Abbott faces marriage protesters
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott faced some angry marriage equality protesters in Melbourne on Sunday.
Abbott was caught up in the stand-off as he was dining at the University Cafe in Lygon St with The Australian‘s foreign editor Greg Sheridan.
Equal Love convenor Ali Hogg said protesters had been tipped off Abbott was in the restaurant.
“We couldn’t let the opportunity go by without making our way down there to give him a piece of our mind on his position on marriage equality,” Hogg said.
Hogg said around six people surrounded Abbott and Sheridan chanting, “Tony Abbott, you’re a bigot, gay marriage you don’t dig it.”
It’s understood some of the workers inside the cafe signed a petition in support of marriage equality and handed it to Abbott.
Protesters were eventually removed from the premises but continued to chant at Abbott and Sheridan, banging on the window of the restaurant holding up posters for an upcoming marriage equality rally.
Photos: Rachel Sztanski
Hysterical lesbians will do the cause no good!
Wow, a lot of people are criticising Ali here. How about you fight tirelessly and unselfishly for a cause as hard as she does before you criticise. She has the community’s best hopes and dreams at the forefront of all her actions.
As there are many religions within our community, it is not in my opinion reasonable for those of any religion to assume a right to enforce a philosophical position on others to which their religions do not adhere.
As my religion allows for the marriage of two persons of the same gender, denial of the right to marry my same-sex partner violates not only my right to marry the one that I love, but also my Constitutionally-vouched right to the free exercise of my religion.
When a country opens their doors and borders to the rest of the world, once narrow and isolated views and policies (both political and religious) must adapt and change, to recognise the diversity that composes the rest of the world.
Don, you are grossly misinformed and clearly unaware of the degree to which this is the case.
Marriage has pre-existed the Judeo-Christian religions by many thousand years. As a Druid, I can tell you that my religion possesses thirteen different definitions of the term, ranging from a one-year bonding to the bonding of two souls even beyond the grave.
The Judeo-Christian religions have seen fit to re-define marriage to suit their own mores, and that is their right. However, they have then demanded that every one else accept this altered definition of marriage; this is patently not their right.
Our religion has always accepted marriage as the bonding of two individuals regardless of gender; there are examples of two people of same gender marrying in our legends, such as the union between Cu Chulainn and Ferdiad, his male lover on the Isle of Skye.
If you are truly interested in understanding the truth about marriage, I suggest that you refrain from current comment and instead seek out as much unbiased information on the history of marriage pre- and post-Dark Ages as you can obtain. Then you will be in a better position to make informed comments, rather than merely repeating what you’ve always been assured is true.
Lack of education is part of the problem that allows continued discrimination. Getting that education makes sure that when you do make a choice, it is not accidentally the wrong one.
If the attempt was to change his and the Australian communities view on marriage equality then quite obviously it failed, all this has done is provide sympathy for Abbott and his anti-equality stance.
This has just given a leg up to those against us and indeed the No to equality brigade will be rubbing there hands with glee for the publicity.
Rude, Moronic and Petulant behaviour by Hogg and her cohorts.
Phil, take another valium. How do you think homosexuality was decriminalized, if not for arrests and public scuffles?
Ali Hogg herself states Tony Abbott responded:
“I think you’ve made your point. I think you should leave now.”
All Hogg managed to do is make Abbott look reasonable! Lesson for Ali – “Fighting the hardest” is not the same as “screaming the loudest”
So we should politely wait to be invited for tea with Mr Abbott to present our views should we- hell no!
Kick, scream, petition, protest- bullies like Abbott only respect strength. We will get no where quietly waiting for rights.
Some people did not learn the lessons of Stonewall and Mardi Gras- rights come when you stand up and demand them!
I find the tactics of some Gays out there to be appauling and there are many who do force people to sign petitions. There is a high number of us who are gay and dont want gay marriage. If you are born gay, getting married doesnt go with that flow and if these so called polls actually show that majority Australians agree with same sex marriage then it wouldve all passed through years ago. To attack politicians in public is plain wrong.
Abbott was at work at the cafe in Melbourne with a journalist, and paid for this with our taxes, on his expense account. Abbott himself encourages people to protest at politicians houses at his carbon tax rallies so I think while is at work he is fair game. This is the bloke that stands next people smiling who carry signs calling for the death of Gillard, he got tiny dose of his own medicine. Abbott has been much worse saying we are a threat to children, playing the hate card when there is talk of marriage.
Hi! People clearly don’t know what bigot means. The people yelling at Abbott are the bigots. You whoever you are need to get an education.
Having a belief doesn’t make you a bigot morons.
I find it interesting the argument that marriage is a civil right. Really, who made that decision? Sorry, you might try real hard to change a definition but it doesn’t make you right. Marriage is between a man and a woman. Yelling and screaming and wanting something doesn’t make it a civil right!
I laugh even more at those that say marriage is a human right. No, human right is about you being alive and addressing human needs of food, love, sex… marriage is not a need it is a want. You have the right to live and love the partner of your choice, it doesn’t mean you have the right to redefine what marriage is.
If the intention is to convince politicians of all political persuasions to support a bill that amends The Marriage Act 1961, to recognise marriage equality, the these tactics are, at best, counter-productive. As I, and others have found when arguing issues such as same sex adoption and the Relationship Register Bill in the State Parliament, there will always be people who passionately disagree. The way forward is not to abuse them, or label them as bigots; it is to argue the case, but respect the right of others to disagree.
Once again, some adolescent tries simultaneoulsy to claim she has the moral high ground, while acting in a patently rude, immature and frankly stupid manner. Only one person in that restaurant was being aggresive. Only one person in that restaurant was showing a lack of tolerance. Only one person in that restaurant was behaving like a petulant two-year old.
Still, it’s clear that the majority from the gay community have disowned this misguided fool. Sadly, not before she managed to damage their cause in the eyes of those who most need to be persuaded, i.e. the hetero majority.
So how does acting a hetrophobe better the cause ??
Shouting at people and resorting to public screaming matches or physical scuffles leading to Police warnings or arrests are in poor form, as they result in us being seen as the fringe extremists. Some people seem almost to want a fight.
How many of the people you see screaming at public events/rallies have ever written to their MP? – let alone had a one on one MP meeting?
I actively engage with my MP via e-mail, phone, Facebook, Twitter and face to face meeting. I know this is a more effective approach.
If everybody else did this we would be further advanced than we are now.
Abbott stands proudly next to the hate signs about gays destroying family and marriage. He gives a welcome platform for those that seek to destroy and kill us- those who create hate. So why would Tony Abbott expect to get away with his nastiness? He does not act civil towards same-sex attracted people, he advocates discrimination in Health services for the aged, he supports discrimination in private superannuation, he is against “Gays having access to children”. The man is about hate not God. He needs to be confronted by those he effects. Abbott thinks we are a week push over, that he can bully us and get away with it. The man has no logic reasoning, he is a fundamentalist. He should not be free to pour buckets of hate onto us.
Tony Abbott is a bigot, plain and simple. While I don’t agree with the “lunatic fringe” hounding people at dinner and making us look like a feral mob, I do agree that bigots need to be hounded at every step.
There is an old tradition for dealing with society’s most objectionable elements. It’s called the rough music, and it involves travelling behind the unwanted individual everywhere they go and banging a spoon or similar implement on a tin cup. This is done by the hundreds, for days continuously, even when they are safe in their house, trying to sleep.
Ali Hogg, I would suggest you deal less in tactics that make us all look like the feral mob of the rough music. It may be effective, but also counts as stalking, harassment and bullying, and is uncomfortably like Tony Abbott’s own behaviour during the 70’s and 80’s.
Instead, try being the thing that he can never be, for all of us; decent.
In terms of tactics, keep those petitions going. And present copies of them not only to every politician that you meet, but to every vicar, rector, prelate, primate, priest and minister that crosses your path. Maybe then they will at least be unable to claim that they speak for any sort of moral majority.
Owen, that wasn’t very nice. May I inform you that I’m facing prosecution.
I have to agree with those who think the actions of Hogg and co do more harm than good, Abbott’s views are wrong but to win this debate you have to act in a rational way and being confrontational is no way to change his mind.
Hogg and co pretty much represent the far left within the gay community leaving those of us in the middle ground to just want to run away from this behaviour..
Let’s face it, we all cringe when Ali Hogg gets her scream on at every Marriage Equality rally. No one achieved anything by yelling at their opponents.
I think a much more effective method would have been to hand Abbott a letter, asking him to read it. Threatening him will just increase his opposition to our view.
Well done at least some in the community have some guts to stand up to him. This action isn’t taking us back years, Abbot will do that himself. Let him know we are not meek hetro suck crawling apologists (unlike some here).
Their actions are shameful. I disagree with just about everything Tony has to offer, however he is entitled to eat and go into the community without harassment. There is a right and wrong time for everything, this was the WRONG time. If it was my Cafe I would have ejected them too, like I would for any customer who is being harassed.
Marriage to me should be left to the religious, when I realised I was Gay I was so happy that I would never get married, now a very noisy disfunctional disconnected majority 52% of homos want it, when blood is spilt over this issue and their push for normalisation and it will be spilt,guaranteed, who is going to put their hand up and take responsibility. I just wonder what will be the future of the GLB communities with normalisation, will there be Gay clubs? The noisy 52% don’t care, they want it, they want the de-labelling and that is when we will cease to exist.
I strongly support equality and civil unions, any lawyer has been able to draw up contracts for decades and that is what marriage is a contract. These Marriage folk seem to be causing more harm than good, I recently noticed one Group attacking the owner and calling a boycott of the Peel hotel in Melbourne, again SHAMEFUL! If Gay Marriage is allowed ( which I hope it never is) then polygamy will be next. Muslims, Mormans having up to four wives per man, and
“I’m sick of twits like this claiming they represent the LGBT community. She represents the idiot feral fringe of the debate. And that’s all.”
what is it with these people forcing others to sign petitions, makes you no better than the so called homophobes.
Yeah right, Chris/Gay. Sign another petition.
Abbott is a far right extremist. He is as nutty as Madden. He believes he is doing Gods work discriminating. He has spent his life putting down anyone who is same-sex attracted, and advocates for us to be excluded from the Equal Opportunity Act. The man is threatened by his sister to use his words.
He is crippling the Liberal Party and our community.
Bigots like Abbott should be hounded everywhere they go. It would be hard for them to spread their homophobia and racism if they had to face an alternative argument every step of the way. More of this I say.
I don’t agree with their actions, you’ve just set us back years, why didn’t you just walk in and talk with him. You’re making us all look like brainless idiots
Good work Ali Hogg and Co!
I’m gay, I support marriage equality. I don’t however support the actions of these protestors. It achieves nothing.