From 'I dont like it' to 'gayest party'? One Nation's complex history on LGBTQI+ rights

Can a political party whose past and current members have described LGBTQI+ people as having a "mental illness" be one of the "gayest parties" in Australia?

It's a question provoked by recent comments from One Nation members in the past week.

When asked about former WA One Nation candidate Parminder Singh's comments — first reported by the ABC, that gay people have a "mental illness" — federal MP Barnaby Joyce rejected them as "highly offensive".

But some of Australia's most prominent LGBTIQ+ activists and equality campaigners say the party has more work to do in convincing the community it's truly living up to that title.

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"It's probably fair to say the community’s reaction has been a mixture of confusion and incredulity," Equality Australia legal director Heather Corkhill told SBS News.

"It's not every day you have politicians from the same party declaring both that being gay is a mental illness and that they are the gayest party in Australia, all in the space of a week."

Singh — who has since apologised for his comments — isn't the only one to have said members of the LGBTIQ+ community have a "mental illness".

In comments first reported by The Guardian, One Nation WA senator Tyron Whitten said during a podcast interview segment about 'gender' in August last year that "there's male, there's female, and then there's mental illness".

"If you want to wear a dress, that's fine. I don't care. But ... they can't keep saying that, 'Hey kids, that's normal'," he added.

"You're going to be a boy or you're going to be a girl. And parents that are promoting this, I think that's child abuse."

Joyce is adamant the party is not a "pack of homophobes", describing that as a "vindictive trope" against One Nation.

"We're not here to glorify, we're not here to vilify. We're here for people to live their own life," he said on Tuesday.

Jordan McSwiney, a senior research fellow at the University of Canberra, says while One Nation may accept the existence of the community, it "certainly doesn't embrace this community".