Fast train to political irrelevancy

Fast train to political irrelevancy

Recent events have dealt the anti-gay movement in Australia an incredible setback.
At the start of November came Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull’s rebuke to Christian conservatives at an Australian Christian Lobby function, refusing to apologise for his pro-choice stance on abortion and support for gay equality short of marriage, If you discriminate-¦ against a gay couple-¦ do you really think that they’re going to say -˜oh well, that’s no good, we’ll go off and get married to a woman?’ , he told the gathered faithful.

Then came the passing of the Government’s equality reforms after just a year in office with little dissent from either party in either of the Houses of Parliament. To placate the Bible-thumpers, the Opposition stretched the process out by subjecting them to inquiry, but made clear from the outset they were going to pass them anyway.

And finally, over the weekend came the sacking of Fatherhood Foundation president Warwick Marsh as a government ambassador for men’s health over his extremist views on homosexuality published in the pamphlet 21 Reasons Why Gender Matters.
The views contained within, cobbled together from a range of American ex-gay publications and agenda-ridden studies by Christian psychologists, were so over the top they earned the re-

buke of Christian parlia-mentarians like Tony Abbott and PM Kevin Rudd himself.
At the image-conscious Australian Christian Lobby, reaction was swift, with all mention of the Gender Matters document removed from its website. CultureWatch’s Bill Muehlenberg and Saltshaker Peter Stokes, who both put their names to the pamphlet, claimed that discrimination against Christians is now acceptable in a Rudd-governed Australia.

Under the previous government, excuses would have been made and Marsh would have kept the position.

Hopefully this incident has been a wake-up call for both politicians and the media. For too long, Christian groups with extremist agendas have been giving themselves important-sounding names and passing themselves off as secular experts or lobbies on behalf of the wider community -” the Australian Family Association and FamilyVoice Australia being prime examples.

During the Howard years, these groups were allowed an increasing level of voice in determining government policy, with their fellow travellers effecting an almost complete takeover of the harm reduction side of the drug policy debate. At the same time, Howard farmed out an unprecedented level of social services to church-run private sector providers.

We can only hope we are now seeing the reversal of this process.
With religious views on homosexuality being sidelined in policy debates, the path to some form of national registered relationship recognition will be increasingly smooth.

With the Christian Democrats’ Gordon Moyes announcing his party is on the verge of collapse and Senator Steven Fielding unlikely to be re-elected, the anti-gay movement in Australia may just be on the fast train to political irrelevancy.

You May Also Like

3 responses to “Fast train to political irrelevancy”

  1. Homophobia is real – the phobia is manifested in certain degrees by a percentage of the population which can only be described as large – homosexuals are subject to the manifestation of homophobic reactions everywhere they go.

    Even children manifest homophobic behaviour.

    The author of this article asserts that because some politicians have not publicly supported overtly homophobic actions and statements then, homophobia,in Australian society, is somehow diminished.

    I disagree that the manifestation of homophobic behaviour has diminished in Australian society.

    I suggest that homophobia in Australian society will not diminish until medical practitioners determine that homophobia is medical condition that requires treatment.

    I am not a medical practitioner but I suggest that people who are homophobic and who are in positions of authority over homosexuals do not have the capacity to make unbiased decisions on matters relating to their obligations towards those homosexuals.

    I suggest that those people who are homophobic and have authority over homosexuals are incapable of making unbiased decisions relating to their obligations towards the homosexuals under their authority because they are homophobic and their homophobia prevents those people from making unbiased decisions about matter relating to homosexuals under their authority.

    I suggest that people who are homophobic are therefore incapable of holding public offices.

    I suggest that if the medical profession determines that homophobia is a medical condition that requires treatment then all applicants for public offices should be tested for homophobia.

    If the applicant tested positive for homophobia then the acceptance of that application could be determined by the report of a medical practitioner.

    The report would relate to tests applied to the applicant by the medical practitioner to determine if treatment for the condition of homophobia was likely to succeed.

  2. Another great article .
    The many issues raised in this article would also be assisted by a Child Protection Float in Mardi Gra.
    I believe the time is right for such an initiative.

  3. Marsh would not onlly have kept his position under Howard, he would have been invited to morning tea with Jeanette.
    (Can’t wait to see what Christopher Pearson has to say about it all)