Garth McVicar thinks gay people getting married will increase the crime rate. The man who recently repeated his unsubstantiated belief that same-sex marriage will increase the crime rate is standing for the Conservative Party. Founder of the Sensible Sentencing Trust Garth McVicar will take a leave of absence from the organisation for his political bid. The group has wished him the best for his campaign, and reiterated it is non-political. “Our members and supporters have a wide range of political views. Sensible Sentencing remains strictly non- aligned politically. “ 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 recently 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 claimed. “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”. Gordon Copeland has a long anti-gay history. The McVicar candidacy comes on the back of reports Gordon Copeland, who compared same-sex marriage to apartheid, will stand for the Conservative Party again. His former leader Peter Dunne described Copeland as a “serial nutter” when he told a Select Committee hearing submissions on marriage equality legislation that allowing gay people to marry was like calling the New Zealand Maori rugby team "honorary whites" in the tour to South Africa. Copeland stood split from United Future to start the short-lived Kiwi Party in 2007. He stood in Hutt South for the Conservative Party at the last election and received 3.17 per cent of the electorate vote. In 2005, when he was in Parliament, he introduced a colleague’s bill which sought to define marriage in New Zealand as “heterosexual”. It failed. He voted against any pro-lgbti reform and also made it clear he believed the now wiped “gay panic defence” was “justifiable”. In 2011 he made a submission that the Government's income splitting tax credits legislation should be restricted to heterosexual married couples “because it takes a man and a woman to raise children”. Copeland also once wrote a reflection on spirituality, Faith that Works, where he recounted how he’d been attacked by the devil beside a pool in Bangkok. "A beautiful girl stripped off topless alongside me and covered herself in suntan lotion before diving in for a swim,” he wrote. He’s also admitted burning Grace Jones' music. The Conservative Party scored one per cent in the most recent Roy Morgan Poll. Its leader Colin Craig, who has funded a significant chunk of the party's bid himself, believes being gay is a choice and gay relationships are abnormal.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 7th August 2014 - 12:52pm