\u201cSometimes they were not gay, but if they were branded gay or lesbian, their life was pretty miserable \u2013 a lot of bullying.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe statistics for suicide for children with diverse sexuality is very high \u2026 Swedish studies show that of one-third of teenagers who committed suicide, it was sexuality issues that they could identify.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter told Real Life the significance of being an openly gay man with a public profile came to the fore while visiting a bar in Melbourne during a work trip in the mid-2000s.<\/p>\n
Carter\u2019s secretary had gone up to the bar to buy beers, and had got chatting with a woman he discovered was one of Carter\u2019s constituents. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd she said, \u2018Chris Carter? He saved my life\u2019 \u2026 [My secretary] brings this young woman over. I said, \u2018I\u2019ve never met you before\u2019, and she said, \u2018I was at Wait\u0101kere College and you came to my school for prizegiving. All the kids were sitting around me going, \u2018Chris Carter, that\u2019s our MP, he\u2019s gay\u2019’.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman explained that she had been wrestling with her sexuality, and had thought about suicide because the feelings of shame and pressure that came with that identity had become so overpowering.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018I watched you and you were the big man. You\u2019re giving out the prizes, you\u2019re a Government minister, you\u2019re our MP and you\u2019re gay\u2019. And she said, \u2018You saved my life\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat brought tears to my eyes. All the shitty emails, all the horrible phone calls that came to our house \u2026 it was all worth it if she was even the only one that I had such a positive impact on \u2013 and I suspect she was one of many.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter told Cowan it underscores the importance of using a position of power to do something meaningful.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not there for the status or the trips \u2013 which are always work trips anyway \u2013 you\u2019re there to try [to] make New Zealand a better place. And that\u2019s what I felt I could do and had a duty to do, and I\u2019m so proud,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now it\u2019s no big deal. Under the last Government, we had 11 out gay and lesbian MPs \u2026 Georgina Beyer, the world\u2019s first transsexual MP, came to our Parliament. New Zealand\u2019s an amazing place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter married his long-term partner Peter Kaiser in a civil union in 2007. The couple have been together for more than 50 years, having met in 1973, when they were 21 and 17 respectively.<\/p>\n
He said by that time, attitudes had changed sufficiently in New Zealand in the 13 years since his maiden speech that the ceremony was covered favourably.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe media broke in so it was all over New Zealand TV \u2026 it was very positive messaging,\u201d Carter told Real Life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was at the Avondale Mosque about a week after the civil union and the imam came up to me and said, \u2018Minister, congratulations on your wedding\u2019. I was gobsmacked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the interview, Carter recalled his falling out with former Labour Party leader Phil Goff, his life after politics in Afghanistan, and why he\u2019s still optimistic about the state of the world despite huge global challenges.<\/p>\n