Anti-LGBT Group Binary Targets Out Gay MP Alex Greenwich’s Equality Bill

Australian anti-LGBTQI  group Binary has targeted out gay Sydney MP Alex Greenwich’s proposed Equality Bill in a series of misleading ads on social media and on its website. 

Binary, which was known as the anti-marriage equality group Marriage Alliance in its previous avatar, falsely claimed that if the bill is passed by NSW Parliament, parents would be jailed  “for daring to protect their children from gender transitioning”. In October 2022, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) had named Binary in its list of ‘far-right and extremist groups’ in Australia. 

Greenwich rubbished the anti-LGBTQI group’s claims. “Binary’s made up attacks and cruel rhetoric show they can not be taken seriously,” the Independent Sydney MP and former convener of the Australian Marriage Equality campaign, told Star Observer. 

“The Equality Bill will bring NSW forward as having the gold standard in LGBTIQA+ protections and ensure our laws are consistent  with other states and territories,” said Greenwich. 

Omnibus Equality Bill

The MP had announced in March 2022 that the omnibus Equality Bill would ban harmful gay conversion practices, end discrimination against LGBTQI students and staff in faith-based schools, prohibit “so-called ‘normalising’ surgeries on intersex people without their consent, either at birth or later in life”, and introduce reforms so that trans and gender diverse persons can change their documentation without undergoing surgery. 

A final draft of the Bill, which is presently in consultation stage, is scheduled to be released in February 2023 ahead of Sydney WorldPride.

“I am committed to making sure that New South Wales is the gold standard in terms of treating the LGBTQI community equally and fairly,” Greenwich had told Star Observer in an interview to mark a decade in the NSW Parliament. The MP added that the Equality Bill would “get New South Wales up to speed with all the other states and territories”.

Scaremongering Ads

Binary, in its ads had compared the proposed Equality Bill to Victoria’s “gold standard” law that ban’s gay conversion practices. 

“LGBTQI+ activists are cheering on NSW MP Alex Greenwich for proposing his new so-called “equality” bill. But it’s really an attack on parents and children,” Binary claimed. 

The scaremongering continued and Binary asked for people to sign a petition on its website  “to tell the NSW members of parliament to stop the attack on parental rights”. The petition, which had set a target of 15,000 signatures, has just managed to get around 7,000 signatures. 

Binary is currently running two other ads on Facebook. One is a political ad against Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and makes another misleading claim that it is Labor policy to allow children to transition without parental consent.

The other ad targets gender clinics in Australia. All the ads were paid for by Gender Awareness Australia, which has spent over $107,000 on ads on Facebook between August 2020 and November 2022.