Category: Wendy Francis
AFL pride? “Please no.”
Wendy “Dolores Umbridge” Francis really doesn’t want the AFL to have a gay pride round. Here she links her Facebook followers to the story of some sad Bendigo councillor who wrote in the local paper some rubbish about how gay people threaten family values, yadda yadda, instructing them to vote no on an online poll asking whether the AFL should go ahead with a pride round.
This stuff I think is very revealing. Traditionally, sporting culture in Australia has not exactly been welcoming to gay players and fans. An AFL pride round is a powerful gesture that homophobia is unacceptable in all areas of life, even in sport. What a fantastic way to signal that a culture change within the league has taken place, that the days of violence and hatred and intimidation are gone, and that gay people are accepted and embraced as equal members of society, rather than merely tolerated. That is a very good thing, for everybody. And Wendy Francis is against it.
It’s just further proof that the ACL’s crusade against the “redefinition” of marriage isn’t about protecting marriage at all, it’s about trying to push gays back into the shadows and the margins. The fact that she sees an AFL pride round as some nefarious conspiracy just makes her look more than a bit paranoid and obsessed.
RELATED: Francis has a long history of hateful rhetoric about gay people and gay relationships. In 2010, Wendy Francis ran unsuccessfully as a Family First candidate for the Senate. At the time she Tweeted – and then in a subsequent interview stood by those Tweets – that legitimising gay marriage is like legalising child abuse, though she has since changed her story and now denies having written the Tweets and the accompanying press release. A recidivist liar, Francis last year lobbied to remove safe sex advertising in Queensland which depicted two men hugging, with dozens of angry complaints sent to the advertising regulator, the Brisbane City Council and Adshel. The company removed and then reinstated the billboards after copping a massive public backlash, and Wendy was forced to acknowledge that the viciously homophobic campaign was orchestrated by the Australian Christian Lobby. Wendy Francis believes Julia Gillard is a bad role model because she is unmarried, and once compared the PM’s de facto status to being a drunk. Last year Loree Rudd told the ACL’s Queensland conference that gay marriage should be “put to death” and Francis, instead of pulling her up on that disturbing remark, replied by telling Rudd that she loved her.
Jim Wallace backtracks on church child abuse claims
Last week I transcribed and posted the video of Jim Wallace speaking to an audience at NSW Parliament House in 2009, in which he argued that gay men were responsible for the decades of child abuse in the Catholic Church. Specifically, he said that the Catholic Church had been the “victim” of child sex abuse. His argument was that gay men were responsible for most of the abuse and it wouldn’t have occurred if homosexuals were more effectively weeded out from the clergy. I sent him a please explain and this arrived in my inbox this morning.
Hi Jacob,
Please find a statement below from Jim Wallace as per your request.
“On the 9th of September 2009 I participated in a discussion organised by Fellowship of the Round Table on Censorship on the internet. During the evening I was asked a question about child abuse within a church context where I stated that 70 per cent of child abuse offences within the church had been committed by homosexual clergy. It would have been more accurate if I had stated that more than 70 per cent of child abuse offences within the church involved same-sex abuse.
Research to date shows that same-sex attraction is not related to child abuse. I apologise for any misunderstanding or offense caused as a result of my error.
Paedophilia within organisations is one of the ugliest issues our society is facing and I commend the purpose and intent of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The Royal Commission is an opportunity to expose, compensate and hold institutions and individuals accountable for child abuse.”
Kind Regards,
Katherine
Katherine Spackman
Communications Director
The Australian Christian Lobby
It’s appropriate that he admitted that he had made an error in conflating paedophilia with homosexuality. I hope this statement is sincere and that he genuinely has adjusted his views, and that it’s not just an attempt to avoid criticism and scrutiny. I’d also like to note just briefly that there is no “misunderstanding” what Jim was saying in that video and the message he was trying to convey – you’d need to be using Olympian-level mental gymnastics to get around it.
I look forward to the ACL forcefully denouncing other religious groups and individuals who attempt to make a link between homosexuality and paedophilia in the future.
The original post is linked here.
RELATED: Jim Wallace has compared gay parenting to the stolen generation. Wallace says the campaign for marriage equality is comparable to Nazi propaganda. Wallace asserted last year that a gay “lifestyle” is worse than smoking. Wallace has said that gay people are morally evil sinners on par with thieves, liars and adulterers, and that gay people suffer from “shameful lusts”. He believes he is engaged in a “spiritual battle” with Satan. A few years ago now Jim Wallace Tweeted on ANZAC Day that the Australia that servicemen and women fight for is not “gay marriage and Islamic.” Wallace has admitted to personal involvement in the harmful and discredited practice of “ex-gay therapy.” Wallace also hired Wendy Francis as his Queensland ACL director, after she Tweeted – and then in a subsequent interview stood by those Tweets – that legitimising gay marriage is like legalising child abuse.
