An auction for dinner with Chris Carter has been removed from Trade Me after it was pelted with homophobic comments.
The online auction was part of the Gay Auckland Business Association's Jubilee and Charity Auction, which will celebrates the organisation's 25 year anniversary.
The dinner with the gay MP will now be auctioned at tonight's function at Auckland's Maritime Room.
GABA president and event organiser Glenn Sims says there were seven unanswered questions on the auction, which he could not answer because they were so "vile and bigoted".
"I just wasn't prepared to answer those questions because as soon as you do they go live onto the auction site."
The GABA president spoke to Carter, who said he was not bothered and told him to leave the auction online. Sims knew the auction would make more money on Trade Me, but that was not enough for him to keep it there. "Because of who we are as an organisation. We are not in the business of making a quick buck for the sake of having a lot of homophobic comments posted up there. Even if it shows what New Zealand is like."
Sims says there was a lot of interest in the Trade Me auction, which had more than 100 watchers. He says after it was pulled there were requests to put it back online and he was even offered more than $1,000 for the dinner.
Sims says the dinner has historically gone for between $500 and $1,000. "I've got no reason to think that it will sell for any less than that. But I just wasn't prepared to allow that level of homophobia and small-mindedness to actually be posted on there . . . this was stepping over the line into the realms of absolute hatred."
Chris Carter is a GABA patron and Sims says both the MP and his partner Peter Kaiser have been huge supporters of the organisation for a long time. "Gaba is not affiliated with any political organisation and as such we are delighted to keep working with them going forward."
There is still a handful of tickets available for tonight's auction dinner.
