Australia’s new Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack. | Photo: Facebook
Australia’s new Deputy Prime Minister once called gays ‘sordid’ and ‘unnatural’ and has a history of homophobia.
Michael McCormack was elected the Nationals Party leader in a party room meeting on Monday morning (26 February). His election came after another anti-gay politician, Barnaby Joyce, resigned from the role.
Joyce, who long lectured the public on family values – especially during the postal survey on marriage equality – stepped down as Nationals leader after he cheated on his wife with one his staff and got her pregnant.
The Nationals Party runs on a platform of protecting regional Australia. It has a longstanding coalition with the governing conservative Liberal Party. When the Liberals are in power, the Nationals leader becomes Deputy PM.
Many in the LGBTI community have denounced his election because of his homophobic stance on issues.
In a 1993 op-ed he wrote: ‘a week never goes by anymore that homosexuals and their sordid behaviour don’t become further entrenched in society’.
‘Unfortunately gays are here and, if the disease their unnatural acts helped spread doesn’t wipe out humanity, they’re here to stay,’ McCormack wrote in The Daily Advertiser.
also i may be cynical but i don’t think opinions that run that deep and disgusting could change completely. Anyway congrats australia
— Bec Shaw (@Brocklesnitch) February 25, 2018
Michael McCormack is Australia’s homophobic answer to Mike Pence
— Queerbourhood (@queerbourhood) February 26, 2018
Michael McCormack has apologised for this 1993 column but I think it’s worth reading in full before he becomes Deputy Prime Minister of Australia later this morning https://t.co/bRwTuMzz4S pic.twitter.com/5yOC5AC3Vj
— Max Chalmers (@MaxChalmers90) February 25, 2018
Time to heal wounds
McCormack has since apologized for the column saying his views had evolved but advocates said the damage was already done.
LGBTI advocate, Rodney Croome, said McCormack had to heal the ‘wounds caused by past hate’.
‘Many LGBTI Australians will be justifiably concerned about Michael McCormack being our Deputy Prime Minister given his hateful comments against us in the past,’ Croome said.
‘He needs to get behind initiatives that will reduce the unacceptably high levels of LGBTI isolation, prejudice and suicide that still exist in some parts of rural Australia.’
