Trevor Mallard MP Following an attack on senior Labour MP Trevor Mallard accusing him of homophobia gay MP Charles Chauvel last night voiced his total support for Mallard as one of the most pro-gay politicians in Parliament. The claim emerged at the Rainbow Wellington pre-election political forum earlier in the week when the ACT Candidate for Central Wellington, Stephen Whittington, said Mallard and fellow labour MP Clayton Cosgrove had called gay National MP and Attorney General Chris Finlayson "Tinkerbell." Labour MPs Chauvel and Robertson denied the allegation. The following morning Whittington, who is running against gay MP Grant Robertson in Wellington Central, Robertson, called on Chauvel and Robertson to ''denounce the homophobic comments of their Labour Party colleagues rather than shamelessly attempt to cover them up... Both Clayton Cosgrove and Trevor Mallard are recorded in Hansard as abusing Hon. Chris Finlayson for his sexuality...I hope that, in the future, Charles Chauvel and Grant Robertson are as quick to reprimand their colleagues for homophobia as they were to accuse me of lying." Last night at the Gay Auckland Busines Association political foum Chauvel used part of his limited speaking time to further denounce Whittington's claim. Recalling the seminal and dramatic campaign for Homosexual Law Reform in the mid-1980s Chauvel recalled that the Bill's sponsor, Fan Wilde, "was helped in that regard by a person who has been unfairly vilified today and that is Trevor Mallard." Chauvel went on to state that Mallard "worked tirelesly as an informal whip to the Labour caucus to make sure that we got that legislation through... and I will always be grateful to Trevor Mallard for his work in that regard. Moreover, Trevor Mallard has supported every piece of pro-gay piece of reform legislation which has come before the parliament of New Zealand since he was elected. He doesn't deserve some of the vilification directed at him." Robertson believes the war of words was deliberately triggered by Whittington's desire to draw attention away from the many virulently anti-gay slurs voiced over several decades by his fellow ACT candidate John Banks, who is standing in the Epsom electorate. Parliament has often been a venue for anti-gay rhetoric, most often delivered aggressively, such as when National MP Tau Henare last week drew a parallel to the movie Driving Miss Daisy when commenting on a photo of Chauvel in a chauffeured vehicle. In July 2009 when Cosgrove twice called Finlayson Tinkerbelle, Finlayson responded by calling Cosgrove Mr Combover. Mallard then used the Tinkerbell epithet soon after. You can discuss this New Zealand gay community news story in the GayNZ.com Forum.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 14th October 2011 - 9:39pm