Bill Shorten “taken out of context” about AIDS during doorstop interview

Bill Shorten “taken out of context” about AIDS during doorstop interview

COMMENTS made during a doorstop interview with federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten on Thursday night in New York about his upcoming attendance at an Australian Christian Lobby national conference has ignited backlash and criticism on social media.

Asked by a journalist why he was still scheduled to be the key-note speaker at the November conference following negative feedback from the LGBTI community, Shorten made a reference to AIDS in his response that said the ACL was a “legitimate” voice in the Australian political debate.

“There are many Australians of Christian faith, and they have a legitimate role in Australian political debate,” Shorten said.

“For myself though, I’ve been a strong supporter of marriage equality and I would also say that when people talk about AIDS, we need to adopt not a religious sort of condemnation view, but a supportive understanding view, and make sure we do everything we can to help people who suffer AIDS, not condemn them.”

Social media was quick to criticise the comments and why the Opposition Leader had mentioned AIDS at all.

A spokesperson for Shorten told the Star Observer that he was in fact referring to a comment made earlier this week on Twitter by ACL managing director Lyle Shelton during Monday night’s episode of Q&A.

The spokesperson said that the context in that interview had not been established correctly and he could understand where the confusion had come from.

The Opposition Leader earlier this week responded to the criticism facing his continued decision to appear at the ACL conference by saying that he was strong supporter of LGBTI rights including marriage equality and rejected the “hurtful, untrue comments made by [Lyle Shelton] in relation to AIDS.”

Shorten’s spokesperson also highlighted that while the Opposition Leader doesn’t always agree with organisations he speaks to, his role and position requires that he engages with many sectors of the Australian community.

 

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14 responses to “Bill Shorten “taken out of context” about AIDS during doorstop interview”

  1. I was a Labor Party supporter when Kevin Rudd was Labor Leader, but not anymore. Labor is just as bad (if not worse) as the Conservative Liberal Party!

    Now I vote for the Liberal Democratic Party (a Libertarian Centrist Party) – and we have one in the Senate representing NSW!

    http://www.ldp.org.au/

  2. GLBTI people should be killed right? Perhaps eradicated? The Christian Lobby claims homosexuality is a cancer, so what else do you do to a cancer? I would hardly call using your public office to legitimise a group that promotes extreme cruelty, the qualities expected in a leader. I am real curious where Shorten will be speaking next, perhaps some of the race hate groups if this is a standard legitimate public speaking. It is so cruel to even meet with a group that promotes such hate, to give them a public profile, to give their message of injustice and intolerance, a public broadcast. Shame on Labor!

  3. Bill Shorten trolling with a gay hate group, calling them legitimate? He and his staff writing here, should be sacked.

  4. Ok, so I’ve read and re read Bill Shortens words over and over. Wtf are you all blabbing on about? Seriously, quote where he said the wrong thing, it seems you all just want to have a rant for the sake of ragging on the ALP. I hate them too but the ACL is a legitimate voice, as is PUP, the minors and majors.
    He’s not demonising gay people, how the hell do you get that from the quote jackallison? (“Gay=AIDS”) Shorten says to offer understanding and not religious condemnation. Blag when he says something wrong, you’ve all got your panties in a serious tangle. Re read his words please!

  5. People would do well if they took a reality check on journalism and the media who whistle louder and more often than politicians. This is clearly making big of scrap torn from its context taking every opportunity to leverage from the contentious politicking of Shorten meeting with an anti-gay fringe group – that is why the exact context of Shorten’s comment is only alluded to but not quoted. Don’t we deserve the truth or do we only need to a knee-jerk response?

    In a very limited way ACL is a legitimate voice in political debate but when they do not believe in religious freedom other than for themselves, do not believe in the diversity of human biology and do not respect anti-discrimination legislation much of their key messages are not moral enough for the debate belonging more to past eras. Media sensationalism and a superficial GLBTI response has omitted this detail of what is and isn’t an appropriate interaction with ACL and precisely why Shorten shouldn’t be there. We really haven’t pursued our religious freedom as GLBTI who believe in the moral good of our diversity of sex, gender and sexuality.

  6. Seems to me that union bully boy man Bill Shorten – is two fries short of a happy meal on LGBTI rights within Australia!

    But then again religious Catholic cult Tony Abbott – is just as bad and would not know shit from clay!

  7. So this is the updated version of Die AIDS FAGGOT DIE. A message familiar to some, sprayed on the walls of houses, or in rough notes put in letter boxes of suspected homosexuals, in the eighties and early nineties.

    Labor does not have the equipment to deliver marriage equality, with no binding vote, and people Joe Bullock demolishing fellow Labor Party candidates on the basis of sexuality. It is odd troops can be sent to their death if far away countries, and we can enter a war with a binding vote, but when the word equality is mentioned, Bill Shorten has an epic breakdown.

    You have to ask, what is the Labor leader Bill Shorten doing, supporting a fundamentalist hate group, that has the headquarters at the intersection of high rates of suicide, self harm, and gay bashing. This is the cult that has an obsession about the word homosexual. I fear Bill Shorten could well be the final push for some off a bridge over troubled waters.

  8. Bill Shorten is shouting the chorus to those who seek to have us imprisoned and make life so much harder. The Christian Lobby does not need his public office and financial support, they need his comdenation.

    How many of us need to die before Labor gets it? The party is making Australia another slaughter house where we continue to live with high suicide rates, we are still murdered, and we still experience alarming rates of violence. This is offerings of a Shorten, the same wickedness.

    Dog Whistling on Marriage is the only words from Bill Shorten is offering, he seems to believe should be thankful we are not thrown into jail. No binding vote on equality, just the dog whistling. The Irony is, if marriage equality happens, he expects thousand of Australians to live in fear of being sacked and ruined, if they marry, and work in a government funded religious business. It is time for Bill Shorten to resign. Even the Klu Klux Klun has a go at the Westbro Baptist Church for the terrible treatment if gay soldiers. It is time Labor had a new modern leader, not a man representing their past ugliness.

  9. Bill Shortens freudian slip truely shows the sham he and his party really are. Gay=Aids….just luvly…..equating human sexuality with a disease that is just that. A disease and a medical condition. I can only wonder how HIV positive people feel to have their medical condition politicised and demeaned by this lil jumpd up nobody. He is actually worse than Lyle Shelton because of pretense and false promises. Time and again the gay community must be let down by a party that has truely lost its scruples,its philosophy and its decency. 7 YEARS OF UNDERWHELMING GOVT. THAT HAS FEDERALLY LEGALLY ENSHRINED HATE LAWS THAT EXEMPT ALL THE MAJOR DISCRIMINATORS WHO DISPENSE TAXPAYER FUNDED SERVICES FROM ANTI DISCRIMINATION LAW. I guess this is what he means by ” christians having a legitimate right to public discourse” Nice 1 billy boy keep f*kin us all over you horror of a human being

  10. He was criticized for associating himself with a religious group that campaigns against equal marriage rights, and demonizes gay men with HIV. Shorten was just distancing himself from the platforms and attitudes of the Australian Christian Lobby. I don’t know why people are confused – it is perfectly rational. But it doesn’t quite answer the question: why then would someone with his views agree to give a keynote for a bigoted organization?

  11. just because ACL has a “legitimate role” he does not have to show unfettered support for them by speaking. Julia cancelled when she realised what a bunch of narrow minded homophobic hypocrites they are. The fact the ACL woman tweeted that shows her true colours. Guess she is bitter about not sleeping with her husband when she menstruates and worrying about what not to eat. as of course it can be assumed she like Abbot follow the Dueteronomy law to the last full stop. I did not vote for them but reading Aust sex party policy is unite interesting and open minded. ,, by the ay where are his comments condemning Saudi Arabia about the poor guy 450 lashes

  12. This is why Labor is losing votes, what a joke the Australian Labor Party really are. They are just as bad, if not worse than the Liberal Party!

    Even the Greens (who are really rejected sheep and fodder of the Labor party) sided with them to get things through by horse-trading in the Senate!

    Now since 2012, I have voted for the Australian Sex Party (ASP)!

    Vote 1 Australian Sex Party (ASP)!