McVicar says he doesn't have anything against gay people, as his brother is "a gay". The founder of the Sensible Sentencing Trust has repeated his unsubstantiated claim that marriage equality will increase New Zealand’s crime rate. During debate on same-sex marriage legislation Garth McVicar was labelled “absurd” by gay Green MP Kevin Hague when he submitted that "The marriage amendment bill will not benefit society at all and will ultimately have detremetal (sic) effect on crime at all levels." When asked yesterday by Radio New Zealand’s Wallace Chapman whether he still stands by his claim, McVicar responded “more so now”, claiming he has done research on “what had happened in other countries” with marriage equality. “Basically what I’m saying is in that type of lifestyle drugs, alcohol is quite rampant. Changing partners is quite regular,” McVicar claims. “I’ve got nothing against gay people. My brother’s a gay.” Chapman suggested it was a tenuous link, but McVicar claimed there is evidence in New Zealand backing up his same-sex marriage crime link, but failed to cite any research or evidence of this. He says he is gathering research and time will prove him right. “I don’t have any problem with gays. That’s absolutely fine. A lot of my friends are. That’s absolutely fine. We didn’t need to go to that next step I don’t think.” When McVicar first made the link the Sensible Sentencing Trust distanced itself from the comments, saying it “was made by Garth McVicar in a personal capacity and does not represent the view of the Sensible Sentencing Trust, or the wide range of views our members will no doubt have on the issue.” The Queer Avengers described McVicar’s claim as “abhorrent, uninformed and hateful”.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 14th July 2014 - 3:22pm