Rodney Hide (left) has bowed out under pressure from Don Brash Gay friendly politician Rodney Hide has resigned as Leader of the ACT Party, endorsing former National leader Don Brash to take his place. It comes after Brash mounted a challenge for leadership of the far-right party, which has been dwindling in the pre-election polls as the once incredibly effective Hide has become a much-quieter figure on the political landscape. Hide voted in favour of civil union legislation and showed his glbt-friendly credentials on several occasions. In 2005 ACT reeled under accusations channelled into Parliament by Winston Peters that GayNZ.com contributor, libertarian and high profile ACT supporter Jim Peron had been jailed as a pedophile in the USA during the 1980s and had published pro-pedophilia literature. Unlike many politicians and commentators at the time Hide immediately understood the difference between homosexuals and pedophiles and refused to be bullied by the toxic rhetoric the issue generated. Only when his and GayNZ.com's subsequent investigations indicated that there were some serious anomalies buried within Peron's defence did Hide quietly distance himself and ACT from Peron. Hide himself later became subject to a gay-themed smear campaign when he was accused of sexually propositioning a man on Waiheke Island. Hide had been attending an ACT conference held at the same venue and time as a union conference. Hide denied the man's claim and explained that he made a slightly tacky remark about following the man into the gents as he and the unionist both arrived at the entrance to the toilets at the same moment. During an interview with GayNZ.com regarding the matter Hide privately observed that he had never before realised how vulnerable to such claims or innuendo gay people are. "Nothing happened but if people are believing me it's because I'm straight," he observed. "But if I was a gay man in this situation..." In 2008, protected by parliamentary privelege, Winston Peters played the gay slur card against Hide, suggesting that he was a closeted gay who uses the public company of women friends to disguise the fact. Asked by GayNZ.com if he is in fact gay, Hide laughed "not yet," a reference to his belief that "sexuality is sometimes a fluid matter" and that "some people become aware of their homosexuality only late in life, to their great surprise." Hide has been leader of ACT since 2004. He will stay on as a Government Minister in the meantime, while Brash will be the ACT Leader outside Parliament if he gets the go-ahead from the ACT board on Saturday. Brash, who has claimed in the past to be a social liberal, opposed the civil union bill in 2004 and supported Gordon Copeland's pre-emptive same sex marriage bill in 2005. He is expected to lead ACT to even further to the right. Labour Leader Phil Goff has slammed what he says will become a "new extreme right-wing deal" between National and ACT party. He says New Zealanders should be alarmed that John Key has said he is prepared to work with his former boss Brash. "That would be a disaster for our country," he said in a statement. Prime Minister John Key is overseas and is yet to comment on Hide stepping down.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 28th April 2011 - 1:32pm