Homophobia claims by same-sex marriage advocates are bullying

A winter election beckons and attitudes harden. No more so than those of gay marriage advocates.

It seems that the mardi gras crowd has a darker side.

Senator Richard Di Natale has called for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to disendorse George Christensen MP for his opposition to the Safe Schools program. This smacks of hubris.

In its pastoral letter, “Don’t Mess With Marriage”, the Australian Catholic Bishops reminded readers that “every man, woman and child has great dignity and worth”. Federal Greens candidate, and same-sex marriage advocate, Martine Delaney hauled Archbishop of Hobart Julian Porteous before the Tasmanian anti-­discrimination commission to justify his view on marriage. This smacks of hubris.

Marriage Alliance, a grassroots organisation whose aim is to preserve the definition of marriage, booked television advertise­ments late last year with all channels. The commercial standards regulator passed the advertise­ments. They were booked and paid for.

Channel 9 and Foxtel ran them. Channel 7 and 10 pulled them at the last minute, with no formal reason given. Following two complaints, the Australian Communications and Media Authority determined the advertisements were not in breach of the television codes of practice. The actions of Channels 7 and 10 smack of hubris.

In August last year, 47 indigenous leaders signed a Bark petition, presented to the parliament, saying that marriage is sacred, and that it is an affront to their ancient culture to redefine it. A full-page advertisement in The Australian followed, but there was no coverage in any other media. This action by other media smacks of hubris.

The Safe Schools Do Better campaign by the Safe Schools ­Coalition has been handed a yellow card by the federal government. The campaign quoted research that 10 per cent of schoolchildren are same-sex attracted and 4 per cent are gender diverse or transsexual.

In 2014, for the first time, the Australian Bureau of Statistics asked people about their sexual orientation. Three per cent iden­ti­fied as gay, lesbian or “other”.

Which is not to say that a ­greater number of people do not experiment.

Almost 9 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women ­reported ­either having feelings of attraction to persons of the same sex or some sexual experience with the same sex. (Smith and Badcock, Sexual Identity and Practices, 2012).

But mere experiment does not create the gender-fluid world the gay lobby asserts.