Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard has told GayNZ.com that the "gay" homeless kid at the centre of a heart-wrenching story he told during his speech at the GABA mayoral forum in August last year probably wasn't gay at all. There was hardly a dry eye in the house as Mayor Hubbard told the contrasting story of the red tape he'd had to cut through seven years ago to remove a dead tree from his front lawn, compared to the homeless kid in his street – who was gay, Hubbard made a point of telling the GLBT audience – whom the authorities seemed unwilling to help. Hubbard told GayNZ.com this was a “defining moment” for him, and helped him decide to enter politics in order to make a difference for people. However, he now says the gay kid in his story probably wasn't gay at all. “I think he may have just been doing tricks on the street, I don't know,” he says. “He may well have been gay...he was certainly doing absolutely anything, he was going and buying aerosol cans from service stations in plastic bags, and then ending up on our street with paint all over his face. That's how bad he was.” The Mayor says the current Council will be “more willing to roll up its sleeves and try and address these issues”. The Gay Auckland Business Association, who reactly strongly to Mayor Hubbard's shock signing of a letter to MPs last year which suggested gay parents were more likely to abuse and murder their children, had little to say on the Mayor's apparent confusion over the sexuality of the street kid in his pre-election story. “We're currently engaged in discussions to better educate him on GLBT issues,” says GABA president Richard James. “The Mayor has asked us to assist him in his greater understanding of gay and lesbian issues in Auckland.” James says the Mayor has been provided with research that refutes the claims made in Hubbard's pre-Christmas letter, orchestrated by businessman John Sax and also signed by Air New Zealand CEO Ralph Norris, Auckland University Pro-Vice Chancellor (Maori) Mick Brown, and “Once Were Warriors” author Alan Duff.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 20th January 2005 - 12:00pm