GAY TRUTH

New Act leader Jamie Whyte has back-tracked on comments that incestuous relationships between consenting adults should not be illegal. Speaking on RadioLive this morning, Mr Whyte admitted he had regretted the comments published in an article on The Ruminator Website. "I regret the comments, mainly because I feel I let the party down,'' he said. The u-turn comes less than a day after he told the Herald he stood by his comments. In an article published on The Ruminator website, former philosophy lecturer Dr Whyte was asked whether the state should intervene if adult siblings wanted to marry each other. "Well personally, I don't think they [the State] should," he replied, adding it was "a matter of almost no significance because it just doesn't happen". Dr Whyte initially told the Herald his response was based on his belief that: "I don't think the state should intervene in consensual adult sex or marriage (homosexual marriage), but th...

A bill to legalise same-sex marriage would not force celebrants to marry gay couples if they didn't want to, its sponsor says. But Conservative Party leader Colin Craig says the bill will not protect the rights of all celebrants who do not wish to marry same-sex couples. A select committee last month recommended changing the bill to make it clear that no celebrant recognised by a religious body or nominated by an approved organisation would have to marry a couple if it meant contravening their own or the organisation's beliefs. Critics say that would cover only about a third of celebrants and the rest, who are not linked to a religious organisation, will not be covered. Mr Craig told TVNZ 's Q+A programme today that the select committee had ignored advice to explicitly cover all celebrants. "At the moment, the proposed amendment only protects 32 per cent of celebrants. The other 68 you're hanging out to dry," he said. Mr Craig called on the Government to...

There is a growing controversy coming out of a local church in New Zealand after they put up a billboard advertisement that supports same-sex marriage. Reports coming out of New Zealand indicate that a liberal Anglican church in Auckland is behind a billboard that supports same-sex marriage by depicting two female figures in bridal gowns on the top of a wedding cake with the caption: "We don't care who's on top." Biblical opponents of the proposed legislation insist that laws in New Zealand currently grant equality and that the issue was not about equality, but rather, the uniqueness of traditional heterosexual marriage. "Equality doesn't mean sameness … marriage has always been about the relationship of a man and a woman because of their natural potential to have children," Bob McCoskrie, founder of Family First, said in a statement. The church, St. Matthew-in-the-City, revealed that it produced the billboard advertisement recently in order to exp...