I think the thing that Winston Peters hasn't realised is that American culture war issues don't transfer well to Aotearoa New Zealand for a very simple reason - size of population.
USA has over 300 million people. It's very easy to have a community of people that totally excludes any marginalised groups, just because of numbers. 6 degrees of separation and all that. People are more anonymous to an individual who is thinking about (mostly unjustified) stereotypes.
In A/NZ, with only 5 million people and 2 degrees of separation ("yeah, he's my cousin, eh" said in Fiji to someone who asked), we often KNOW the marginalised people personally. Whether whanau or community, these are people in our lives.
While there are followers of the racist politicians who promote this stuff who lap it up and yell loudly, there are so many more of us saying "this is bullshit. My friend/sibling/workmate/neighbour is not like that", because we know the people being attacked. There are many, many more of us than there are of them.
This doesn't mean that we ignore Peters and his ilk, but let's not be terrified of them either.
[This was prompted by a discussion I overheard in the supermarket (in Foxton!) between two women this evening where one said "I'm not trans but some of my family are and I stand with them 100%! Fuck him!"]
USA has over 300 million people. It's very easy to have a community of people that totally excludes any marginalised groups, just because of numbers. 6 degrees of separation and all that. People are more anonymous to an individual who is thinking about (mostly unjustified) stereotypes.
In A/NZ, with only 5 million people and 2 degrees of separation ("yeah, he's my cousin, eh" said in Fiji to someone who asked), we often KNOW the marginalised people personally. Whether whanau or community, these are people in our lives.
While there are followers of the racist politicians who promote this stuff who lap it up and yell loudly, there are so many more of us saying "this is bullshit. My friend/sibling/workmate/neighbour is not like that", because we know the people being attacked. There are many, many more of us than there are of them.
This doesn't mean that we ignore Peters and his ilk, but let's not be terrified of them either.
[This was prompted by a discussion I overheard in the supermarket (in Foxton!) between two women this evening where one said "I'm not trans but some of my family are and I stand with them 100%! Fuck him!"]