Damien O'Connor Damien O'Connor's "gaggle of gays" comment over the Labour Party list is being dismissed as an election ploy which simply shows up his homophobia. The Labour MP is making a tilt to win back the West Coast-Tasman electorate he lost to National's Chris Auchinvole at the 2008 election. The MP, who was one of just three sitting Labour MPs to vote against Civil Unions, is not standing on the Labour list, which he says was drawn up by a "gaggle of gays and self-serving unionists". Anne Speir from the newly-formed Aotearoa Rainbow Alliance is dismissive of O'Connor's comments, which she sees as a likely election ploy as he seeks to win votes on the West Coast. "I just can't understand why anyone from the Labour Party is attacking the Labour Party," she says. "The poor man's confused and going backwards, not forwards. The Greens' Kevin Hague's an MP on the coast, granted he's on the list, but the West Coast has accepted him," Speir says. "O'Connor's just proving his own homophobia." Speir is far more interested in another story in the headlines today, the "incredibly brave" piece about 17-year-old Denis McLay, who is the son of former Deputy Prime Minister Jim McLay. He wrote to the New Zealand Herald, inspiring them to pick up on his story of being a closeted King's College border dealing with a culture where young men callously derided gay men in private. "It was painful to hear those comments while in the closet," he has told the Herald. "They made me feel depressed, unwanted and not normal," the teenager says. "I used to get very depressed. The feeling that you have to hold this secret and not tell anyone, it kind of destroys you. Holding that secret so long, I felt I couldn't hold on any longer." Speir is inspired by the teenager's courage. "It does more for us than even giving the Damien O'Connor story any publicity," Speir says. "How brave of him really. Here's a kid who has grown up in the echelon of National politics ... and here he is writing to the Herald talking about how horrendous it is to be gay at school. I think that absolutely deserves big ups from us."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 11th April 2011 - 12:27pm