One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has stood by comments she made 30 years ago condemning the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras while responding to colleague Barnaby Joyce\u2019s claim they have \u201cone of the gayest parties in Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n
Senator Hanson did not back Mr Joyce\u2019s claim when asked about it on Sunday, saying that \u201cthat\u2019s Barnaby, and Barnaby is Barnaby\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know there are gay people that work for One Nation … and good on them,\u201d she told News24.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey got it on their merit, not because of their sexuality or … their preference.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s none of my business and I don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Joyce made the comment while being asked about homophobic remarks from a former One Nation candidate in last year\u2019s West Australian state election.<\/p>\n
Parminder Singh, who failed to win an upper house seat, called homosexuality a \u201cmental illness\u201d that he blamed \u201con the parents because parents are too busy\u201d in a podcast appearance.<\/p>\n
Mr Singh this week apologised, saying he was \u201csorry I hurt people\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was repeating something I had heard people saying on social media about homosexuality being a mental illness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI should not have presented that as a fact. I respect everyone, and I believe every person in Australia should be free to live their life with dignity, equality and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
\ufeff\u2018I still don\u2019t like the gay Mardi Gras\u2019<\/p>\n
During her Sunday interview, Senator Hanson was also asked about comments about Mardi Gras that she made during an interview in 1996.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like it because it\u2019s promoting something … that is not natural,\u201d she said at the time.<\/p>\n
Asked if she still held that view, she said \u201cthe world has changed\u201d and noted that Australia had since legalised same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that\u2019s acceptable, and I\u2019ve got no problem with it,\u201d Senator Hanson said, adding that \u201cpeople can do what they want in their life\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo I like the gay Mardi Gras? No … I still don\u2019t like the gay Mardi Gras, but that\u2019s my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked why, Senator Hanson could not say.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my opinion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Pressed further, she said: \u201cI just don\u2019t like the gay Mardi Gras.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went on to say that \u201cyour own personal sexuality should be kept … behind closed doors\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no one\u2019s business to do it out there with the gay Mardi Gras,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is the country\u2019s biggest LGBTQ+ festival and one of the largest in the world.<\/p>\n
It draws tens of thousands of visitors to Sydney and pumps almost $40m into NSW\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
Also appearing on News24 a short time later, Liberal frontbench senator Andrew Bragg praised the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI go most years. I think it\u2019s great,\u201d Senator Bragg said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has stood by comments she made 30 years ago condemning the Sydney Gay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[103479,46924,50034,103469,103470,56756,37299,74438,103471,95962,103462,56714,103478,39736,103482,22,23,21,30068,4918,4680,91832,70068,103473,41559,54562,46933,58813,95990,103460,44921,103468,103481,95977,38447,103464,8554,103466,103465,40606,61917,47822,65099,2054,38649,41271,596,1955,30314,5264,11672,1926,7350,103477,45849,26884,39193,106,19816,247,5905,57869,103475,62842,37024,39261,103483,103467,95973,60236,44684,103480,103474,37120,103476,50787,103461,47139,103463,38964,28365,103472],"class_list":["post-72962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-s-biggest-lgbtq-festival","tag-s-business","tag-s-claim","tag-s-economy-also","tag-s-west-australian-state-election-parminder-singh","tag-56756","tag-30-years","tag-a-fact","tag-a-former-one-nation-candidate","tag-a-mental-illness","tag-a-podcast-appearance-mr-singh","tag-a-short-time","tag-almost-40m","tag-an-interview","tag-an-upper-house-seat","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-austrlia","tag-barnaby","tag-barnaby-joyce","tag-claim","tag-closed-doors","tag-colleague","tag-colleague-barnaby-joyce","tag-comments","tag-dignity","tag-equality-and-respect","tag-every-person","tag-gay-people","tag-gayest-party","tag-her-silence","tag-her-sunday-interview","tag-homophobic-remarks","tag-homosexuality","tag-last-year","tag-liberal-frontbench-senator-andrew-bragg","tag-mardi-gras","tag-mardi-gras-rebuke","tag-most-years","tag-mr-joyce","tag-my-business","tag-my-opinion","tag-news24","tag-newswire-politics","tag-no-one","tag-no-problem","tag-nsw","tag-one-nation","tag-one-nation-leader-pauline-hanson","tag-parents","tag-pauline","tag-pauline-hanson","tag-people","tag-same-sex-marriage","tag-senator-bragg","tag-senator-hanson","tag-silence","tag-social-media","tag-sunday","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-gay-and-lesbian-mardi-gras","tag-tens-of-thousands","tag-that-view","tag-the-comment","tag-the-country","tag-the-event","tag-the-gay-mardi-gras","tag-the-gay-mardi-grasduring","tag-the-gayest-parties","tag-the-largest","tag-the-parents","tag-the-sydney-gay-and-lesbian-mardi-gras","tag-the-time-asked","tag-the-world","tag-the-world-it","tag-their-life","tag-their-merit","tag-their-preference","tag-their-sexuality","tag-this-week","tag-visitors","tag-your-own-personal-sexuality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}