A passionate Joseph Habgood on TVNZ 7's Back Benches Straight anti-homophobia campaigner Joseph Habgood caught our attention in a stirring appearance on TVNZ 7's Back Benches. In a column for GayNZ.com, he shares his passion for fighting hatred and his hopes for the future. There are only a few periods I've felt as proud, and ashamed, of my sexual identity than in the last few weeks. Homophobia has never made sense to me. The few times I've been blessed to experience love, in its pure and unadulterated form, have been the best in my life. Maybe the same is true for most people. Although love can be highly inconvenient, pulling one into a blissful coma for months and years at a time, I have never once considered love to be something to be feared, or hated, or attacked. Particularly when I'm not the one it's ravaging. But then bigotry doesn't have to make sense. It thrives on misunderstanding and fear of the unknown, and is repulsed by any logic and reasonable discussion whatsoever. I am an unashamed political geek. I believe in, and almost idolise, democracy and the rule of law, precisely because they bring light and logic to hateful perspectives such as homophobia. And once a form of bigotry is exposed for just that, in our Parliament and in our courts, I believe it is a matter of time before that bigotry is destroyed, first in our laws, and then in our collective consciousness. A few weeks ago, at Back Benches, a political TV show, logic broke down, if only for a moment. When National MP Chester Borrows had a chance to answer my question about the idea of having a Hero parade-themed Mardi Gras, and about the benefits of this for queer rights and anti-homophobia in New Zealand, he used that chance to deny that queer people were heroes, and describe the queer community as people who wore leather shorts and sung ‘YMCA' while marching down Queen Street. This, when the queer youth suicide rate is six times higher than that for straight youth. This, after the heroes (and I am very certain that's what they are) that came before us had devoted their lives to making our country (and our world) just that little bit freer from hated, struggling in a time when homosexuality itself was a criminal offense. It was almost enough to make you feel ashamed to be a New Zealander, and for that matter, a believer in democracy at all. It was certainly enough to make me feel ashamed of being straight. But then, something happened. A noise began to rise; from the audience, from the pub, from democracy itself. There was anger and passion in the air. Chester, trying to wind up his point, could barely be heard over the shouting, and cries of “shame”. Statistically, about one in ten people identify as queer. And yet, as far as I could tell, every person in that pub was united in disgust by what had happened. Not just queer people, and not just a few diehard straight supporters. Everyone. Democracy in action. For the first time I can remember, I truly felt proud of my straight identity, not for the terrible history of persecution that will always follow us, but for our future, when every reasonable straight person will rise up and not only refuse to be the allies of those who cower behind their hatred, but stand with us in bringing in a new era of equality and love. A statistical minority of queer people will turn into an overwhelming majority of people who detest homophobia, and once that happens, we've already won. I know that day's coming. Being in that pub, hearing that outcry, confirmed to me just how very far we've come. Not far enough, but still a long way. Even thirty years ago, Chester's statement would have met with apathy, even approval, but not in 2011. Perhaps straight people don't deserve a place in this movement. I certainly can't think of a single thing we've done to earn it. The love and acceptance of my queer friends, that I‘ve personally felt, is the single most sublime and inexplicable thing in my life, and the thing I'm most grateful for. One day, that love will be reciprocated by the straight community. I know that for a fact. Until then, we can only rest assured in the fact that every single time love has come across hatred in the political and social world, it has triumphed. Joseph Habgood - 26th March 2011