Catherine McGregor says she can forgive deputy PM for anti-gay remarks

Catherine McGregor says she can forgive deputy PM for anti-gay remarks
Image: Image: ABC.

Writer and former military officer Catherine McGregor has said she can forgive Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack for his historical comments against gay people.

Appearing on ABC’s Q&A this week, McGregor said she could forgive the comments given that he has apologised for them.

An audience member asked whether the panel considered McCormack’s promotion to deputy prime minister was wise in light of his past comments.

McCormack wrote a newspaper column in 1993 that blamed gay people for AIDS, calling them “sordid” and “unnatural”.

“In his defence—I’m not going to defend that sentiment—but it was a much more prevalent sentiment then,” said McGregor.

“We’re in a different country now. I can forgive him for those remarks if he’s withdrawn them and stepped away from them.

“And I wouldn’t like to be reminded of everything I said or did 25, 30 years ago.”

Shadow Minister for Justice Clare O’Neil agreed McCormack’s remarks were “terrible”.

“He shouldn’t have said those things,” she said.

Harriet Harman, British Labour MP, said McCormack will need to do more than say he has moved on from holding homophobic views.

“There is still a lot of homophobia and discrimination against gay people. And I think coming out for many people is still a very traumatic thing,” said Harman.

“I can only imagine the kind of chill that people must have shivered down their spine, that many people must have felt when they heard these remarks, and that they came from somebody who is now the Deputy Prime Minister.

“They were a while ago, but he will have a lot to prove that actually he has left that discrimination behind.

“Perhaps we’ll have to see him on a gay pride march, leading it—really showing that he has changed.

“He’ll have to prove he can do the job as well as proving that he’s left behind those repulsive, homophobic views.”

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3 responses to “Catherine McGregor says she can forgive deputy PM for anti-gay remarks”

  1. Sorry Dave, I often agree with your posts, but not this one. First, McCormack is from Wagga, only 450 kms from Sydney and about the same distance from Melbourne, so no, he is not from some far flung place in Queensland. Second, while his remarks were made 25 years ago, I remember distinctly the fear I felt when reading McCormack’s hate filled homophobic editorial while living in Wagga. That editorial has had material and long lasting impacts on me and my family. I know that other people have long suffered the blow-back from his editiorial comments too. Read his hate-filled rant from 1993 and his subsequent editorials explaining why he is not sorry for his homophobia, and you will begin to see the measure of the man! He is not a man to be trusted.

  2. McGregor may well forgive Abbott for his remarks but what is important about this man is his propensity to mislead and invent facts to do with a whole range of issues. I’m quite sure that he is aware of his double dealing on same sex marriage as he is on climate change, migration etc. and here he is in the Federal Parliament. He’s supposed to inform Australia. For instance, he will state that world wide climate cannot be measured and at the same time asserts that climate temperatures have not increased over thirteen degrees. The two statements contradict each other.

    • Cate has also forgiven Tony Abbott so your comment isn’t wrong but this article is about National Party homophobia, not Liberal Party homophobia. Cate’s had a fair bit of forgiving to do lately!

      It really is tricky to keep up with whatever dumb comment has surfaced, but in this case it’s 25-year-old comments from when Nationals leader Michael McCormack was a “shock-jock” editor on a small rural Queensland newspaper in the early 90’s. Awful comments but from another time and place, unlike Abbott.

      At least McCormack gave marriage equality a Yes vote, unlike Abbott or Joyce.