The National Party is making a bid for the "pink vote", setting up an official gay branch which held its first meeting at Auckland's Flesh bar last night. "There's always been a misconception that National Party policy might not appeal to the gay community and that's incorrect," said MP Pansy Wong, who attended. National Party policy on legal recognition of gay and lesbian relationships is cloudy at best. While party leader Don Brash is reported as being supportive of civil unions, deputy leader Gerry Brownlee recently said he would not be and repeatedly avoided GayNZ.com attempts for an interview, saying that he didn't give interviews to the gay media.