GAY TRUTH

There is a school of thought in the debate about redefining marriage that it is inevitable and that Christians should just sue for peace with the same-sex marriage activists. Try and extract as many protections for religious freedom as possible and roll over. To make it easier for us to capitulate, leading politicians such as Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, Attorney General George Brandis and Tim Wilson say same-sex marriage and freedom of religion can co-exist. “I don’t accept the religious practice in this country is under threat,” Mr Shorten said this week. What he is essentially saying is it is okay to go to church and believe what you like there. But what is under threat, and what Mr Shorten is not telling us, is that religious practice outside the church, mosque or synagogue is under grave threat should the definition of marriage in law be changed. Indeed, it is now Labor policy to use the law to punish anyone who does not conform to same-sex marriage ideology, unless they are

WHY ARE JOURNALIST LYING ABOUT SAME SEX MARRIAGE? First, the media lied that Melbourne was “plastered” with homophobic posters by “no” campaigners. Channel 10 even faked a picture of one . Now, the media is spreading more untruths, false claims that three women in a “no” campaign advertisement are liars. Last week, the Coalition for Marriage aired a TV commercial arguing for a no vote on same-sex marriage. It featured three women: Heidi McIvor , a Sale pastor; Cella White , a Melbourne mother; and Dr Pansy Lai , a Sydney GP and founder of the Australian Chinese for Families Association. The women made two claims, in particular, that set off a furore. First, White, warning how far the same-sex marriage push would go, talked of her son’s experience at Frankston High: “The school told my son that he could wear a dress to school next year if he wanted.” Then Lai added: “Kids in year 7 are being asked to role-play being in a same-sex relationship.” Since then, the women

Michael Barnett and M arriage equality advocate IBM Australia is being targeted by ­militant gay rights activists who have condemned the company over a senior executive’s links to a ­Christian organisation . Activists have criticised the IT giant and Sydney-based managing partner Mark Allaby, suggesting that his role on the board of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute, an internship program for young Christians, is incompatible with IBM’s public support on the issue. The social media campaign comes after the same activists shamed Adelaide brewer Coopers into pledging allegiance to Australian Marriage Equality after its ties with the Bible Society were ­exposed. Greens candidate Rod Swift. Picture: Mark Dadswell Michael Barnett, convener of Jewish LGBTI support group Aleph Melbourne, and Rod Swift, a Greens candidate in the 2014 state election, have targeted IBM with a barrage of messages via Twitter in recent days, accusing the company of hypocrisy for ­allowing an emp

A   Senate Select Committee   was formed late last year to resurrect the same-sex marriage debate in the Federal Parliament . Many of the same senators who blocked the people’s vote on same-sex marriage - the pathway the Turnbull Government promised to resolving the issue – are now behind yet another Senate inquiry into a draft bill to change the Marriage Act. ACL along with other groups seeking to preserve marriage and freedom were busy over the break writing   detailed submissions   to the inquiry the committee is running. This latest move by the proponents of change is part of their tactic to cause the Turnbull Government to break its election promise to let the people vote on the future of marriage. Instead, they want the Parliament to tell us what marriage is. I’ve lost count of the number of Senate and House of Representative inquiries into redefining marriage that have been held over the past seven years. I doubt there are any other public policy issues that ha

Studies that have been done of transgendered people who have had sex reassignment surgery , people who have been followed for 20 or so years have found that after 10 years from the surgery, that their suicide mortality rate was actually 20 times higher than the non-transgendered population. So I’m very concerned that here we are encouraging young people to do things to their bodies … like chest binding for young girls … [and] penis tucking … Now this is taking kids on a trajectory that may well cause them to want to take radical action, such as gender reassignment surgery…  – Lyle Shelton , managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby , speaking on Q&A on February 29, 2016. Australia’s  Safe Schools Coalition  program has been accused of  “promoting a radical view of gender and sexuality”  in schools. The program’s architects say it aims to boost acceptance of same sex attracted, intersex and gender diverse students, staff and families. Critics have corr

They also got a glimpse of what will happen to their freedom of speech and freedom of association should marriage ever be redefined in law. It simply will not be possible to publicly hold a dissenting view without facing demonisation at best and legal action at worst. The viscous intimidation of staff at the Sydney Airport Mercure Hotel brought to light one of the long-standing and key tactics of same-sex marriage advocates for shutting down debate. The Mercure Hotel said that their staff were “rattled” by the phone calls and abuse they copped when activists started targeting them for hosting a pro-marriage event. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney , the Anglican Diocese of Sydney , the advocacy group Marriage Alliance and ACL had booked a meeting room to hold a campaign briefing for more than 100 coalition partner groups. The meeting was scheduled for tonight and is going ahead at a different location. Sadly, we have to meet in secret. I don’t think this is the sort of Aust

There was confirmation from the Government this week that the long-awaited people’s vote on marriage is to be pushed back into next year. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Attorney General George Brandis had previously indicated their preference to hold it before Christmas. Australian Electoral Commission advice is that there is not enough time to organise another national poll to meet this timeline. The AEC had actually signalled this some weeks ago. But a leak from somewhere within the Government to a Sunday newspaper confirming that the Government agreed with this advice set the media in a frenzy. The story also contained details of a draft question. This was disappointing given that consultations with both sides of the debate about the plebiscite process and question has not yet been held . The Prime Minister’s office and senior ministers were quick to distance themselves from the story and stressed that Cabinet was yet to consider these issues. That’s code for the process ha

The Turnbull government has refused to rule out new exemptions to anti-discrimination law to allow religious objectors to refuse to provide goods and services to gay weddings, Christian schools, Christian charities, camp sites, ministries, aged care etc. The Australian Christian Lobby claims the Turnbull government is open to a new exemption. The ACL has released a voting guide that takes aim at Labor’s promise to hold a parliamentary vote on same-sex marriage. It had distributed 67,000 copies of the guide to churches and supporters. The guide claims “there is no discrimination in Australian law against same-sex attracted people”. In its response to the ACL questionnaire used to compile the voting guide, the Liberals ruled out suspending commonwealth anti-discrimination laws in the lead-up to the same-sex marriage plebiscite. State and territory laws were a matter for those governments, it said. The managing director of the ACL, Lyle Shelton, told Guardian Australia it was “disapp