John Tamihere On the weekend commencing July 7, 2006, while New Zealand gays and lesbians marked our freedoms and equalities stemming from Homosexual Law Reform in 1986, John Tamihere and his talkback 'callers' vented their spleens on Radio Live. If you thought the first two hours of Tamihere and co. was unpalatable, try these edited excerpts from hour three for size. 2.10pm: What more do you gay people want? Tamihere: At this stage single gay people can adopt, de facto couples can adopt, but apparently there is a loophole which says gay couples can't. We just had a call from Martin who had to go to Russia to get a baby. There isn't a great pool of babies here to be adopted. If this [gay adoption] bill goes through does that mean if gay couples don't get an adopted baby they will scream that they have been prejudiced against? I'm sure. I know, and so do the gay people, that right now gay couples share sperm in regard to producing children. it happens already. Can any gay couple get on the phone and tell us to what extent that they are prejudiced? Or is this just another stunt from your intelligentsia... another stunt on behalf of the propagandisation of it? All I'm saying is: hey, you're there, things are going okay for you, what more do you want? What more do you want? 2:15pm: Bringing up children the Tamihere way Caller: I'm one of the people who lives in ‘Gay Lynn. Wonderful community, it has changed a lot. My son's godfather is gay and he's a brilliant bloke. But even still I feel uncomfortable at times (about) these men. What is hard is walking down Ponsonby Road when you're with your son and he sees two men, and they're having a little pash there, and he asks me “dad, why are those two men doing that?” and I say, “oh, they're just really good mates, son.” I find it a little uncomfortable trying to explain to him... Tamihere: Yeah, but mate, I struggle with a gay couple adopting a boy, I'm talking two men or two women... and you walk in and the role model set is two blokes pashing one another on the bloody settee. And then that boy obviously sees that's the normal relationship. Caller: yeah, I don't mind it, it's just that it's difficult trying to explain to him to try and make him understand, to explain to, say, a nine year old boy, why that's okay. Tamihere: Hey mate, I've said it to my sixteen year old and I'm saying it to my six year old: “No it's not right, daddy doesn't like that, all right? How you get on is like mum and dad, you get it on with a woman. I'm very comfortable in saying that, and I won't have anyone intimidate me in the way in which I bring up my two boys, and for that matter my girls... people that make me feel uncomfortable, I'll tell my children that I do not like that, it's not right. And just because I say that doesn't mean that I'm wrong. It doesn't mean that I should go into a little cocoon. It doesn't mean I should whisper to my son about it. I've got every right to blinking say it. Caller: Yeah, I've been caught in that situation a couple of times and it's just really awkward. Tamihere: I'm tolerant to the gay rights movement at the moment, getting intolerant of their view that just because I'm heterosexual, I want to celebrate that. And I want to bring my boys to love a woman and I don't think that's wrong. And because I want to scream it out loud, they think that's wrong. Caller: Well if he goes the other way, fair enough, I'll support him but... Tamihere: Bro, you just keep bringing him up the way I want to bring my boy up and don't feel as if you're doing anything wrong, that's terrible. 2:20pm: The nonsense of conscience votes, and the MPs who use prostitutes: Caller: They always get these surveys out that people of this country don't trust politicians. And yet bills like Turei's adoption rights bill go to a conscience vote! Well, we don't trust the politicians. So why don't they have a binding public referendum on these social issues? Tamihere: Because they would never win them.... when will gays understand the battle's been won? They'll never be satisfied, mate. I've talked to some gays who feel that their intellectual wing is way out of whack with where they're at in the street... Look I will have nothing to do with Chris Carter, my MP in Te Atatu, because he didn't accept my voting [as an MP] against the civil union bill. Tough luck for him. I won't be stood over by anyone in regard to casting a vote the way it was cast. Caller: So a conscience vote in Parliament's just a farce? Tamihere: In the party is was in you had people voting against the prostitution law reform bill that were actually the biggest users of their services. I reckon people like that should be outed. 2:36pm: Homosexual soirees, the mummy one and the daddy one: Tamihere: We're [talking about] the new bill for gay adoptions coming before the house. I had an interesting conversation with one gay bloke who indicated he had a sixteen year old and had brought him up since he was two. But you know, as a heterosexual person you're not exposed to homosexual soirees and and the way in which gay people might think. I still struggle with the view of how two men can bring a boy or a girl up. I still think in the mummy and the daddy situation, because that's me. I do wonder how it works, and how you discipline things, and how you work it out... is there a mummy and a daddy one? How does that work? It's not just fascinating... I'm quite worried about it actually. 2:41pm: The irresponsibility of gays making gay babies, who will suffer Caller: About the gay adoption thing, I know for a fact one way they get around it is because of the fraternity that they mix in... they will get a gay female to be virtually the surrogate mother and they will either do it via i.v.f. or whatever other way, or the normal way, and that way they will have their own child, and then they will bring it up in their family et cetera. What raised my hackles a wee bit was when they said about not allowing gays to give sperm. Well, I don't think they should. For all eternity they've been telling us that it's not some physical choice, it's something they're born with. Then obviously it must be genetic. They keep telling us what a hard road they've got and how horrible it is for them how persecuted they are, [so] why would they want to give sperm with the risk of making that child gay? Tamihere: Yeah, I asked this guy who was obviously in a gay relationship with another bloke and had a sixteen year old “Is your boy gay?” And he wasn't prepared to answer that question... If you've got two blokes bringing up a boy and there's no other role modeling going on, is that boy conditioned, genetic or not, to believe that that's just a normal family, a normal relationship and everyone else outside it is not normal? Caller: Do you think that we're so ‘pc' we have to act as if all minorities are normal? Tamihere: Yeah, that's probably the case. Caller: I could go into lots of hostile sort of comments about that... host: I don't give a toss whether it's genetic or behaviour, the reality is I don't like it and I don't want it for my boys or my girls. Caller: I mean, i haven't met a South African I like. I know in my head that all South Africans aren't horrible but I haven't met one [I like]... I mean I'm not stupid to think that they're all horrible... Tamihere: No. Anyway, as long as we're having a healthy conversation about this and this isn't a gay-bashing... [It's] too easy to be subjugated in this country at the moment.... We're talking homosexual law reform, the civil unions legislation, and Metiria Turei is the front person - she never thought of this - it's the gay adoption bill. They call it the adoption equity amendment bill, isn't that a marvelous little handle, just like the civil union legislation, disguising what you're really doing. The person promoting it is a Maori, a woman, and the only thing that she lacks is a limp otherwise being a maori, a woman and a disabled person, you'd never be able to challenge her at all in this politically correct environment. GayNZ.com - 29th July 2006