ALP candidate resigns over gay slurs

ALP candidate resigns over gay slurs

A Queensland state election candidate for the Labor Party has been forced to resign just two days into the official election race after standing by comments he made that homosexuality and paedophilia are linked.

Peter Watson (pictured), the 19-year-old ALP candidate for Southern Downs, originally released a statement denying posting a series of homophobic comments on a website several years ago that described homosexuals as “social degenerates” that destroy society’s values.

But when interviewed by ABC Radio’s AM program this morning, he admitted he did indeed author them.

“I said that homosexuality and paedophilia were linked because there’s been some research done… and it’s been published by the Catholic Church, that suggests that 30 percent of male paedophiles are homosexual,” Watson said.

“I made the comments, so I do agree with them.”

The ALP state secretary Anthony Chisholm issued a statement saying Watson had originally told party officials that he didn’t write the posts.

“That’s what he told our officials at the time, clearly he has had a change of mind on those matters,” he said.

“Clearly the decision to ask for his resignation was the correct one.”

Watson, who has been a member of the ALP since he was 15, was the secretary of the party’s Warwick Branch.

He has now been officially expelled from the ALP.

“Clearly his views have no place in the Australian Labor Party,” Chisholm said.

Openly gay state ALP candidate for Glass House Ryan Moore, who’s also 19, told the Star Observer he would not be commenting on the matter.

“I am focused on Glass House and the party has taken the right action,” he said.

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11 responses to “ALP candidate resigns over gay slurs”

  1. The fact that the study was published by the catholic church says it all, and no doubt it’s referring to their clergy whom have the highest amount of paedophiles. He also says that 30% of paedophiles are homosexual. Well doesn’t that mean the other 70% are straight? So where is the risk factor really? Realistically he is a higher risk factor for being a paedophile.

  2. A 1994 study, led by Carole Jenny of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, surveyed 269 cases of children who were sexually molested by adults. In 82 percent of cases, the allegedoffender was a heterosexual partner of a close relative of thechild, the researchers reported in the journal Pediatrics. In only two out of 269 cases, the offender was identified asbeing gay or lesbian.

  3. Perhaps time to either listen to Irving Berlin (writer) or watch, ‘Annie Get Your Gun’, where Annie Oakley played by Doris Day sang, “The folks are dumb where I come from”…

  4. ‘…and it’s been published by the Catholic Church, that suggests that 30 percent of male paedophiles are homosexual,” Watson said.’

    Perhaps that study was completed internally on the sexual identity of Catholic priests known to be paedophiles? Stats indicate that in the real world, the ratio of hetero to homosexual paedophiles is around 11.1.

    Anyway, if the Catholic Church’s stats apply to the real world, what about the 70% of heterosexual male paedophiles out there? Shouldn’t that be more of a concern to him? Last time I checked, 70 was more than 30.

  5. On second thoughts, I thought bestiality would be far more of an issue in Southern Downs, considering it is in the backblocks!

  6. I think young Peter meant to join the Catholic, homophobic DLP instead of the ALP. I am sure he could find plenty of gay haters in the DLP!

  7. National Child Protection Clearinghouse
    “An offender’s sexual orientation, whether he perceives himself to be homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual, is not mentioned as a risk factor, indicator, or characteristic in typologies of child sex offenders (Finkelhor, Williams, Burns and Kalinowski 1988; Wurtele and Miller-Perrin 1993). Offender typologies account for same-sex sexual abuse purely on the biological sex of the victim and offender, regardless of self-reported sexual orientation.” http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/issues/issues5/issues5.html

    American Psychological Association
    “In most cases, the perpetrator is male regardless of whether the victim is a boy or girl. Heterosexual and gay men are equally likely to sexually abuse children. A perception that most perpetrators are gay men is a myth and harmful stereotype.”
    http://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/child-sexual-abuse.aspx