Vinnie Sykes Resigning Auckland Pride board member Vinnie Sykes says he must put his husband's health first and that his decision to leave Pride in March was their mutual decision. "My husband has been unwell with a brain tumour for quite a while and was supposed to have been getting better by now," he says. "But we have had the news that he will need another twelve months for recovery, so I will step down so I can focus on looking after him and his health. I need to concentrate on my husband and my marriage.” He says although his husband has been treated for the tumor for the past two years “this is a situation we could not anticipate.” He says he joined Auckland Pride wanting “to add value to the community, which I think I have done... I have a background from a corporate perspective and I thought I might be able to add value with a business perspective and helping with the sustainability of the project.” His time on the board has been, he says, “ interesting.” “Being part of a board takes up more time than you think it will and behind my decision was the realisation that I didn't think I could give it the amount of energy as a co-chair and even just as a board member that I needed to and also look after my husband. It was a decision we both made together.” But some aspects of being on the board have opened his eyes to the lives of less fortunate glbti people. “It's enlightened be about the plight of different people... and the issues some people have to deal with are very different to what I have had to deal with in the community. It's given me more of an insight that I had anticipated.” As for any future involvement in gay community organisations, Sykes says he “honestly can't say. We've had a set-back, the two of us... something may come up in the future but who knows.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 15th December 2015 - 3:34pm