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Roche calls it quits, but not because he's gay |
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Monday, 07 April 2008 |
 Property developer Stephen Roche has decided to leave Tasmania's North-West, but says it’s not because of homophobia.
The gay developer will sell his properties in Penguin and move back to Sydney, after plans for a multi-million development failed to bear fruit.
An anti-gay campaign against Roche and his partner Keith Westerby was waged by certain residents in the town; however many were opposed to a Gold Coast-style development.
The most extreme example of shock tactics was when Roche and his partner Keith Westerby found a gutted wallaby tied to their front door.
Pamphlets were circulated warning residents against an "influx of Sydney gay men".
But today Roche was quoted in The Advocate saying he was not leaving because of homophobia.
"My motivation for leaving, I guess, is I just think it's time for me to go," he said.
"What we've done here is fantastic.
"We've had a great time here.”
Speaking to the ABC in 2007, a local resident said Penguin was no “town of hate”.
“All we want is something reasonable,” she said, of Roche's development plans.
“We don't want four- and five-storey buildings towering over us.”
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