Fred Nile has announced his retirement from the NSW parliament. Two words: ‘good’ and ‘riddance’. I first heard of Reverend Nile not long after arriving in Sydney 20-odd years ago. Back then, I was a freelance journo writing for the gay press. I soon discovered that Nile’s hostility toward the LGBTQ community was long-established — each year he would pray for it to rain on our parade.

Literally.

Every year, the crimson-faced mouth-frother and his acrid acolytes would get down on their knees and fervently pray for Mardi Gras to be deluged. Imagine how sour your soul would have to be. And imagine the cheers when one year, rather than rain, there appeared a rainbow. Nile’s hang-up with the gays has always amused me.

The man is obsessed.

Dismissing our innate sexuality as a “lifestyle choice”, Nile thinks us “unnatural and abnormal”. Mardi Gras promotes “indecency and obscenity” and is “a public parade of immorality and blasphemy”. Geez, talk about a party pooper. He once said that gay people have a “mental disorder”.

This from a man who believes in an invisible wizard in the sky.

Anyhow, come November Nile will depart parliament and the place will be better off without him. Bye, bye Fred. You — and your toxic brand of Christianity — can go to hell…

CHRISTOPHER KELLY