Conservative activist caught on camera telling gay dad his sexuality will cause his son to have ’emotional damage’

Gay parenting influencers Christian Newman and Mark Edwards, who live in Avondale, New Zealand and have a son, Francis, shared the clip

A conservative activist was filmed telling a gay dad that his children will likely have “emotional damage.”

Gay parenting influencers Christian Newman and Mark Edwards, who live in Avondale, New Zealand and have a son, Francis, shared a clip of an encounter with a campaigner from the right-wing New Conservative Party.

Conservative activist insists gay couples shouldn’t have kids.

In the ten-minute discussion posted to the couple’s Instagram on Sunday (11 October), the activist insisted that schools should only teach the “traditional norm” that families have a mother and a father, to avoid children becoming “sexualised at a very young age.”

The woman insisted: “We just believe that the best outcome for children is a mother and father.”

View this post on Instagram

Dear Frankie, Today when we visited the markets, we stopped to ‘discuss’ the policies of a political party running for Government in NZ. Their policies are harmful to the LGBTQI community and they also want to remove the right to have the choice for a woman to have an abortion. I wanted to discuss their policies to understand where they’re coming from, and of course to educate this campaigner from a different point of view. The conversation certainly left many points untouched and watching this back I have so much more to say on both LGBTQI being included in schools, and Abortion. I’m going to continue to do some more learning, so next time I’m better educated and can have a more constructive conversation. I got a bit riled up…the security guard actually came over ?. Everyone has the right to their own beliefs and opinions. But I do not believe that anyone should impact on how other people live their lives. Everyone should be given the right to make the choice and not have that choice taken away from them. Hoea tō waka, mahia tāu mahi.
Go for it, you do you. Love is love! Love from your dads xx #politics #LGBTQI #abortion #righttochoose #haveaconversation

A post shared by Mark, Christian & Frankie (+?) (@lovefromyourdads) on

Challenged over her beliefs, she continues that she has “seen the video of the Gayby Babies”, an apparent reference to the 2015 documentary about same-sex parenting, continuing: “They have loving parents but they have some gaps… they have an emotional longing for a father or a mother.”

“Automatically there’s just an emotional damage with a gay [family], that’s just my observation.”

The woman went on to claim that gay people shouldn’t get married because they can never be truly fulfilled sexually – which is not traditionally known as a much of a barrier to heterosexual marriages.

Gay dad calls out harmful views

Gay parenting influencers Christian Newman and Mark Edwards, who live in Avondale, New Zealand and have a son, Francis, shared the clip of the New Conservative activist

Gay parenting influencers Christian Newman and Mark Edwards, who live in Avondale, New Zealand and have a son, Francis, shared the clip (Instagram)

Writing on Instagram, Newman said: “Today when we visited the markets, we stopped to ‘discuss’ the policies of a political party running for government in NZ.

“Their policies are harmful to the LGBT+ community and they also want to remove the right to have the choice for a woman to have an abortion.

“I wanted to discuss their policies to understand where they’re coming from, and of course to educate this campaigner from a different point of view.

“The conversation certainly left many points untouched and watching this back I have so much more to say on both LGBT+ being included in schools, and [the party’s policy on] abortion.”

He continued: “Everyone has the right to their own beliefs and opinions, but I do not believe that anyone should impact on how other people live their lives.

“Everyone should be given the right to make the choice and not have that choice taken away from them.”