Rosemary McLeod, the journalist who last week lambasted the government for paying too much attention to gays while overlooking the ‘working class', has published the content of “overwhelmingly supportive” emails in defence of her position. McLeod claimed that the Labour Party has “lost track of its working class, family-oriented roots and become more concerned with gay rights.” She referred to gays as “flagrant” and “menacing” and said civil unions were “social experiments.” McLeod suggested that the recent election of Charles Chauvel to Parliament was part of a gay agenda, and that the move by Tim Barnett to remove the so-called homosexual panic defence from the Crimes Act was unfair on murderers. Yesterday McLeod suggested the defence should be extended to allow for women to claim provocation in murdering a man for unwanted sexual advances, along with anyone who feels provoked by “racist or cultural taunts.” McLeod said it was “arrogant” to label anti-homosexual views as homophobic. She reprinted many of her reader's views, mostly in support of her own position, that heterosexuals are being “railroaded” by “social engineering and [the] PC nature” of the current Labour-led government. She also suggested most Wellingtonians believe “there's a Labour network of gay mutual promotion.” Gay MP Tim Barnett has responded saying McLeod represents a “very odd view” of the world. Barnett says his sexuality is clearly a very important factor for McLeod, even though most of his time is spent dealing with a broad spectrum of constituents within his own electorate of Christchurch Central, or working on a wide variety of issues in Parliament. “I find it sad 95% of my work life, the electorate and whips work, is dismissed because people obsess about the 5% - working for fairer human rights.” However, people forget, says Barnett, that “I am part of the group in society which was slaughtered in its thousands in concentration camps less than 70 years ago, was labelled as absolutely criminal by New Zealand law just 20 years ago, was exposed to the worst of discrimination with no law to protect us until just 13 years ago, and has for just 15 months enjoyed the legal recognition that we might fall in love with each other.” “My skin is thick, but not impenetrable,” he added. Ref: Sunday Star Times (d)