Australia: Gay have declared war on No voters - mainly Christians
We keep hearing that the rainbow crusade for marriage was only about “love is love”, but the reaction on social media last week tells you that hatred played a part too.
“Eat shit, Lyle” was trending on Twitter the day Liberal Senator Dean Smith’s same-sex marriage bill passed through Parliament.
Lyle is Lyle Shelton, head of the Australian Christian Lobby.
Grinding him into the dust was a higher priority than celebrating love for Yes campaigners of the Fourth Estate, such as Clementine Ford and Benjamin Law, who piled onto the Twitter meme of the day.
Rob Stott, of online rag Junkee, boasted that his story showcasing the worst Shelton tweets was “doing more traffic than the actual story about marriage equality passing”.
That says it all.
“Australia has done it. What a day for love, for equality, for respect,” Malcolm Turnbull declared triumphantly. Well, Lyle Shelton didn’t get a lot of respect on Thursday.
And by abusing the most effective spokesman for the No campaign, what the rainbow-haters are doing is declaring war on the four in 10 Australians who voted No.
As Liberal leader, you would expect Turnbull to be empathetic to the concerns of the people his party needs to win the next election, or, more immediately, the next by-election next Saturday in No-voting Bennelong.
Politics in a democracy means giving the people who voted for you — your base — what they want. And 63 per cent of Coalition supporters voted No in the marriage survey, according to a poll of 5000 people conducted by the No campaign.
Labor supporters went the opposite way, with a 69 per cent Yes vote, and Greens voted 86 per cent Yes.
So why was the PM so gleeful about giving Labor and Greens voters what they want? They will never vote for him and will never give him the credit for being the prime minister who legalised same-sex marriage.
He said he cared “even more strongly” about religious freedom than about same-sex marriage, yet No voters have been left unprotected by the Liberal-sponsored marriage bill that passed through Parliament last week.
Australian Christian Lobby leader Lyle Shelton has been the recipient of abuse for his stance on same-sex marriage. (Pic: Peter Ristevski)
Whether the Ruddock review into religious freedom will remedy the situation is doubtful, given the refusal of so many MPs to take seriously the fears of No voters.
And their fears are already being realised.
Within a day of the marriage bill being passed, an academic from the University of Technology Sydney was describing it as a “mandate to deliver… LGBTQI+-inclusive sexuality education” aka “Safe Schools” queer theory. And there was an online petition to strip tax-free charitable status from Shelton’s ACL.
That is why school leaders representing more than 200,000 students, as well as Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders, wrote to the PM and Opposition leader asking for protections for freedom of religion, speech and conscience to be included in the marriage bill.
Probably the most formidable is the Maronite Bishop in Australia, Antoine Tarabay.
In western Sydney, where 12 electorates had No votes as high as 74 per cent, the Maronite Catholic community gathered last weekend for a huge dinner in Belmore.
Naming federal Liberal MP Craig Laundy and NSW Labor leader Luke Foley, who were sitting at his table, Bishop Tarabay gave them a pointed message to take
Whether the Ruddock review into religious freedom will remedy the situation is doubtful, given the refusal of so many MPs to take seriously the fears of No voters.
And their fears are already being realised.
Within a day of the marriage bill being passed, an academic from the University of Technology Sydney was describing it as a “mandate to deliver… LGBTQI+-inclusive sexuality education” aka “Safe Schools” queer theory. And there was an online petition to strip tax-free charitable status from Shelton’s ACL.
As we saw overseas, LGBTQI vigilantes don’t stop when same-sex marriage becomes law. They want to hound into submission every last dissenter.
That is why school leaders representing more than 200,000 students, as well as Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders, wrote to the PM and Opposition leader asking for protections for freedom of religion, speech and conscience to be included in the marriage bill.
Probably the most formidable is the Maronite Bishop in Australia, Antoine Tarabay.
In western Sydney, where 12 electorates had No votes as high as 74 per cent, the Maronite Catholic community gathered last weekend for a huge dinner in Belmore.
Naming federal Liberal MP Craig Laundy and NSW Labor leader Luke Foley, who were sitting at his table, Bishop Tarabay gave them a pointed message to take
to their respective leaders.
Maronite Bishop of Australia, Antoine-Charbel Tarabay.
“Marriage is something we understand through the history of humanity (for) man and woman to procreate…
“This is the position of the Church today, tomorrow and forever.
“During the plebiscite and the debate about same-sex marriage, all of us have noticed the division in Australian society… some kind of animosity that we’re not used to seeing in our Australian society.
“Many of us in the No campaign have been (told) that we are bigots, that we have hatred...
“My message is that it’s time for reconciliation and unity, and this... cannot happen when we legislate not to respect the minority of people who have voted against the change in legislation.
“I believe we still have the chance to make amendments to that Smith bill to get us into a new journey with all our brothers and sisters in this diverse Australian society.
“We have… a message of unity and peace, and we invite our leaders to listen carefully to this message before it will be too late.”
A week later in Parliament, a handful of valiant conservative Coalition MPs — Scott Morrison, Michael Sukkar, Andrew Hastie and Andrew Broad — put forward amendment after amendment to the marriage bill to protect freedom of conscience, religion and speech.
Morrison told the House that to pretend the Smith bill satisfies the concerns of No voters shows “a lack of understanding and empathy”.
“These Australians are… seeking assurance that changes to our marriage laws will not undermine… what they teach their children, what their children are taught, the values they share and foster within their families, community, within and without their church walls.
“It is now time to pass a truly inclusive bill that recognises the views of 100 per cent of Australians, not just the 61 per cent.”
Alas, it was not to be. As every amendment was voted down, the public gallery of Yes campaigners cheered.
They cheered for disenfranchising five million of their fellow Australians.
Parliament missed the opportunity for reconciliation and has set the scene for social division.
Maronite Bishop of Australia, Antoine-Charbel Tarabay.“Marriage is something we understand through the history of humanity (for) man and woman to procreate…
“This is the position of the Church today, tomorrow and forever.
“During the plebiscite and the debate about same-sex marriage, all of us have noticed the division in Australian society… some kind of animosity that we’re not used to seeing in our Australian society.
“Many of us in the No campaign have been (told) that we are bigots, that we have hatred...
“My message is that it’s time for reconciliation and unity, and this... cannot happen when we legislate not to respect the minority of people who have voted against the change in legislation.
“I believe we still have the chance to make amendments to that Smith bill to get us into a new journey with all our brothers and sisters in this diverse Australian society.
“We have… a message of unity and peace, and we invite our leaders to listen carefully to this message before it will be too late.”
A week later in Parliament, a handful of valiant conservative Coalition MPs — Scott Morrison, Michael Sukkar, Andrew Hastie and Andrew Broad — put forward amendment after amendment to the marriage bill to protect freedom of conscience, religion and speech.
Morrison told the House that to pretend the Smith bill satisfies the concerns of No voters shows “a lack of understanding and empathy”.
“These Australians are… seeking assurance that changes to our marriage laws will not undermine… what they teach their children, what their children are taught, the values they share and foster within their families, community, within and without their church walls.
“It is now time to pass a truly inclusive bill that recognises the views of 100 per cent of Australians, not just the 61 per cent.”
Alas, it was not to be. As every amendment was voted down, the public gallery of Yes campaigners cheered.
They cheered for disenfranchising five million of their fellow Australians.
Parliament missed the opportunity for reconciliation and has set the scene for social division.
