Heffernan appearance sincere
Senator Bill Heffernan’s appearance at the Parliamentary Friends of LGBTI event at Parliament House was sincere but unplanned, with not even organisers knowing he would attend.
The Star Observer understands Heffernan gave an impromptu and uninvited talk to a pre-event meeting of representatives of a large cross-section of LGBTI community organisations after discovering the meeting was taking place in a room next to one he was using.
Heffernan told those gathered that he knew he had had some problems with the LGBTI community in the past.
“You probably know me as ‘the devil’ but I’m just a simple guy from the bush who has a lot to learn,” he told the room.
Heffernan said that while he had a big problem with paedophilia, he knew its incidence within the LGBTI community was no higher than in the wider community and that paedophilia and homosexuality were not linked.
Heffernan also revealed that over the years he had spoken with many of the young male sex workers who worked Darlinghurst’s Wall to enquire about their welfare, and that he had told Sydney’s Cardinal George Pell that he should give Communion to gay and lesbian Catholics after seeing gay protesters calling for acceptance outside a church function.
Heffernan said he was less concerned by the idea of two women raising a child together, but he did not think men had the same ability to nurture a child as women did.
The Star Observer understands that Heffernan had not known the Parliamentary Friends function would be held, but decided to attend when he found out what it was — and that he chatted amiably with many of those present after being picked up on his use of terminology.
Al least Heffernan attended and hopefully may have learnt something new! Send Barnaby an invite! lol Now there is a guy who really needs to attend!
I don’t care who was there and what was said with what nuance – Heffernan needs to make good on some shoddy, illegal behaviour if he wants to interact with our community. Let him use parliamentary privilege to raise a bill in support of gay marriage, or let him publicly address an apology to the broader GLBTQI voters of this country about his behaviour over comm-car and go further than what Howard “required” of him. Heffernan can be linked to the backward movement on same sex attracted equality from A-Z (not just a few letters Sal) and he has plenty of time to show some positive action.
As someone else who was there, I can add that I explained the issue of “forced trans divorce” re the marriage issue and it seemed to result in a small paradigm shift for Senator Heffernan.
With great respect to Andrew Potts, some of the remarks used were more than “inappropriate use of terminology” – they were downright offensive. However, some direct plain talking as part of a range of communication approaches resulted in a light bulb coming on (maybe only a 25 watt bulb, but a light bulb all the same).
The remarks show exactly what the need for the Parliamentary friends group is: to educate, communicate and improve understanding about our rainbow community, especially T, I and B which currently seem to be have less understanding than G and L. In turn, this reinforces the need for comprehensive Federal Equal Opportunity law and gender centres covering all of Australia (currently only in existence in NSW) to respectively protect and proactively educate.. If Senator Heffernan can attend – and I believe it was in good faith, even if he isn’t exactly a SNAG (smile) – and move forward, then this is a good sign of exactly what such education and communication can achieve.
I was there and spoke with him. He seemed genuinely interested, and is someone we need on our side, especially if we want the Marriage Act to change. That’s how it works.
Call me a cynic but I have no confidence this was a genuine gesture by Heffernan. He is renowned around Parliament House, including by his Liberal Party colleagues, as a homophobe.
Well done Mr Heffernan. Glad you’re well on your way to understanding.
This leaves out a lot about what really got said and how people felt. I was there and heard his incredibly offensive comments. One week after the event I still have yet to see anything acknowledging that aged care was raised by all the MPs who gave speeches and is a priority area for the Friends group. Is this really more important than that? No of course it’s not. Who sets our agenda? Senator Heffernan? No of course not. We do. I hope we do.
Don’t hold ur breath
Heffernan is a villain and a sly fox.
He has never done or said anything that would endear himself 2 any minority.
Please remember all of his false allegations against former High Court Judge, Justice Michael Kirby, accusing him of using commonwealth cars to pick up rent boys.
COMPLETE AND UTTER FALSIFICATION AND LIES DONE UNDER PARLAIMENTARY PRIVILEDGE.It all came undone of course. But this calumny and attack was gay hatred at its worst designed to destroy a prominent high profile gay man who happened to be a high court judge.
He is a horror of a human being.
He’ll have to do a lot more than that!
OMG – is hell freezing over?? This has to be the surprise of the year for me.
The winds of change are blowing!