Far-Right Extremist’s Jail Term For Homophobic Abuse At Melbourne Church Reduced To 40 Days
Image: Neil Erikson
Neil Erikson, a 37-year-old far-right extremist, who stormed an LGBTQI friendly church in Melbourne in 2019 and hurled homophobic abuse at church-goers, had his jail term reduced to 40 days.
Trigger Warning: This story discusses homophobic abuse, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.
In 2021, a magistrate had convicted Erikson and sentenced him to 70 days in jail. Chief Judge Peter Kidd on Thursday refused to overturn the conviction, but felt the jail term for 70 days was too long, reported AAPNewswire. The judge reduced the prison term to 40 days.
Erikson is the founder of United Patriots Front, an Australian white supremacist group of self-proclaimed neo-Nazis. In April 2019, he had disrupted a Muslim Peace Festival at Federation Square in Melbourne, yelling slurs into a megaphone.
‘Youse Aren’t Christians’
A month later on May 2019, Erikson entered the Metropolitan Community Church in Hawthorn with two other women. They were welcomed by church goers who had gathered for Mother’s Day service.
However, Erikson soon started live streaming from the church claiming “apparently they marry transgender, gays and lesbians”.
He was heard in the video shouting to the church goers, “I heard that you guys are marrying, ah, sodomites in this church. Is that true?”
When a person replied in the affirmative, Erikson shouted, “Youse do, you call yourselves Christians? You know, it’s against, Christian theology to marry two homosexual sodomites.”
“Youse aren’t Christians,” Erikson fired back. “Youse are claiming to be Christians and you marry sodomites, f#**%ts.”
Shameful And Appalling
Erikson was asked to leave the church, but he continued his rambiling claming that marrying homosexuals was “against the Bible 100 per cent.”
“You are marrying homosexuals, lesbians and degenerates. Youse aren’t a Christian church. Don’t claim to be Christians,” he railed.
The police were called and Erikson was arrested. He was charged with deliberately disturbing a religious service.
In 2021 a magistrate had called Erickson’s conduct “shameful and appalling”. During the trial a witness had described how the incident had left the church goers – “many of them have been through gay bashing, hurled insults, and pushed out of their communities and social groups because of their sexuality” – shaken.
“Sodomites” – I wonder if he really knows what that means. I actually know many Gay men who have never technically been “sodomites’, Some Gay men really don’t enjoy it – I think that they are now called “Sides”: Not top of bottoms. I wish that str8 men who hate gays would stop trying to re-appropriate antique words, and just come out and say it: “I like women, and so I think that I am superior to you. You gays make me feel disgust so I am going to make you suffer for making me feel that way.” Some straight guys put us all in the same category, but God knows we Gays are all very different.