Siege mustn’t change our “openness, acceptance and embrace” of all communities — Mardi Gras

Siege mustn’t change our “openness, acceptance and embrace” of all communities — Mardi Gras

SYDNEY Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has said that while many might be scared by this week’s tragic events in Sydney’s Martin Place, the city remains “a beacon of diversity and tolerance”.

The organisation also invited Parade goers, who so wished, to pay tribute to Tori Johnson at next year’s Mardi Gras.

Johnson, the Lindt café manager who died in this week’s tragic siege, lived with his partner of 14 years Thomas Zinn in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern.

According to The Australian, Johnson and Zinn met in the US while both were studying hospitality at Washington State University and moved to Australia in 2004.

In a statement released this afternoon, Mardi Gras said: “We must ensure that everyone is made to feel welcome in our beautiful city and that this tragic event doesn’t change our openness, acceptance and embrace of people from all communities.”

Mardi Gras sent their condolences to the families of Johnson and Katrina Dawson, the mother of three who was the other victim of the incident.

Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson
Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson

“In particular, we are sending our sympathies to Tori’s long-term partner, Thomas, and Katrina’s husband Paul,” the organisation stated.

“If community members wish to pay tribute to Tori as part of their Parade entry then Mardi Gras would support this.”

Screen shot 2014-12-17 at 5.24.33 PM
Thomas Zinn (Source: Facebook)

A statement released by the Johnson family, and also publicly posted on Zinn’s Facebook profile, said: “We are so proud of our beautiful boy Tori, gone from this earth but forever in our memories as the most amazing life partner, son and brother we could ever wish for.”

The family said they felt “heartfelt sorrow” for the family of Dawson and thanked the “people of Sydney” for their support and the efforts of the police and paramedics.

Lindt Australia chief executive Steve Loane said Johnson had been with the company for just over two years and had built a “great rapport” with customers at the company’s flagship Australian store.

“By nature he was a perfectionist and he had a genuine passion for the hospitality industry and people,” he said.

“He was a really important part of our management team in Australia and his loss is absolutely tragic.”

Talking to the Star Observer, Heffron state Labor MP Ron Hoenig, whose electorate includes much of Redfern, said Johnson would be remembered.

“We woke with sadness on Tuesday morning to hear that two innocent people had tragically lost their lives following an unimaginable experience,” he said.

“My thoughts are with the families of both victims and of course with those who survived the ordeal but will undoubtedly have scars that will need healing.”

Main image: The floral tributes at Sydney’s Martin Place. (Source: ABC News)

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12 responses to “Siege mustn’t change our “openness, acceptance and embrace” of all communities — Mardi Gras”

  1. Tony Abbott should be immediately sacked as PM and sent to Nauru, for letting this killing murderer and extreme rampaging serial rapist sexual offending child molesting towel-head Muslim crackpot cleric on bail into Australia!

    What a total embarrassing joke our legal and justice system really is!

  2. This is the first piece of decency I have read on this issue. I had decided to ignore mainstream medias rancid ravings , and I stopped reading it. For the most part reporting has been devoid of fact, truth, and most of all devoid of humanity. The sea of flowers in Martin Place reminded me of lipstick on a pig. Well, they say you can not put lipstick on a pig. And rightly so. Anyway, I am glad to be reminded that gay people are most often streets ahead on social issues. Streets ahead.

  3. Remember in United Flight 93 that crashed in PA, USA – it was in fact a gay man that stopped terrorists from blowing up Congress – so all Congressmen (both Republicans and Democrats) should be thanking this man EVERYDAY, each time they do lawmaking in the country and pass two simple “LGBTI friendly” bills called ENDA and RFMA!

  4. I’ll say it and I know I’ll get pelted but here goes..
    I work like many men with real redneck men who’s vocabulary consists of women,tits,football,cricket,f this and f that and you know…
    Sadly it’s entrenched in the “Aussie” backyard culture and thought,yes thought that all is poofs are good for nothing and we flash our arses on T.V during Mardi Gra and do all sorts of things in their minds that makes their stomach turn.
    When the media told the world that this HERO was gay their immediate thought was “How was this possible,shouldn’t he had been crying in a corner over a Milkshake?” As Hollywood portrays us as screaming queens…
    I’m so proud this man crushed their redneck thoughts and now makes them think twice about gay men who are MEN just like them.
    I hope a monument is built for this man and yes the lady in Martin Plc,and hope I didn’t affend,thanks

  5. This is what happens when you let a Muslim out on bail with 100 legal police charges against him, with a legal gun licence mind you and it was all Tony Abbott fault!

  6. Sten makes a very good point. Earlier this year there was a siege in Adelaide — who remembers it, or that it was caused by a non-Moslem? And also this year, there was the retired Christian missionary who tried to hijack a plane over country NSW — who screamed about religious terrorism then? Both of these incidents have been airbrushed from the public memory, soon to be non-existent in history as well. Just like the Christian evangelist who tried to hijack a plane over Bass Strait so that he could crash it into a mountain in Tasmania, the Christian who dive-bombed Alice Springs airport and killed six people, the Christian who drove a truck through a bar at Ayers Rock and killed five, and the Christian who tried to hijack a plane coming in to Alice Springs which had only enough fuel to fly for another 100 miles. And ten years ago, there was total hysteria about the Moslem rapist Bilal Skaf, whose victims all lived, while the Christian murderess Kathleen Folbigg (she killed four children) was treated with something like respect (she also got a lighter sentence). You don’t have to be a Moslem to see a certain pattern of selective indignation here.

  7. It is high time that NSW and the whole of Australia had hate crime legislation modelled on the US Congress Matthew Shepard Act that Barack Obama signed into law back in 2009!

  8. Tony Abbott is blamed for everything from the plague to camel taxes, don’t be so narrow minded. I hope Islamic Muslim terrorists are identified and sent packing! we need them like we need a hole in the head .

  9. Why has Tori’s husband been written out of his life in the main stream media?
    Amid all the hysteria about what is essentially the action of a troubled individual we need to ask ourselves why the politicians are overreacting.
    Which of our freedoms do they want to take way now?
    If this had been some guy in the western suburbs without a “flag” holding hostages do you think I would have been run this way.
    We are being played!