AI Chat Search Browse Media On This Day Map Quotations Timeline Research Free Datasets Remembered About Contact

'Gay scarf' incident riles Chch student

Thu 18 May 2006 In: New Zealand Daily News

A University of Canterbury student was shocked when told his scarf “was a bit too gay” by a police recruitment officer at the Careers Expo at the Westpac Centre in Christchurch on Sunday. Simon Calcinai had shown an interest in the police recruitment stall at the expo, which he was attending with his girlfriend. A female officer suggested to him to “lose the scarf”, and senior recruitment officer Kelvin McBride followed up with, “Yeah, it's a bit too gay.” “I was pretty shocked and didn't know what to say,” Calcinai told GayNZ.com. “I do not think this is appropriate behaviour and I think that people should be made aware of these negative attitudes.” McBride has since apologised to Calcinai for the incident. Police national recruitment officer Inspector Dawn Bell told the The Press that the police "have no bias as to who they employ.” The police are currently on a recruitment drive for 1000 extra police officers. “Perhaps the police would have better luck recruiting new officers if they were accepting of homosexuals,” said Calcinai.     Ref: GayNZ.com, Chch Press (d)

Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff

First published: Thursday, 18th May 2006 - 12:00pm

Rights Information

This page displays a version of a GayNZ.com article that was automatically harvested before the website closed. All of the formatting and images have been removed and some text content may not have been fully captured correctly. The article is provided here for personal research and review and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of PrideNZ.com. If you have queries or concerns about this article please email us