Maurice Williamson Long-serving National MP Maurice Williamson has won fans all over the world after his memorable “big gay rainbow” speech at the final reading of the marriage equality Bill, with talk show offers rolling in. "One of the messages I had was that this bill was the cause of our drought. Well, if any of you follow my Twitter account, you will see that in the Pakuranga electorate this morning, it was pouring with rain – we have the most enormous big gay rainbow across my electorate. It has to be a sign," was one of the many highlights of Williamson’s speech. He also said: "We are really struggling to know what the gay onslaught will look like. We don't know if it'll come down the Pakuranga highway as a series of troops, or whether it'll be a gas that flows in over the electorate and locks us all in. I also had a Catholic priest tell me that I was supporting an 'unnatural act'. I found that quite interesting coming from someone who's taken an oath of celibacy for his whole life." Williamson’s speech has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and picked up by media and blog sites all over the world, and has been declared “hilarious”, “stirring”, “thoughtful” and “witty”. It was even hailed by Gawker as ”a speech for the ages”. He has tweeted today: "A big thank you to the thousands of people who have messaged me about my gay marriage speech. The response has been simply overwhelming." The National MP told Firstline this morning: "I feel a little bit like 'Gangnam Style' now – what am I going to do for an encore? "I can hardly tweet, 'There's a meeting at the Howick Community Board this Friday night,' and get the same response." Williamson has even had offers to go on talk shows like Ellen, but can’t due to the rules, as Ministers are not allowed to have anyone pay for trips. Other highlights from Williamson’s speech: "I also received a letter telling me I would burn in the fires of hell for eternity, and that was a bad mistake because I've got a degree in physics. I used the thermodynamic laws of physics – I put in my body weight and my humidity and so on. I assumed the furnace to be at 5000 degrees, and I will last for just on 2.1 seconds. It's hardly eternity." "I give you a watertight, guaranteed promise: the sun will still rise tomorrow. Your teenage daughter will still argue back with you as if she knows everything. Your mortgage will not grow. You will not have skin diseases, or rashes, or toads in your bed. The world will just carry on. So don't make this into a big deal." Watch it below:
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 19th April 2013 - 10:06am