Trevor Mallard and Chris Finlayson

I was in a meeting some years ago that Chris Finlayson chaired and was hugely impressed by him. Even if I hadn’t been, even if I’d thought he was as big a dick as Trevor Mallard is, I’d still be appalled by what David Farrar reports:

Labour MPs – especially Trevor Mallard – yell out Tinkerbell at the Attorney-General constantly in the House [. . .]

Now I think everyone knows Chris is gay. He doesn’t make a big fuss about it, it is just the way things are. But Labour seem obsessed with the fact an openly gay politician is a front bench National Minister. The so called party of tolerance and equality call him Tinkerbell. Maybe Rainbow Labour would like to show some balls, and point out to their own Caucus why this is a bad and stupid thing to do.

It’s not just bad and stupid. It is all of that, but also one wonders: if this is offensive to me, a straight man, how offensive can it be to the gay Labour MPs, male and female? And if it isn’t offensive to them, it should be. And to all Labour MPs. Actually, to everyone.

Imagine if a National MP called out homophobic epithets in Parliament – the Opposition would (rightly) be down on them like a ton of bricks, as would the newspaper columnists.

Well, maybe not Garth George.