Thu, 24 Feb 2005
Press Release: Garth George and Tolerance www.happyclappinghomos.com 25.02.05
It is with a great deal of amusement that we at HappyClappingHomos.com read in Garth Georges latest opinion piece
entitled “Time a lot of Pakeha bailed out of their comfort zones”(New Zealand Herald 24.02.05) that Mr George is
concerned about the growing levels on intolerance in New Zealand society. Something he seems attribute to mainly White
(Pakeha) males.
In his piece Mr George states:
“Several events lately indicate that far too many of us are becoming more and more one-eyed and intolerant and have lost
that innate Kiwi ability to think outside the square. Many seem to feel threatened by anything which might alter or
upset their set way of thinking and/or behaving and which might encourage them to expand, or to venture outside, their
traditional comfort zones.”
We would like to point out to Mr George, and the readers of the Herald that obviously this tolerance does not extend to
the Gay community. We would like to remind Mr George of his opinion Piece entitled “Homosexual lobby poised to confront
the last bastion” (New Zealand Herald 02.12.04) in which he says with a certain degree of malice and paranoia that:
“But make no mistake. With years of preparation and experience behind them the homosexual lobby here is determined to
storm the last - and most important - bastion of them all. That is the one that will give them the same legal rights as
heterosexuals to enter into that most sacred of institutions, marriage, upon which the very foundations of human
civilisation are and always have been built. “
While we at HappyClappingHomos.com appreciate a sense of irony, we would also like to remind Mr George that he is
perhaps one of the last people in New Zealand who should be crying with respect to intolerance on the one hand while
preaching it on the other. We would suggest to Mr George that he, as a Pakeha male (identified in his column as
entrenched with one-eyed views of the world), should practice what he preaches. We look forward to Mr George’s’ fist
tentative steps outside of his comfort zone.
-- HappyClappingHomos.com is a Wellington based gay rights web site. We keep an eye on the ramblings of Destiny and
City Impact Churches’, Paul “City-Impact Pastor” Adams and the rest of UFNZ. We watch and question The Maxim Institute,
Garnet Milne, the Society for Prevention of Film Festivals and the rest of the weird and whacky nuts who sprung up over
the Civil Unions debate
We can be found at www.happyclappinghomos.com
ENDS