This year's gay celebrations at Vinegar Hill were sadly marred by child abuse. Normally happy to live in harmony with the gay brethren at the Manawatu campsite, one of the kids from the heterosexual end saw fit to scream "burn in hell faggots" from a passing car as he was driven to the toilet by his father. Vinegar Hill enthusiast Calum Bennachie estimates the kid was aged about 7 or 8. "Someone as young as that does not learn such words from nowhere," he says. "It should also be noted that the same kid was happy to walk down by himself, and play with the kids from our end, and talk to those he had earlier shouted abuse at, so it seems unlikely he knew what he was actually saying." Bennachie says this was the only spot of trouble during an enjoyable, if rain-soaked, Christmas/New Year break.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Saturday, 8th January 2005 - 12:00pm