This is the story of two neophyte politicians on opposite trajectories. We'll get to just-resigned National Party and Opposition leader Don Brash in a moment, but let's look first at Auckland mayor Dick Hubbard, through our glbt filter. New to the practicalities of political leadership, Dick Hubbard was only a few weeks into the job when it was revealed that he had co-signed the now-infamous John Sax-penned letter, furtively pleading with all MPs not to pass the Civil Unions bill. Sax was convinced that gays and lesbians were proven by dodgy fundamentalist American Christian interpretation of unprofessional research to be much more likely to murder or abuse our children. Those are our words, not Sax's actual text. He was much more pious and stealthy. Hubbard, an admitted conservative Christian, seemed generally confused by the uproar from the glbt community. But he paused for a few weeks, listened to other views, apologised, distanced himself from extreme anti-gay rhetoric and set about building bridges with his city's gays and lesbians. He has attended the Big Gay Out and happily mixed with us and our families. Despite intense criticism from the far right cabal on council he hosted and part-funded a flash Town Hall celebration marking the 20th anniversary of the passing of Homosexual Law Reform legislation, and he has happily seen the glbt community included in the council's partnerships programme. In essence Dick Hubbard started on the back foot, did a reality check, saw where the balance of fairness and decency was and moved on to a more informed and inclusive view. This was not a political decision, just a moral stance which Hubbard seems to understand is the essence of being human, humane and involved in a varied community. Above all, Hubbard seems to have come to the realisation that glbt people are not some 'issue' to be dealt with, but real people living real lives who must bear the consequences of political manouvering. Well done Dick, from a glbt perspective your legacy looks like being a more inclusive queen city. Don Brash also seemed a decent enough bloke when he hit the front opposition bench as National Party leader. Frankly, most glbt eyes were on his eventual deputy, Gerry Brownlee, whose anti-gay posturings were at best unpleasant. In his early days on the job Brash answered GayNZ.com media enquiries on glbt subjects promptly, courteously and with apparently considered thought. On the pending Civil Union legislation vote he at first clearly articulated his vision of a gay-tolerant society, saying he envisaged a New Zeraland society composed of people who are "tolerant of differences of culture, race and sexual orientation." But within a few weeks he had changed his tune. He now preferred throwing our right to equality to a public referendum, and publicly dismissed gays as clearly not being part of mainstream society. He was pictured alongside Brian Tamaki at Waitangi Day celebrations in what some saw an uneasy precursor to the Brethrengate affair. His office refused to even speak with us and became hostile to our glbt-related media enquiries. GayNZ.com speculated at the time that Brash's determination to find a new, viable, constituency for his drooping party was causing National to cosy up to ever more extreme right wing and fundamentalist Christian groups. Damn the equal rights of glbt folk, throw them to the wolves in a naked attempt to get back in the polls. Brash's strategy worked. National got a boost back into respectable figures at the next election. We were just lucky that our support in the house held firm and the Civil Union legislation passed comfortably without a referendum. It may be that Brash considered the legislation likely to pass without his party's support, so expediently concentrated on electioneering instead. But somehow the feeling lingers that he sacrificed morality for expediency. Under Brash's leadership the National party turned from the party that passed one of the most important pieces of legislation improving the lives of glbt people, the Human Rights Act, to the party that opportunistically appeals to our enemies and doesn't give a damn about the equality of glbt citizens. That will be Don Brash's legacy. Jay Bennie - 24th November 2006