The NSW premier has slammed a now-deleted tweet from NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham as "vile and shameful", saying the comments need to be unambiguously condemned.
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"I think that they're vile and shameful comments and I think (Mr Latham) revealed himself to be a bigot," Chris Minns told the Lifeline International President's Lunch in Sydney on Friday.
The tweet, posted on Thursday, was in response to a news article about a violent protest outside a church Mr Latham had been speaking at during the election campaign.
In the article, independent MP Alex Greenwich branded Mr Latham a "disgusting human being" who posed a risk to the state.
"Disgusting?" Mr Latham wrote before making a graphic and homophobic description of sex acts.
"(The comments) have been directed at a member of parliament ... who is extraordinarily effective and manages to elevate the conversation and make major changes in the state," the premier said.
"One of the things that can't be forgotten is that comments like this, even though in and of themselves they're terrible, they unleash ghouls on people like Alex.
"It's not what we need in public life."
Members of the LGBTQI community are two and a half times more likely to require urgent medical attention due to mental health conditions and deserve the support of political leaders, Mr Minns said.
"There should be an unambiguous and universal condemnation of these comments," he said.
Mr Greenwich said the hurtful, "homophobic abuse" briefly brought him to tears on Thursday.
"This has obviously been hurtful for me. I had a bit of a cry late yesterday at the end of the day," he told reporters on Friday.
"After being in this gig for a decade and getting re-elected, I didn't think I'd still be subjected to homophobic abuse."
Since Thursday morning, Mr Latham has been widely condemned including by federal One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and commentators Andrew Bolt and Ray Hadley.
Mr Greenwich said he did not want to waste his time on the now-deleted post and didn't expect he'd receive an apology.
However, he expressed concern that no one had heard from the upper house MP for 24 hours and "at a very human level, I hope he's OK".
Last year, a review of the culture at NSW parliament found people with diverse backgrounds and sexualities were more likely to be bullied and harassed.
Mr Greenwich, the only openly gay lower house MP, said more work needed to be done in the parliament's upcoming term but would not call on Mr Latham to resign and give him the opportunity to "pretend to be a victim when he seeks to victimise people".
Mr Greenwich has prepared an omnibus LGBTQI bill, which he intends to introduce during this term of parliament, to remove discrimination from all areas of government.
Senator Hanson joined the chorus of criticism of her state leader on Thursday evening, saying Mr Latham had not responded to her calls and a text asking him to issue a public apology.
Her office on Friday morning declined to say whether Mr Latham had since replied, saying any further response was "up to Mark Latham".
Mr Greenwich dismissed Senator Hanson's intervention as "empty words", pointing to her recent motion in the Senate which "targeted the trans community".
Mr Latham joined One Nation in 2018.
He was voted in again to the upper house in the NSW election on Saturday, giving the party three MPs in the 42-seat chamber.
AAP has contacted Mr Latham for comment.
Australian Associated Press
