Anti-gay lobbyist loses preselection
A spokesman for the anti-gay Australian Family Association (AFA) has failed in a bid to become the Liberal candidate for Baulkham Hills at the NSW state election.
Damien Tudehope, a father of nine and a member of the ultra-conservative Opus Dei sect of Catholicism, was backed by the hard right Uglies faction of the Liberals led by David Clarke MLC.
The winning candidate, business lobbyist David Elliot, was backed by former prime minister John Howard and the so-called Ambition faction of the Liberals led by the federal Mitchell MP, Alex Hawke.
The AFA campaigned against the relationship register and adoption by same-sex couples in NSW, and tried to get the Howard Government to ban transsexuals from marrying people of their birth sex as part of the 2004 ban on same-sex marriage.
The AFA is one of a number of groups pushing to have the anniversary of the ban declared ‘National Marriage Day’.
NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby convenor Kellie McDonald said the NSW Liberals had been smart to reject Tudehope as a candidate if they hoped to keep supporters in the GLBT community.
“The GLRL is pleased that Mr Tudehope, who has been opposed to the recognition of same-sex relationships and families, has lost his preselection bid for the NSW state election,” McDonald said.
“It may be in the Liberal Party’s best interests to reject candidates who promote ultra-conservative views so as to appeal to a broader audience, including the LGBT community.”
You May Also Like
I’m sure the Libs will give Tudehope a run somewhere else. Probably on a Federal level
The Australian Family Association said on their website for many years that homosexuality was a cancer. Now it is ok to be gay but not have any gay rights. A strange world that mob lives in?
Now they are fighting with the Australian Christian Lobby for publicity, the ALC is a private company owned by three people only. I wish three of us got the publicity they had. We could pull studies out of thin air, lie to the public, try and create hysteria. But we are better then that.
Who is more important then who? I do not know or care, but I do know the Liberal Party needs to clean up its act and get rid of some of the Loopy mob of haters. Tony Wabbit could seen as a very nasty bastard if he gives a voice to haters. Labor also needs to have a look at its associations with the Australian Christian Lobby alone with the Australian Workers Union.
For all the lies that are told, people should always remember the Australian Christian Lobby is made up of just 3 owners and I have heard many good Christian people say they certainly do not represent any Christian values.
The Australian Family Association has been downgrading to smaller and smaller offices over the years, no doubt they will be run from a bungalow if they continue on the track they are on, then bang they disappear. I think they are so out of step with reality and the community that they are fading into the oblivion.
I think we shall one day remember them like old racist posters saying “No Chinese” and think how could people ever think like that. How crazy and stupid! How cruel and mean those people must of been.
It never ceases to amaze and appal me how these groups obsessed by their anti-gay crusade purport to align themselves with “family values” and refer to themselves as some form of family association. Their family values mantra is a facade. And Tudehope is allowed to practise law.
What have things come to in the NSW Liberal Party where I am glad John Howard and Alex Hawke’s preferred candidate got up rather than the alternative?