Kanwaljit Bakshi Singh “Who would be the husband, and who would be the wife,” is one of the questions National MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi has asked submitters on the marriage equality bill today. He quizzed the first couple in New Zealand to get a civil union, John Jolliff and Des Smith, as to what their roles would be if they got married. "If you get married, who will be identified as husband, and who will be identified as wife?" he asked, Newstalk ZB reports. Bakshi is one of the MPs sitting on the select committee hearing submissions on the marriage equality bill. The question provoked a giggly response from Smith that "we don't do role playing and things like that ... he does a bit of the cooking if that helps!" Submitter Jordan Carter asked MPs to consider how they'd feel if they were in the minority rather than homosexuals. Newstalk ZB says Bakshi then asked him: "How will the future generation grow? How will we have the kids if everyone goes in this direction?" Carter describes the question as "just slightly confused". He thinks the MP was asking him what would happen to future growth of the population if everyone was in same-sex relationships. "I explained to him that this was not ever likely to happen. He got confused. So did I," Carter says. "I love that in our democracy, you can face up to Parliament, have a say, be treated with respect (or at least, in this case, bemusement) and do your part to make the world a better place." Bakshi is the same MP who lied to a small Tongan church protest in Auckland, telling them "the majority of the National Party MPs voted against this bill." He later conceded that was untrue.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 22nd November 2012 - 11:14am