Gay hate gathering for Sydney
Sydney will host a global conference of far-right family values groups with the assistance of the organisation tasked with bringing business conferences to NSW.
Business Events Sydney (BESydney) is a private-public partnership which assists bids to host events in NSW. It secured the 2013 World Congress of Families for Sydney over bidders from Russia and India.
BESydney is funded by the NSW Government through Events NSW, and the tourism industry. The Star Observer understands the Congress will receive $50,000 towards the cost of venue hire.
Every World Congress has hosted anti-gay speakers. At the last one, in 2009, C. Preston Noell III from the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, claimed that hate crimes laws covering sexual orientation “actually criminalise certain thoughts”.
“They impede characterising homosexual practice as deviant … making it difficult, and perhaps impossible, to defend the true family against homosexual partnerships,” Noell said.
A declaration endorsed by the Congress in 2004 listed in an action plan that governments should “take appropriate actions to assist homosexuals in programs of voluntary rehabilitation”.
The bid committee for the 2013 Congress is headed by Australian Family Association vice-president Mary-Louise Fowler who contributed to a Fatherhood Foundation pamphlet in 2007 called 21 Reasons Why Gender Matters.
The pamphlet claimed that GLBTs suffer from a made up disorder called “gender disorientation pathology”.
NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby senior policy advisor Senthorun Raj was concerned that public money was supporting the event.
“We strongly urge BESydney to have a more considered approach when promoting events where they may be defamatory or discriminatory,” Raj said.
“We respect the rights to freedom of religion and freedom of expression at any event, so long as it does not seek to vilify, harass or incite hatred towards a particular group of people, and we should not be publicly endorsing events that seek to stigmatise and shame people on the basis of who they are.”
A BESydney spokeswoman said it was not in the organisation’s charter to reject an event based on its content.
“The company does not endorse any political or policy leanings of the events, groups and associations it assists with the bidding process,” she said.
BESydney has assisted bids for GLBTI events in the past and is participating in bids for events including the 2012 International Lesbian and Gay Association Asia Conference.
Conservative Catholic activist Richard Stokes said the ”temple police” are ”a figment of the imagination of those priests who may consider that they are a target, for whatever reason.”not only is he a bigot but also a liar, shame on him and his church of hate.
The days the Liberal/National party got away with this rubbish are over.
Barry O’Feral is flying in American Christian Fundamentalist, business class, putting them at a 5star hotel, and spending in total $50,000 of your money, to get these people to say homosexuality is a cancer, and other stupid nonsense.
If this is the best O’Feral and his mugs can do, if this is their priority for NSW, if this is the most urgent thing he thinks the community needs, then he needs to hand in his resignation. I could think of many more things to spend money on. O’Feral is having some kid bashed in the streets as he could not run fast enough. He is knifing our community, and those who voted for him.
The Liberal/National Party are simply economic vandals. You see it is not only $50,000. It is the cost of the bashing and violence that has a flow on effect. The hospital care, the funerals, the lives shattered. So we will not just be paying for the Fundamentalist to have their lavish perks, we will be paying millions long after they have flown off into the sunset.
So I encourage all who value justice and freedom, to go along to this conference. All who value good economic management. All who think there are so many other places we need to spend our millions. All who have ever been bashed, or had the fear of it. Because if we let Barry O’Feral get away with this, you or your loved one might well come to grief by some nutter inspired by the haters.
Dave, and others here, hmm. Conferences like this happen every weekend all around the world and have been happening for many years now. This aint the first one and wont be the last. I know because I worked for almost 20 years in big hotels where we accommodate these people. At the end of the day big deal, even management of hotels and events companies (who are straight) find them a bore. In my years of experience Ive catered for Gay conferences too which incite hatred in their speeches too and can be much more demanding and offensive. Its amazing how youve all suddenly jumped when this article was posted yet dont stop and think.
We are standing up to the Liberal/National Party, for the young gay guy who cannot run fast enough from the bashers, for the young lesbian girl who has been bullied once to often. We are standing up for those who want to be proud but are struggling with the violence that Liberal/National Party are promoting, paying money to a mob of far right “Family Values” American fundamentalist, to tell untruths about us at the Business Events Sydney.
We will never accept this behavior from Barry O’Feral, or any other mongrel that wants to waltz over the graves of those of us, who did not make it. We are fighting for the families, friends, and lover, of those fallen, and those that will fall.We do others may not know the heart wrenching pain of the empty chair at the table, the empty bedroom, and the empty stairs parents give each other, unable to rationalize what just happened to their child.
Our community has butchered enough by fundamentalist. They are now pulling people from wheelchairs at protest marches, for the crime of asking to be treated equally before the law.
Well shame of on the Liberal/National Party. Shame on this mob of utter bastards.
We have all seen how these extremists stir up trouble and incite violence. I am all for free speech, but for a company and a government to put money into this conference, they are implying that they agree with the content or values of the conference. That is just human nature. If you see a politician at a gay rally, one assumes that the politician is either gay or behind the gay cause. The same goes for meetings like this. If we allow hatred and villification against anybody, gay or straight, it lowers us as an intelligent species and puts us at the level of people like Hitler. Hatred is wrong in any form. We are all human, we all bleed red, and we should all have the same rights, especially to live without fear of being harmed and abused either mentally or physically.
Basically, its going to be a congregation of right-wing nutters, religious loonies and an assortment of other vile examples of humanity. How nice it would be if a meteor crashed into the place. Act of God? For your information breeders, you are clogging up the worlds prisons for heinous and abhorrent crimes. Not us. Shove your so called “morals” where the sun dont shine.
The proposition we should have less Civil Rights, as we are Same-Sex attracted, and not have “Free Speech” to be outraged at the Liberal/National Party funding a hate group, is repulsive and abhorrent.
They do seem somewhat extreme, that is saying something coming from a N.I.M.B.R.
As a NIMBR, I do not care what a person is like in bed, and would oppose any idea to make gay sex illegal as long as it is done in the bed room and/or gay pubs etc.
While I do not support their extreme level at all, I support their right to freedom of speach.
It is best to have it out in the open where you can see it. The only other choice is to have it underground, where it is at great risk of festering over time, festering into some major public safety issue, and you would not know until it explodes.
There is freedom of speech (which we don’t technically have in Australia btw) and there is inciting hate… nazi demonstrations arn’t allowed here nor should this bullshit.
It’s not a disorder nor a disease in some cases its a gift, children raised by lesbian couples in the UK have been shown in studies to have better social skills, higher IQ’s, achieve higher academical results and complete more degrees… this groups anti-family traditions make me sick. I’m a guy btw so no bias there nor was I raised by lesbians (although sometimes I wish I had been but sadly my mother can’t choose her orientation).
Any correlation (not that i’ve ever read one in a study) with any negative trait would purely out of the spread of hate and stress, holding homosexuals from being who they wanna be and working where they want to work.
The bible in one passage says all that need glasses are damned as they cannot ‘see’ clearly and that spilling semen somehow saves you from going to hell for adultery. Wanna sum up all the sins in one… let other be free to be who they are assuming it doesn’t impinge drastically on societies growth… like religion can for example.
One of my friends won’t tell his dad (even though he’s dads not a homophobe) because of the presumptions and subconcious thoughts.
I used to think I was bi-sexual, recently realizing I’m not only dissappoints me as my silly sexual orientation deprives me of atleast a quater of my chances of finding love. And maybe more if these homophobes would let people be free.
This us a conference on family right? And we all know that families are diverse in thier composition and character right?
So why not send a delegate from a queer family to present research findings and an actual response to the hate and bigotry ? Put an intelligent and real human face on the diversity of family.
Just sayin’
Thankfully the gay community has been warned and we can protest when the date arrives. I’ll be front and centre.
First of all, I’m gay.
It is fine for public money to be used for this (if it has for other projects previously – otherwise get rid of all public assistance) because their views are just as valid as yours/ours and they have just as much freedom to give voice to those values, whether we think them right or wrong. We aren’t the ultimate arbiters of good and evil, everyone has different opinions, and we need to grow up and just suck it up. It’s a bit of name calling, we can deal with it.
Besides, I see more hate and vitriol in gays when they’re attacking social conservatives (and see it far more often) rather than the opposite – some of the disparaging remarks I’ve heard are way over the top.
At last, a Mardi Gras event which generates a a genuine protest. I’ve been missing a good protest rally, climbing baricades, throwing cotton wool balls, shouting myself hoarse. Why didn’t Mardi Gras tell us they have a reason to gather the troops?
All that pink, boas streaming in the freezing wind. Checking out the boys and girls in skimpy (‘shocking, truly shocking’) outfits. Come on dancers, this calls for a “Flash ’em Mob” video to send viral across the world.
Stone them? No, far too Jeudo-Christian. Establish a Fatwah – No, plays into the hand of the infidel. Let’s stun them with glamour, with rings and bells on – wherever they may be appended – with sequins and feathers, lycra and leather, designer dennim and stylish suits.
Just be there in full force, to man the baricades!
How dare they, how very dare they! In our gay old town! It is scandalous, we shall yet again be the ridicule of the world’s thinking people.
Please note that the World Congress of Families cheerleads (at a minimum) the criminalization of all Gays.
Perhaps some of the sponsors of this organization can be barred from entering Australia on extremism grounds.
I certainly would ask the Australian public to investigate past and current sponsors of the World Congress of Families including Scott Lively (Abiding Truth Ministries), Watchmen on the Walls, and many others. Some of these groups have documented links to actual physical violence against peaceful Gay people. I would also recommend that people take a look at the actions of these sponsors at the UN, where several organizations appear to be continuing to cheerlead/campaign for criminalization of Gay persons (C-FAM). For more information, I would suggest that one take a look at the sponsors of the World Congress of Families in years’ past and then cross reference them with the Southern Poverty Research Center.
Obviously, even extremists have a right to their speech, but I wouldn’t want my taxes going to subsidize it.
Frankly, I’m fed-up with heterosexuals stealing our Gay tax dollars to support their grasping lifestyles, occupying our spaces and beaches, and OUR CHURCHES, claiming it all for themselves, and in the name of their far right “Family Values.
Their Fundamentalist, Church Steeples look more and more like Missile Silos.
They are installing with Missionary zeal, all-seeing, white mans, Cameras, to enforce their claims and the sick belief that they own God.
Australia’s version of Christian Apartheid at it’s best. They repeatedly dish this hatred out to us, and we stupidly accept it as the norm.
In our opinion, the only way to handle a mad dog is to muzzle it.
Why don’t they just put up their invisible signs which say.
NO DOGS OR GAY’S ALLOWED.
Barry O’Feral should not be using $50,000 of tax payers money to promote hate against us. Business Events Sydney has no place promoting violence and hate. Why are we paying for a mob of far right “Family Values” American fundamentalist to get people to bash and kill us through their hate speeches?
The Liberal/National Party needs to put down the knife and walk away. They are trying to stab all those who voted for them, and those of us who value decency and a fair bloody go!