A SA Liberal Candidate Says Homosexuality Can Open Up “Demonic Realms”

Carston Woodhouse, a Liberal candidate for the seat of Wright in Adelaide’s northern suburb and evangelical Christian pastor has had a smorgasbord of his opinions shared publicly, including “same-sex marriage is not real”, “feminism is demonic,” Islam is “poisonous and wrong” and the “trans agenda is insanity”.

He has also questioned what “demonic realms” might be opened up to the world when “you accept homosexuality”, which I imagine will be explored in the upcoming season of Heartstopper.

Woodhouse has shared his thoughts in several episodes of the evangelical American religious ElijahFire podcast. In one clip, he says, “There’s this whole reality pretending that same-sex marriage is real – it’s not, it ignores decades of the reality of observations that marriage is between a man and a woman”. Decades!

Woodhouse references many rightwing influencers including Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro and the recently killed Charlie Kirk, as well as saying he’s been “redpilled”, which is shorthand for far-right beliefs.

The comments were brought to public attention by incumbent member for Wright, Labor’s Blair Boyer, who held a press conference on Wednesday, calling the statements “shocking” and “extreme”, and criticised the SA Liberal Party for not vetting their candidates

Woodhouse is reported to be a pastor for the Field of Dreams Church based in Adelaide, however no mention of this or his evangelical Christian values is listed on his SA Liberal candidate page, focusing on “common sense leadership” and “government overreaches”. It has been confirmed that he is employed by the SA Liberal Party.

SA Liberal leader Ashton Hurn has responded to Mr Woodhouse’s views about feminism and gay marriage, saying she did not share those views and it did not sit well with her, but choosing nonetheless to stand by him. “I’m not going to stop someone from having an opinion,” she said. “At the end of the day, he is our candidate.”

Early voting for the state’s elections begins on Saturday.

No Protection From Hate Speech

Charlie Hamra, President of the South Australian chapter of Pride in Law, Australia’s national LGBTIQA+ law association says that currently LGBTIQA+ South Australians have no legal protection from hate speech and vilification, with South Australia’s Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (SA) remaining silent on the matter of hatred towards minority groups. South Australia has hate laws that only protect the characteristic of race.

“Carston Woodhouse denies the reality of same-sex marriage and Cory Bernardi regurgitates a link to bestiality. But these are only the most prominent recent examples of a continuous torrent of abuse faced by the LGBTIQA+ community every day.

“Pride in Law calls upon all candidates to commit to legislate to ban the inciting of hate, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of, a person or group on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, intersex status, HIV/AIDS status, disability or religion.”

The SA Rainbow Advocacy Alliance (SARAA) has been calling for a change to these laws, saying that the lack of protection is out of step with other Australian states, with protections available in NSW, QLD, TAS and ACT, and new laws being considered in Victoria.