MP claims that gay people have only existed ‘for maybe 60 years’

An Australian MP has claimed that gay people have only existed "for maybe 60 years."

Bob Katter made the claim to Australia's House of Representatives this week, saying that gay people were responsible for infecting children with HIV and high suicide rates. He said:

"The people advocating this proposition tonight, the LGBTIs, have maybe 60 years on their side. "I have 3.5 million years of genetic programming on my side, because we human beings, they tell us, have been around for 3.5 million years. "One thing that is absolutely certain is that we’ve all developed from heterosexual couples. That is one thing we know absolutely - up until the last 40 years, anyway. "So, genetically, we are programmed that way"  

While making this claim, Katter refused to use the word 'gay.' He also went on to say that Australia has an "extraordinary incidence" of "homosexual behaviour" compared to other nations and that this was affecting suicide rates in the country.

"If you analyse why this country continuously has the highest male juvenile suicide rates in the world there is something going wrong here. "We have an extraordinary incidence of homosexual behaviour in Australia compared with other nations, and I think the people who have been speaking for this bill would agree with me on that."

Katter's comments were recorded in the Australian House of Representatives in Hansard on Wednesday evening. He was one of just four MPs who voted against the recent same-sex marriage bill.