardship that she epitomised a strength of character that he admired and loved.  I may be wrong. It does not matter.

I do so admire his wife and children. I admire their support and commitment to a man they clearly adore, respect and admire.

I admire the Kiwi coppers who accepted this rather eccentric man as their public face. My admiration for Rob Moodie is immense.

So all you leftie luvvie darlings who think that we are a mob of right wing intolerant monsters:

We support people who deserve to be supported. Not those that expect support without earning it.

Rob Moodie, his wife, the Kiwis and cops who threw aside nonsense and embraced credit where credit is due should reflect that we can get it right without government help and we actually can think for ourselves without being babysat.

And, by the way, good on you Mrs Moodie. That was a great outfit you sewed for your husband.