Fri 2 Oct 2015 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
One of the men behind the members' petition of no confidence in Body Positive's board is accusing the organisation's chair of scaremongering and says bullying tactics are being used against some signatories. The accusation comes as doubts have surfaced regarding the chair's comments, in interviews with GayNZ.com Daily News, that the organisation's non-Ministry of Health funding is too insecure and that the attempt by some members to put a no confidence motion before the board has caused some funders to ask questions of the organisation. "I'd like to see some proof... it sounds like scaremongering to me," says petition signatory Charlie Peters. Peters has spoken out on the matter to give voice to views held by signatories GayNZ.com has spoken to who share his views but fear their HIV status becoming public knowledge. "When we put the petition to the board [chair Ashley Barratt] had the cheek to say the board didn't know what we were wanting," Peters says. "Yet our petition expressed no confidence in the board and we had sufficient signatories for that to stand. He's blowing things out of proportion instead of dealing directly with the matter." Peters tonight confirmed rumours that several signatories, including younger BP members, had been contacted by BP office-holders and pressured to remove their names from the no confidence petition. "One of our volunteers was contacted and asked to remove his name, he was spoken to at the Body Positive office, and there have been others as well. Altogether about six have taken their names off. This sounds like bullying to me. It's also interesting that as a visible and publicly open signatory no-one has as yet contacted me like that... maybe because I've gone public and maybe because they know I'm not frightened to stand up to them." GayNZ.com has tried to interview Barratt and BP's Executive Director on the mounting concerns today but neither has been available. Body Positive is the nation's largest HIV-positive people's support and advocacy organisation and its national membership is primarily gay and bisexual men. It is the third glbti community organisation to experience governance issues this year. Last year and early this year Auckland Pride Festival Inc. became embroiled in a heated public debate regarding its oversight of Auckland Pride. And it recently emerged that Auckland Outgames 2016 Inc. had imploded amidst accusations of communications and governance problems.