A right-wing fringe group in the UK has questioned whether marriage equality in New Zealand led to the “destruction of Wellington” in an earthquake. The London Swinton Circle sent out a newsletter in May asking: “The current government in New Zealand oversaw the introduction of ‘Gay Marriage’ last year. Was the recent destruction of Wellington by earthquake a warning?” The claim has emerged in Pink News, following criticism of a group of Tory MPs for speaking at a gathering organised by the circle – which Pink News says is a right-wing pressure group claiming to uphold “traditional conservative and Unionist principles.” Wellington has never been “destroyed” by an earthquake, though it has had some which caused damage. New Zealand’s destructive earthquakes were of course in Canterbury, with the most devastating on 22 February 2011, more than a year before Louisa Wall’s marriage equality bill was even pulled from the ballot in July 2012. The lack of facts in the newsletter has led a Pink News reader to comment that the group’s “lack of compassion and human decency is second only to their lack of geography and geology”.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 18th December 2014 - 10:28am