Alex Greenwich and husband respond to Latham’s attack

Following an unprovoked homophobic tweet directed at him by then One Nation NSW leader Mark Latham, NSW politician Alex Greenwich and husband Victor Hoeld have opened up on the emotional battering they took as a result of the incident and why they’re determined to hold Latham to account.

Victor Hoeld and Alex Greenwich on the balcony of their Sydney home. Picture: Cara O'Dowd

As they welcome Stellar into their Sydney home for a photo shoot, NSW politician Alex Greenwich and his husband Victor Hoeld embody the happy contentment they have carried with them since a meeting on a dancefloor sparked love at first sight more than 15 years ago. But things were far more grim in March, when Greenwich found himself the subject of a homophobic social-media tweet by then One Nation NSW leader Mark Latham. As the couple give their first joint interview since the incident, Greenwich opens up about the emotional battering he took, his passion for gay rights and why he is determined to hold Latham to account.

Alex Greenwich was between meetings on an otherwise unremarkable Thursday when his universe exploded. The independent Member for Sydney was being told by press gallery journalists in the Parliament of NSW – known as the “Bear Pit” for its no-holds-barred history of rough and tumble debate – this was the worst thing they’d ever seen.

They were arguably right. When Greenwich checked his phone, he saw a tweet directed at him by then One Nation NSW leader Mark Latham that graphically described a gay sex act and called it “disgusting”. Even for the subterranean sewer that social media can so often become, this was a new low.

An unprecedented political storm immediately enveloped him. Public figure after public figure arose to condemn Latham – even his own party boss Pauline Hanson told him he’d gone too far, which is surely a warning sign – and the nation was embroiled in outrage.

The media went into meltdown, Latham refused to apologise and it instantly became one of the biggest and most brutal stories in Australian politics.

Alex Greenwich is the The independent Member for Sydney. Picture: Cara O'Dowd

But all of that was just the public debate. What does such a personal and intimate attack that goes straight to someone’s actual bedroom do to a person privately? What does it do to their partner? What does it do to their relationship? Today, for the first time, Greenwich and his husband Victor Hoeld are telling that story.

Greenwich and Hoeld first met on the dancefloor of an Oxford Street nightclub in Sydney. “Vic came up to me, put his hand out, and said ‘Hi, nice to meet you!’” Greenwich tells Stellar. “Seriously, it was that polite.”

As for Hoeld’s motivations? “Well, he’s very good looking, and he smiled.”

Greenwich says it was “old school”, and it was also love at first sight. They started dating, and not long afterwards Hoeld was rolling his clothes rack down the street to his boyfriend’s place.

Today, a decade and a half later in the same apartment building in Kings Cross, they are a postcard of marital bliss.

Indeed, in 2012 their marriage was literally a postcard. Then unable to wed in Australia, they went to Buenos Aires – and became the first foreign same-sex couple to get hitched in Argentina. At the time, Greenwich was a leading campaigner for same-sex marriage. He was also impatient. As he says, “I didn’t like that there was a law that said I couldn’t do something because I was gay and I sought to change that.”

The full interview with Alex Greenwich appears inside this weekend’s edition of Stellar, with Jelena Dokic on the cover.

On the day of Stellar’s photo shoot inside the couple’s modest but immaculate flat, the film crew is putting Greenwich through his paces, which he dutifully abides by with all the gentle acquiescence of a measured politician (albeit the best-looking one I’ve encountered). Halfway through the shoot, Hoeld strides in: “I’ve just been at a lunch. What do I have to do?”

As it turns out, Hoeld is so well-dressed that the stylist doesn’t offer a change of clothes. He’s the most German and also the least German person I’ve ever met. Either way, you want him on your side in a battle. And that was where Greenwich found himself that Thursday in March.

“When I first saw the tweet I was between meetings and I was literally in shock,” recalls Greenwich. “Journos were saying, ‘Alex, this is really bad. This is the worst thing we’ve seen.’ It just progressively dawned on me throughout the day. And it hit me. My first response was I did not want to engage with this at all. I wanted it to go away.”

But it didn’t. In the age of social media, perhaps of any media, it couldn’t. Despite all of his achievements, all of his advocacy, all of his policies, Greenwich still found himself reduced to a sex act in a single tweet.

His response is now borderline iconic. That night, he attended a gala event in the city and posted a picture to Instagram of himself and Hoeld – in well-fitted tuxedos – with a caption that served as a declaration: “For those wondering how I’m doing after Latham’s homophobic attacks today, I’m fine and I’m more motivated than ever to deliver long overdue LGBTIQA+ reforms… and I have the most handsome husband.”

Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich pictured speaking to media along with LGBTIQA+ community members at Parliament House before he introduces his equality bill before Parliament. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

He may have said he was fine but in reality, he wasn’t. He toughed it out all day, but that night he cried. He would have cried himself to sleep, but he didn’t sleep at all.

“I couldn’t fall asleep and then I had to get up the next morning because I had agreed to do ABC Breakfast [radio], which was probably the last thing I wanted to do.”

Recalls Hoeld, “I’ve never seen him cry like this before.” At that moment, Greenwich initiated evacuation. “We’re getting out of Sydney,” he told his husband. And so, that day, they left town and stayed with a friend. It didn’t fix everything, but it helped them to survive the storm. And all storms pass.

Afterwards, Greenwich was bombarded with obscene and hateful messages from random people on social media and beyond – grotesque images and exhortations for him to kill himself. For a while, his electoral staff were scared to answer the phone.

“I’ve always focused on policies and achieving legislative reform and stalking community campaigns,” Greenwich says of his career to that point. “And then suddenly, I’m put in a position where I’m constantly getting people attacking me based on my sexuality, not on my policy. That has had a really, sort of, confronting impact on me.”

Now things are calmer, but there are still flare-ups. Greenwich recently found himself dragged into the carnivalesque immolation of Latham as One Nation’s NSW leader (he has since quit the party altogether). A typical politician might feel some satisfaction of having ultimately won the war, or at least exacted some sweet revenge, but Greenwich wants nothing to do with it. Because, unlike most political battles, in this one his very body is the battleground. Politics doesn’t get more personal than that.

That’s why he’s now taking defamation action against Latham in a potentially groundbreaking case scheduled to begin later this month. More importantly, he has recently introduced an equality bill to parliament that he says amounts to the most comprehensive LGBTIQA+ reform process in the state’s history, with reforms that will, hopefully, finally cement legal equality.

As for Greenwich and Hoeld? “We need to spend more time with each other,” he says with a sigh. “Yes,” adds Hoeld with a laugh. “We don’t even have time to make plans to spend time.”

Originally published as Alex Greenwich and husband respond to Latham’s attack