“Learn To Speak Gay”: Lyle Shelton Is Now Mad About A New LGBTQIA+ Tourism Initiative

Family First national director and NSW Legislative Council candidate Lyle Shelton has discovered Australia’s new LGBTQIA+ tourism accreditation program, and I’m sure you will be absolutely shocked to learn, he is NOT thrilled.

The recently launched Rainbow Ready Accreditation allows tourism businesses across Australia to formally demonstrate that they are welcoming, safe and inclusive for LGBTQIA+ travellers. The program grew out of a Tasmanian initiative first established more than a decade ago, and has now been expanded nationally through the Australian Tourism Industry Council’s Quality Tourism Framework.

Seems fairly straightforward, right? But Shelton has gotten his knickers in a right twist about it, characterising the scheme as “special treatment”. H is particularly unimpressed that tourism operators might apparently be encouraged to learn how to — and I cannot stress enough that these are his exact words — “speak gay”.

“Let’s call this what it is: a scheme that tells businesses to learn to ‘speak gay’ so one category of guest feels catered to, dressed up as basic hospitality,” Shelton said in a statement.

Now, Star Observer has inspected the accreditation requirements and can find no evidence that tourism workers will be forced to greet guests with “yaaass”, or demonstrate proficiency in Polari before being permitted behind a hotel reception desk. (The Polari would be kinda cool though, tbf.)

What the program actually does is assess participating businesses across areas including policies and compliance, operational practices, physical environments, marketing, guest information and staff preparedness. It is free for businesses that already hold Sustainable Tourism Accreditation.

The accreditation was developed nationally by the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania alongside researchers from the University of Queensland, Charles Sturt University and Monash University.

TICT CEO Amy Hills said in a previous statement the original Tasmanian program was created because the tourism industry recognised the importance of LGBTQIA+ visitors feeling “genuinely safe and welcome”.

“Inclusion is the right thing to do, and it is also good business,” Hills said.

“Travellers notice who makes them feel welcome, respected and safe, and they book accordingly.”

Shelton, however, argues Rainbow Ready is ideological and has called for the creation of a parallel “Family Friendly” accreditation, which would allow businesses to advertise themselves as being free from “‘queer’ activity, displays or promotion of LGBTQIA+ ideology”.

“If there’s a national scheme to reassure one group of travellers, there should be one to reassure families too,” Shelton said.

Of course, LGBTQIA+ people famously never have families, children, parents, siblings or heterosexual relatives, so thankfully nobody will have to grapple with that particular logistical conundrum.

Shelton also linked the tourism scheme to a recent LGBTQIA+ exhibition at Westfield Parramatta, asking where families were supposed to go without their children encountering “adult content and ideology dressed up as inclusion”.

Family First is now calling for the Australian Tourism Industry Council to disclose the public funding and in-kind government support involved in Rainbow Ready, and wants state and federal tourism ministers to support its proposed alternative accreditation.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Ready remains considerably less dramatic than all of this might suggest: tourism operators voluntarily demonstrating that queer travellers can reasonably expect to be treated with basic respect while on holiday.

Oh, the horror. However can we live with ourselves.