As Australia chooses their new Deputy PM, Michael McCormack, questionable content has been uncovered.
After Barnaby Joyce, an opponent of same-sex marriage, resigned as Deputy PM this month after getting his mistress pregnant, McCormack was automatically appointed Deputy PM.
However, a 1993 column has been brought up in his opposition, in which he blames gay people for AIDS and urged for Pride Parades to be stopped.
At the time, he wrote:
“A week never goes by any more 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 has distanced himself from the comments, last year spearheading te public vote on the acceptance of gay marriage.
In further defense of himself, he claimed
“I wrote this editorial nearly 25 years ago and I want to assure the public my views have changed quite significantly since the time of publication.
“I have grown and learnt not only to tolerate, but to accept all people regardless of their sexual orientation or any other trait or feature which makes each of us different and unique.
“I apologised wholeheartedly for the comments at the time and many times since, but I am making this statement to unreservedly apologise again today.”
He seems to have been actively working to heal the damage he caused to the community all those years ago, but many are hoping he sees his apologies through.
Rodney Croome, the spokesperson for Just.equal said: “Many LGBTI Australians will be justifiably concerned about Michael McCormack being our Deputy Prime Minister given his hateful comments against us in the past.”
“Many National Party voters will share our concern given the strong Yes vote in many parts of rural and regional Australia.”
“The apologies Mr McCormack made in the past are welcome but given the hatefulness of what he said, and the high office he has stepped in to, he needs to walk the talk.”
“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.”
“He needs to heal the wounds caused by the kind of prejudices he publicly expressed in the past.”
Lets hope for a positive change. What are your thoughts on the Deputy PM's apology on the matter, and can he ever redeem himself from those comments in the past?