The eldest son of anti-gay rights MP Norman Jones says his father's opposition to Homosexual Law Reform in 1986 has been “vindicated” by events within the past 20 years. Identifying himself on Radio Live as Phillip Norman Jones, the eldest son of the late Norman Jones, who was the National Party's MP for Invercargill in 1986, he said his father had “independent views” which have since been “vindicated”. Jones claims, “As a heterosexual, I sometimes feel I'm not hip or not in the bloody vogue if I'm not alternative, and it's quite hard to be straight these days.” Referring to Homosexual Law Reform Jones commented, “In the last 20 years, I don't think we're any worse or better off for the fact we've got this law in place.” He also agreed with host John Tamihere, saying the low uptake of civil unions since the Civil Union Act was passed illustrated the law was unnecessary. Statistics released earlier this year, showed 458 civil unions were performed in New Zealand in the first year of the Civil Union Act, which outstripped other countries in the first year of legalising same-sex unions, on a per capita basis, such as Denmark, Sweden and Norway, but lagged behind the Netherlands. Jones refers to homosexuals as being of “gay thinking” and participating in “alternative sex.” Fran Wilde, the MP who sponsored the Homosexual Law Reform Bill through Parliament in 1986, believes such comments are barely worth responding to. “It is sad to see New Zealanders still living in the narrow and prejudicial time frame of the past, when our society has moved on to celebrate diversity in such a strong way and we now all benefit from the major community contributions of all sorts of people who previously were not allowed to be themselves,” she said in response to Jones' comments. Norman Jones was a vociferous opponent of the Homosexual Law Reform Bill in the mid-1980s. He organised anti-gay rights public meetings, and led the unsuccessful charge in Parliament to defeat the bill. Ref: GayNZ.com, Radio Live (d)