Australian Christian Lobby labels marriage equality advocates ‘bullies’
Image: Lyle Shelton. (Picture: David Alexander; Star Observer)
ABC’s The Drum has discussed the debate over marriage equality and the consequences of disagreeing with corporate views on the topic, an issue the Australian Christian Lobby has called “bullying”.
The issue of ‘free speech’ around opposition to marriage equality arose again recently when IBM managing partner Mark Allaby stepped down from the board of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute after pressure from LGBTI activists.
The Australian Christian Lobby’s Lyle Shelton referred to Allaby’s resignation as “the latest attempt to silence opposition”, adding that “the battle for marriage and freedom is far from over”.
Debate over corporate stances on same-sex marriage flared recently after the heads of a number of Australian companies signed a letter to Malcolm Turnbull calling for marriage equality.
Appearing on The Drum, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers principal Josh Bornstein said it’s acceptable for businesses to take political stands on issues such as LGBTI rights.
“I don’t think people should be sacked… because they have a different philosophical or political view,” he said.
“The activists are expressing a view and putting pressure on a company. How the company responds is another matter altogether.”
Journalist Deborah Snow said, “I have a lot of sympathy for the marriage equality movement, but I think there’s a point at which the more militant fringes might be getting into fairly counterproductive territory with these kinds of tactics.”
The Australian Christian Lobby’s coverage of the issue alleges that “same-sex activists are targeting people’s jobs and livelihood”.
Typical ACL lies, don’t they have a commandment about telling the truth? They must have dropped that. There are two sides to the marriage equality debate, both have exhibited their share of poor behaviour. Some extreme activists on the Yes side have used social media etc to shut down No side meetings, for example. It’s not clear from social media how many of these folks exist, or how many are Australian, but it’s not representative of the broad Yes campaign. On the No side, on the other hand, the most prominent No campaigner in Australia is Senator Cory Bernardi, who linked marriage equality with legalisting bestiality because he’s a disgusting toad. So the “extremists” in the No campaign ARE AT THE VERY TOP OF THE CAMPAIGN, LEADING IT.
The No campaign is all about bullying. They have no rational argument to make, as the Irish referendum proved all they can do is tell lies. They are lead by liars and bullies like Bernardi. The debate and any hope of a reasonable discussion went out the window when Bernardi (then a front bencher in the Liberal government) used his Senate position to slander Australia’s gay community for no better reason than he could.
That said, the Yes campaign should have a quiet word with the folks who stopped the meeting or are harassing IBM, it detracts from the big picture and stoops to the ACL’s level.
It’s disappointing that you linked to the ACL video and not the official version on The Drum web site.
It’s also disappointing you didn’t pick up on the apology and correction the ABC issued:
https://mikeybear.com.au/2017/03/30/apology-from-abc-the-drum