National finally finds its gay pride

National finally finds its gay pride
(supplied)

National is flying its very own version of the rainbow flag, putting a bit of gay pride into its branding.

The party has created a new rainbow logo - debuting it very subtly on Amy Adams facebook video about the quashing of historical gay sex convictions.

They’ve used rainbow a couple of times before but this time they’ve gone the whole hog - giving their trademarked N the rainbow treatment.

The timing of both the logo and that bill is interesting - Pride Week.

While on Saturday the Prime Minister will be going back to his heartland roots in a head to head shearing contest with the one, the only Sir David Fagan - the next day he'll be out of the safety zone that is the woolshed and into a world of drag queens and glitter.

Bill English will dive headfirst into the biggest event  of the queer calendar - his very first Big Gay Out as Prime Minister. And thanks to his Justice Minister he'll get to run around waving the legislative flag proudly - his government making the move to right a moral wrong in the queer community.

It's part of a creep toward a more liberal LGBT+ friendly Bill English. The same southern Catholic voted against both the Civil Union Bill in 2004 and the Marriage Equality Bill in 2013, which doesn't seem that long ago.

But his attitude swiftly changed the minute it became clear he was going to be the Prime Minister.

In fact one of the first things he did was rip up the handbrake and pull an almighty U-turn on marriage equality.

"I'd probably vote differently now on the gay marriage issue, I don't think that gay marriage is a threat to anyone else's marriage," he said just before being officially sworn in as Prime Minister.

It was a convenient moral U-turn that  got rid of what would have been a vexing, persistent and awkward question about his views on homosexuality.

He's still got a test on his hands on Sunday. John Key's Big Gay Out cameos ranged from pink shirts and glitter bombs to dancing with queens and beer pong.

Brand Key did Big Gay Out like no other Prime Minister had before and cemented it as a staple event on the political calendar. It is why Bill did the U-turn on marriage equality - he knew he would have to front up to this.

John Key at the Big Gay Out 2016 (Getty)
John Key at the Big Gay Out 2016 (Getty)

Despite Key's flamboyant displays at BGO, National's never been known for its gay pride - it's always been Labour/Green territory but the Nats are moving in. They even have an official rainbow wing of the party now "National with Pride".

And here's why: National clearly knows there are votes to be had in the LGBT+ community - but even more importantly there are votes to be lost by looking homophobic.

Newshub.