Why I shared Benjamin Doyle’s screenshots and why I am furious at the Greens - Ani O’Brien

THREE KEY FACTS

• Benjamin Doyle’s use of vulgar language on social media has sparked controversy and criticism.
• Chlöe Swarbrick faced questions about the Green Party’s vetting process and Doyle’s judgment.
• Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters criticised the Greens and believed the police should investigate.

I was one of the people who drew attention to the screenshots from Green MP Benjamin Doyle’s “BibleBeltBussy” Instagram account last Friday on X.

I am not an outsider to the “rainbow community,” nor am I from the “far right”. I am a lesbian, and although hell will freeze over before I vote for them again, the party I have most frequently voted for in my lifetime is the Greens.

This may be an inconvenient truth for Chloe Swarbrick, who would like to perpetuate the narrative that she speaks for the “rainbow community” and that an attack on Benjamin Doyle is an attack on all of us. The reality is that Swarbrick and co speak for about 10% of the population based on recent polling. There are gays and lesbians who vote for and support every party in Parliament. We are not a monolith. Preference for one’s own sex certainly does not come with automatic economic illiteracy.

Members of the “rainbow community” whom I know, however, agree with my view that it is not appropriate to use sexual terms such as “bussy” in the captions of photos of children.

For those of you who have managed to avoid a rapid education in sexual slang over the past few days, “bussy” is a portmanteau of the words “boy” and “pussy”. I have seen some reports that it means “male” and “pussy” but that would be “mussy” and given the context, less egregious.

Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick address media about MP Benjamin Doyle. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Benjamin Doyle’s alternate Instagram account is not only called “BibleBeltBussy”, but the Green MP also captioned at least two photos of a child with the words “bussy galore” and captioned another photo — reportedly of Doyle — with “swipe right to see a [eggplant emoji] ”.

I believe that most New Zealanders, including those of us who are gay, should be disturbed by this. I think many would want the leadership of the Greens to be demanding answers from their MP as to how on earth Doyle thinks any of it is appropriate. I would like reassurances that Doyle will be stripped of the Early Childhood and Māori Education portfolios, at the very least.

Instead, the Greens have come out swinging. They appear to have decided attack is the best form of defence and are alleging, among other things, misinformation, disinformation, death threats, homophobia, transphobia, and attacks on the rainbow community.

The screenshots of Doyle’s Instagram account are there plain as day. The truth, as I said, is an inconvenience. Chloe Swarbrick didn’t appear to be aware that she followed the “BibleBeltBussy” account. As I write this, she still follows it. As do others in the Green caucus.

This is a classic case, in my view, of a political party under immense pressure desperately trying to dig itself out of a hole and in the process, throwing all principles to the wayside. They spent last week defending the “defund the police” rhetoric of their Wellington Central MP Tamatha Paul, and now they claim to need the protection of that very same police force for Benjamin Doyle.

The Greens have described “immense” death threats against Doyle. This is what they want the media and New Zealand to focus on. They cannot deny the screenshots, so they seek to distract.

Chloe Swarbrick pre-emptively scolded anyone who would dare criticise Doyle’s actions, suggesting that to do such a thing would be to condone threats against her MP and to either misunderstand or hate the “rainbow community”. She brushed off the use of the sexualised terms as “irreverent” and announced on behalf of us all that it was in-group lingo.

All groups of people have cultural lingo, but we all also have boundaries in terms of when and where it is appropriate to use that lingo. For example, it is common place for young Kiwi blokes to use the “c-word” in certain contexts, but most of us would be aghast if one of them used it to caption a photo of a child as Doyle did. I argue that very, very few people would deem using sexual language of any kind to caption a photo of a child appropriate.

It seems to me that Chloe Swarbrick would like everyone to think that the criticism of Doyle’s Instagram account is from far-right outsiders who are simply discriminating against minorities, but that is a baseless conspiracy. Plenty of the criticism of Doyle and of Swarbrick’s own defence of the situation has come from “inside the house”. From gays and lesbians such as me.

Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick address about MP Benjamin Doyle. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Perhaps, just like the Greens will find out that most Kiwis quite like having a well-funded police force to keep us safe and most Kiwis think it is reasonable for businesses to make a profit, I believe most Kiwis do not accept that it is normal to use language in the way Benjamin Doyle has.

I found myself close to tears of rage as I watched the Green Party media stand up. Chloe Swarbrick effectively tossed gays and lesbians under the bus to try to save the skin of her MP.

She characterised what I and others view as sexualised and inappropriate behaviour as “normal” in our communities and thus gave legitimacy to the people who spout the worst about homosexuality. In my view, she announced that we think it is okay to use sexualised language in connection to children as Doyle did.

This is devastating. I am 34 years old and have lived through a strange time period as a gay woman. I was terrified to be gay as a tween. The world did not look like a great place for someone such as me, so I burrowed into the closet and tried really hard to be heterosexual. Then things rapidly transformed, and acceptance of homosexuality seemed to skyrocket in New Zealand. I came out in my early 20s and had a few golden years of almost universal tolerance. Recently, the overreach of identity politics and the return of the conflation of “LGBTQI+” people with deviancy has seen acceptance wane again. The increase in homophobia online in the past few years has been stark.

It often feels as if the new attack on gays and lesbians is an inside job. People who want to politicise our sexual orientation, as the Green Party does, wield us as shields and swords to hit their political opponents with. But I will provide no cover for Benjamin Doyle. My sexual orientation is not a cloak with which to disguise someone else’s inappropriate behaviour.

That is why I have sought to make people aware of Doyle’s alt account, and it is why I am furious with the Greens.

For an alternative view, see this reply to Ani O’Brien from Paul Thistoll, the head of Countering Hate Speech Aotearoa