There are calls on Auckland mayor Dick Hubbard to retract his endorsement of a letter to MPs which suggests gay parents are more likely to murder or abuse their children. The New Zealand AIDS Foundation is disappointed that Hubbard, as an astute businessman, has made his decision to sign his name to a statement without checking the facts. "To sign up to the use of very generalised statistics to establish a claim that gay parents are more likely to murder or abuse their children, is not something we would have expected the Mayor of Auckland to do lightly," says executive director Rachael LeMesurier. "We invite Mr Hubbard to meet with the New Zealand AIDS Foundation and/or representatives of the gay and lesbian communities and study this issue in more depth so that he can formulate a more balanced and better-informed point of view. We suspect if he took that opportunity that he would learn that his signing of the letter was a serious error and should be retracted." Meanwhile, Neville Creighton of Auckland's Gay and Lesbian Welfare has delivered a stinging attack on Hubbard's turnaround in support for the gay community. "As a gay man, a gay father, and a gay grandfather, I think what he's said is disgraceful, disgusting and completely betrays every fibre of Christian ethics," Creighton says. "I'm just flabbergasted. This is a betrayal of what he said before the election. As far as I'm concerned, this completely blows any credibility he has as mayor."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 9th December 2004 - 12:00pm