Featuring in the new issue of Express Magazine - out nationwide today - Judith Collins has spoken about her support for rainbow issues (including banning conversion therapy and the gender-self ID bill), as well as comedian Tom Sainbury’s suggestion that Gerry Brownlee is a closet-cross-dresser!

Link to the interview can be found in full here.

On Gerry Brownlee’s past homophobia:
“Homosexuals are now saying they want to be treated the same as other people. In my view, the sad fact is – although some will find this difficult to take – they are not the same.” – Gerry Brownlee, 2004.

“It's a shame that he said that,” says Collins who seems unaware of the comment when we read it to her. “I've never heard him express anything like that since. I'm disappointed by that, but you know what, sometimes people say things they later regret.”

Collins confirms she ‘expects’ Brownlee regrets the comment, saying the two of them are surrounded by, “quite a rainbow team at work.”

On Comedian Tom Sainsbury’s impersonation of Brownlee as a part-time cross-dresser who picks out Collins outfits for public events:
“No, he doesn't choose my outfits… I don't want to go in my wardrobe and find my shoes have been nicked and had his big feet in them. No thank you very much. I don't want my shoe stretched… But he is very artistic… he's a really good artist and he's got a really good eye for how things are going to look somewhere.”

On why National has no openly rainbow MPs:
“You might find that hopefully, we will have some... We've got people who are standing now for us who are definitely rainbow. It is not for me to say what their sexuality is, but I think you'll find that we will have some coming through.”

On whether she would have been made leader earlier if she was a straight white man:
“Possibly but who knows? I mean, there are plenty of straight white men in any political party who are thinking, why don't they pick me?”

On two women vying for leadership:
“It shows that gender, and hopefully sexual orientation doesn't make any difference in terms of leadership. Hopefully, it says to everybody that you don't all have to look like traditional leaders… And you know what? Jenny Shipley, Helen Clark, Jacinda Ardern and myself, were made leader by caucus members when times were tough!”

Express magazine has been Aotearoa’s national LGBT+ publication for over 29 years.

gayexpress.co.nz

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