Stephen Fry joins calls to end ‘gay panic’

Stephen Fry joins calls to end ‘gay panic’

British comedian Stephen Fry has joined calls for an end to Queensland’s ‘gay panic’ legal loophole as the Change.org petition on the issue passed the 10,000 signature mark today.

Queensland priest Father Paul Kelly started the campaign to end the loophole that allows people accused of murder to claim partial defence of provocation in relation to a homosexual advance.

It followed the brutal 2008 killing of a man in Kelly’s church grounds in Maryborough. The defendants used the gay panic defence, claiming the victim came on to them and the sheer panic they felt was partial justification for murder.

Fry shared a link to the petition with his 3.7 million Twitter followers today.

Liberal National Party MP Ted Sorensen has said 10,000 signatures was the trigger needed for him to take the issue to Parliament, but Queensland Attorney General Paul Lucas has signalled that he’d wait for an expert committee examining the loophole to report back before making any changes.

Father Kelly said he was delighted with the response to the petition but was doubtful that the Labor Government will act, given they have had plenty of opportunity to do so while in power.

“The Bligh Government really just seems to be tinkering at the edges of reform,” he said.

“There is an opportunity for Opposition Leader Campbell Newman to seize the initiative and to take a positive step towards reducing discrimination and violence towards gay and lesbian people in Queensland.”

You May Also Like

12 responses to “Stephen Fry joins calls to end ‘gay panic’”

  1. finally more support of it to get the ball rolling, I’m female, if I could murder any man who made an unwanted advance that panicked me I’d be able to kill often, as would most women, it really is a ridiculous double standard.

  2. I am so happy to see Mr. Fry doing what he can to stop these kinds of injustices no matter where they are. In regards Mr. Williams, I dont feel it has anything to do with the catholic denomination ,I however feel that there are good godly people of many deferent denominations.In short i dont see a cudo’s to the church i see cudo’s to a man who would stand on his convictions regardless of the leader/leaders of his denomination.

  3. that such a loophole exists is shocking to begin with. There is absolutely no EXCUSE for murder and no one should ever be able to use an excuse to get away with it.Great to see stephen fry giving this some much needed attention, and kudos to the aussies trying to get rid of this disgusting legality.

  4. @derek williams – the fact is that those catholics are not catholics; they just haven’t accepted that fact. there is NO democracy in catholicism and therefore NO responsibility on the part of the vatican to answer to her people. that’s what you sign up for when you are a catholic.

    understand that i do not support the vatican’s position at all. but the communication failure is on the part of catholics supporting any equal rights for homosexuals. they have yet to be told that they are in fact protestants.

    as to the bill itself – really? who is this geared toward? straight men. you know why i know that because if women killed people over unwanted advances we wouldn’t have a population problem. to those straight men i say – man up; for real.

  5. As an example – look at what the Catholic church has done to Father Peter – the ex-parish priest of St Mary’s in South Brisbane. Father Paul from Maryborough is a very brave priest and risks loosing his position over this – I hope he receives lots of support from his parishoners.

  6. In the Catholic church there is a response to open communication like this – it’s called “ex-communication”! The pope doesn’t need to listen to anyone – he is voted into his position for life and has the sole right to appoint anyone to the level of cardinal so that his social views will be carried on beyond the grave.

  7. Fantastic to get this international support from Stephen Fry.

    It is also a big surprise to learn that it is a Catholic priest, no less, who has recently launched this petition.

    The counter-intuitive fact is, the greatest support for LGBT rights from any religion comes from the Catholic faithful, right under the Pope’s nose in effect. By a huge margin, more Catholics support marriage equality and equal rights for gay and lesbian people than any other religion on Earth.

    This is what makes anti-homosexual dogma from the Vatican so incomprehensible. Doesn’t anyone communicate?