MP reveals death threats
Louisa Wall is paying the price for being one of New Zealand’s most high-profile champions of LGBTIQ rights.
The Manurewa MP says she’s copped horrific personal abuse for campaigning for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people.
The author of this country’s marriage equality legislation says a recent example is when she spoke out after Australian rugby star
Israel Folau tweeted a video containing what some people considered to be an anti-gay message in
May.
‘‘I talked about how people in his position have a duty of care and need to think about the consequences of what they say. I get trolled horrifically on social media [for that].’’
Wall, who chairs Parliament’s health select committee, says she often receives negative emails from people and reads derogatory and abusive language aimed at herself on Facebook.
She received death threats during the passage of the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act, she says.
The bill gave same-sex Kiwi couples the right to get married and was signed into law in 2013.
Wall says people told her she would burn in hell and was ruining the country.
Wall is among the groundbreakers set to feature in a new book about LGBTQ politicians around the world by academic Dr Andrew Reynolds, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina in the United States.