ACT MP Muriel Newman's talk of a homosexual agenda and employers being forced to fill a homosexual employee quota is classic scaremongering, says Labour MP Tim Barnett. Newman says the government is delving into “intensely private” issues, and claimed the Ministry of Social Development was doing surveys on sexual orientation in order to “boost the numbers” of GLBT people. Barnett says conservatives like Newman can't have it both ways. “These people belittle us for existing in very small numbers, saying our needs aren't important, but when we do have a survey that indicates a number that's much greater, they tell us off for delving into private matters,” he told GayNZ.com. “It's another attempt to marginalise us.” At any rate, human rights protections have not been fundamentally games of numbers, says Barnett, neither have they been dependent on whether or not minority groups exist by choice or birth. “In my view, sexuality is given rather than chosen. However, we protect people from discrimination on the basis of their religious beliefs, which is clearly something they weren't born with,” he says. “Human rights is protecting rights as a result of choice and of innate being.” Barnett echoes sentiments by fellow Labour MP Georgina Beyer that the GLBT community's push for equal rights has come at the price of more vocal rhetoric from opponents of the community. However, he says the Civil Union Act coming into force next week should dispel some of that. “I think the sight of same-sex and opposite sex civil unions happening in the next few weeks is just going to be a human outcome of the story,” he says. “I think those images will be of help to our community, because they give real life to rhetoric.”
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 21st April 2005 - 12:00pm