The Green Party is calling on the Prime Minister to end the attacks on the rainbow community coming from his Deputy Prime Minister.

“This morning, the Deputy Prime Minister has decided to double down on disinformation, fanning the flames of hatred towards the rainbow community that we have recently seen can lead to real world violence,” says Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.

“Over the weekend, we reached out to the Prime Minister directly, and New Zealand First’s Chief of Staff, to ensure they understand the danger this behaviour creates.

“We have been screening immense numbers of death threats and abuse directed at our MP, Benjamin Doyle and their child. These are driven by dangerous conspiracy thinking amplified by Destiny’s Church and the Deputy Prime Minister.

“Members of any minority community, like our rainbow community, are accustomed to using and co-opting terms that may not be well understood by external groups, oftentimes with irreverence and absurdity. The central conspiracy here is that the use of such a word on a private account by an MP, before they were an MP, is inherently suspicious.

“This isn’t a game. We’ve seen Destiny’s Church physically attack people at Drag Story Time only a month ago, grounded in the deeply dangerous trope that the rainbow community presents a danger to children. These attacks on Benjamin come from the same playbook.

“Enough is enough. The Prime Minister must shut down this behaviour,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

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