Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle has returned to Parliament saying their social media posts never had a sexual meaning and they didn’t believe they had done anything wrong.
However, Doyle, who uses they/them pronouns, recognised they were “politically naive” in not deleting their private Instagram account ahead of entering Parliament last year, something the Green Party advised them to do. However, they had not expected it would lead to “baseless, personal, and violent” attacks.
Doyle said they had fielded “a significant number of threats to my life and the safety of my child and family”. They were away from Parliament last week amid the heightened attention and have spoken with police about the threats.
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Some of the “hundreds” of threats “have been so graphic and disturbing that I had been advised not to leave my house, or appear in public, due to real concerns for my security”, Doyle told reporters.
“These attacks I’ve faced have been baseless and cruel. Queer people are not a danger to children. This is an outdated and homophobic lie.”
Among several posts of Doyle’s that received scrutiny was an image of them and their child contained within an Instagram carousel of various images of a family event.
That carousel was captioned with the phrase “bussy galore”. Bussy is often understood as a portmanteau of “boy” and “pussy” and slang used by some to refer to a male’s anus. The account’s name is “biblebeltbussy”.
Doyle said “bussy” was an “in-joke” and “nickname” given to them by friends.
“Bussy is a reference to me. Bussy is a wordplay of the character from the James Bond novel, Goldfinger, Pussy Galore,” Doyle said. “Plainly said, it is just about me. It is a reference to myself and no one else.”
The MP said they had a large community of followers on that Instagram account who understood that term referred to them.
“Many cultures and people and communities and friends use nicknames or tongue-in-cheek references to each other in closed group environments and circles of friends,” they said.
Asked by the Herald if they recognised the term “bussy” had sexual connotations to a lot of people, Doyle responded that every time they had used it “has been a reference to me and my nickname”.
In their opening remarks, Doyle said that when they stood for Parliament, they wanted to bring their “full self” and represent their communities “in the most authentic way possible”.
“This is why when I was advised by the party to delete the page before coming to Parliament, I chose not to. I can admit that I was politically naive, and we have paid a huge price for this naivety,” they said.
Doyle said they “could never have predicted or foreseen the level of violent hate that I have been receiving because of the manipulation and taking of images of my child”.
They refused to be “disappeared by hate” and told the Herald at no point did they consider resigning from Parliament.
“This is really important. This fight we are having right now, if I were to sit down and move away from this space, our community would lose a voice, and we don’t have much representation in here.”
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has been among those raising questions about the social media posts. While the Green Party has said Peters was “fanning the flames” of hate in doing so, Peters has maintained it is right to scrutinise the appropriateness of MPs’ actions.
After Doyle’s press conference today, Peters said the MP and their political party were “hiding behind the rainbow community as an excuse” and noted that many in the community had “spoken out” against the posts.
“Be assured we are not going to let this flimsy excuse of ‘victimhood’ succeed,” Peters added.
In their remarks, Doyle said they recognised “bussy” was “not a term all rainbow people use or like”, but stressed it was “commonly understood and appreciated by my friends and community”.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office.