Kevin Andrews cancels appearance at anti-gay World Congress of Families event
SOCIAL Services Minister Kevin Andrews has cancelled his appearance at the World Congress of Families conference tomorrow in Melbourne, after weeks of pressure and controversy surrounding his planned keynote address.
According to The Australian, Andrews (pictured above) cancelled because the event is now set to be hosted by extremist right-wing group Catch the Fire Ministries.
The group is affiliated with the Rise Up Australia political party, which has previously courted controversy for being against multiculturalism and linking Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires to abortion laws.
In a statement released today, Andrews criticised “the left” for protests about his planned appearance and accused them of seeking to “shut down debate”.
“Tolerance is a critical value in a western liberal democracy like Australia,” he said.
“It was for this reason that I intended to address the World Congress of Families meeting in Melbourne tomorrow.
“The calls for me not to attend demonstrate the intolerance of the Greens and the left — instead of arguing their case in the public arena they seek to shut down debate.
“Equally, I cannot support intolerance from other quarters. As I have been informed today that the event is now to be hosted by Catch the Fire, I have decided not to attend.”
Andrews said he would release the speech he planned to give at the conference.
Fairfax Media has also reported that upper house Liberal MP Bernie Finn has also withdrawn from the event, although his reason for doing so was not provided.
Earlier this week, Sydney state independent MP Alex Greenwich sent a letter to the Social Services Minister asking him to cancel his keynote address at the conference, adding to the growing social media protest led by advocates such as Pauline Pantsdown.
The World Congress of Families has attracted controversy for its support of the Russian government’s so-called “gay propaganda” laws and for being vocal opponents to marriage equality.
At the time of print, Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark was still set to appear at tomorrow’s conference, along with NSW upper house Christian Democrats MP Fred Nile and Liberal Senators Cory Bernardi and Eric Abetz.
One of its guests, Dr Angela Lanfranchi, has also reportedly linked breast cancer to abortion.
A location for tomorrow’s conference is also yet to be determined, after four cancellations from different venues so far.
I would have heaps more chance of winning a $1,000,000 on Keno at the pub, then the government allowing marriage equality within Australia in the next 7 years!
All of our lawmakers and politicians are on a completely different planet (say Neptune) and do not reflect the will of the people who elected them there and are so out of touch with the average dinky die Australian. Australian lawmakers (like our cousins over in the American Congress) are 30 years behind the rest of the average working person and are highly Influenced by hard-right-wing lobbyist Christians in both nations that control everything within the government. All lawmakers are an embarrassing joke and completely lack Australian Values of a fair go and equality with boundless plains to share (remember that is in our national anthem)!
It is amazing that anybody still believes in the bible. It was written 2000 years ago by misogynistic bronze age goat herders who thought the earth was flat, the sun orbited the earth, lightning, thunder etc etc were supernatural. Anything they didn’t understand was attributed to something supernatural, i.e. “god”. I bet they had sex with each other and enjoyed it so much that they didn’t want anybody else to enjoy it.
Homophobia is a misnomer, it isn’t a phobia, it is pure unadulterated hate. Virtually all of the bible gets ignored but the anti-gay hate is cherry-picked. These christians always mention homosexuality, paedophilia and bestiality in the same breath. I am tired of these malicious lies. Many say it is the worst sin, even worse than murdering innocents.
Plenty of christians say we are worse than terrorists and should be locked up to keep us away from society. A reborn christian I knew, said exactly that, to my face. (I suspect he is gay and in the closet) Some of them go further and say we should be executed.
Hearing all of this crap every day has caused many gay men to kill themselves, including my brother. Dave you have my sympathies. My property also got vandalised and I was afraid of being physically attacked, so after moving away, I made sure nobody around me knows I’m gay.
It is a well known fact that the worst anti-gay haters are closeted homosexuals themselves, like the reborn christian I mentioned earlier. They usually get married to women. The church brainwashes them into hating themselves and other gays. I’ve been in the same boat, although I wasn’t vocal about it and kept my hate quiet. Ex-gay “therapy” does NOT work, it just screws up one’s mind. My first hand experience.
All you haters who commented, it is time to come out of the closet and stop hating yourselves and us. Do your wives know you are closeted homosexuals?
what people do behind closed doors ok its your business but for the world to go around and for the protection of children. Marriage is between a man and a woman
Well then Oliver, when you get married – you better have a minimum of 2 kids and also be under retirement age then!
Time for complete separation between church and state and start taxing churches and fund some long overdue projects in this country – Tony Abbott did say he wanted to be the infrastructure PM!
The LIberal party are not in charge, the Vatican, ACL, WBC, and the World Congress of Families are all in charge of Australia as a theocracy (the Liberal Party are just Puppets)!
This is the same current minister who back in 1997 Became a Dictator within a democracy to the people of the Northern Territory overriding euthanasia laws too!
If you read the bible Kevin Andrews – then you better not eat shellfish, you better sell your daughter into slavery and you better not have clothing on with different fibres (cotton with silk for example)!!!!
Homosexuality is anything but gay and the so called “gay health crisis gives credence to that. The problem is that what they do behind closed doors may eventually kill us all – the Bible gives clear warning
Fuck off Troll!
Is that the closeted, self-loathing homosexual in you talking, John Abbott?
Kevin Andrews is Spineless
Remember that other mob in Brunswck paper wrote: Masked thugs and soldiers bully gays Police powerless to stop them.
NOW THEY ARE NOT SCARED OF GAYS
It is interesting on the stirer, on a post by by Doug Pollard, Kevin Andrews is reported as the secretary to the Congress of Families. If this is correct, I think it might formally link a Federal Minister to the Russian laws that put GLBTI people in jail and subject them to extreme violence. I hope this is not the case.
Mr Andrews is the same Minister who was the subject of a scathing judicial review, over his handling of the Dr Haneef case, where an innocent Dr was imprisoned, without trial, and later, the Australians government had to pay millions to settle the case. The career of a young doctor was ruined. Kevin Andrews, when he was Immigration Minister, made the comments about an ethnicity, not fitting in a speech other people.
Robert Clark, the Attorney General, is the same Minister who told parliament homosexuality is a sick and destructive disease, and you guessed it, even told parliament homosexuals molestor children more, an untruh of course.
If people had forgotten, the homophobia and transphobia that every Liberal voted for, was to change the Equal Opportunity Act, to give thousands of GLBTI people no workplace protections due to sexuality or gender identity, for those who work in government funded religous businesses in everything from soup kitchens, to home help.
I think these two are damaging the Liberal Party, and have now cost the Victorian Liberal Party the next election. Almost everyone has some family member who is openly gay now, and it is a bad look for the government to have Ministers who appear to be so out of touch with the mainstream of Australian society. I think the best chance the LNP would have is to remove Robert Clark and Kevin Andrews from the Liberal Party, as clearly they are at odds with community standards and expectations for their endorsement of the Congress of Families.
Unfortunately for those who are gay, the Bible does speak clearly about homosexuality. So we should not be surprised when Christians say that homosexuality is a sin and that marriage is between a man and a woman. It is not the basis of their beliefs but it is easily understood why they believe what they believe. It is written in black and white in the book they consider to be God’s Word. The question is do people have a right to believe what they want to believe in? That is the message of tolerance after all. The person that is trying to promote tolerance has to be the one showing tolerance or it makes them a hypocrite in the worst way. At least Christians are consistent. They are not preaching tolerance but repentance and most do it with fervor. While other preach tolerance and acceptance but become intolerant to Christians and their beliefs. If intolerance is okay in one degree than it should be okay for all. We cannot force our beliefs on anyone anymore than we want someone forcing their beliefs on us. These are just opinions of mine and I know other people do not share my beliefs and I am okay with that.
First, the majority of Christians support equality in poll after poll, and the senate enquiries. This is a fringe cult that seeks GLBTI people thrown into jail and you talk of tolerance? What a bloody joke. Your trolling here Mathew, you cannot be taken seriously, that is why your mob is getting into strife with so many Christians.
Oh Mathew, how much more intolerant can you be then to say your reading of the bible is the only reading that counts. Sounds like a path to terrorism.
“at least Christians are consistent” LOL that made me laugh! You lot cherry pick from the bible to suit your anti-gay agendas while conveniently ignoring the vast majority of the rest of it! There is nothing “consistent” about that at all.
To brother Matthew who says Christians are at least consistent I can only say I wish they were!
If anyone chooses to use Bible verses to put others down as they do to we gay people, perhaps they can explain to us why they don’t kill their neighbours who work on Sundays (as it tells us in the Bible) or sell their daughters into slavery; or stone people who blaspheme; or kill those who touch pigskin (football anyone?) to say nothing of eating oysters or lobster which is called “an abomination” – the same phrase used to describe gay sex! Yep there are lots of rules in the Bible – it even says you have to stone farmers who grow two different crops within the same field!
For all the hullabaloo about the Bible’s gay sex references, there are only three of them – that’s all, but I particularly notice those people who never attend any church, who’s own lives are anything but “too pure” who are still so quick to quote scripture against gays.
For these reasons Matthew, some of us believe the Bible is anything but clear when it comes to gays- and those who want to use it against us, should be prepared to explain why the verses condemning gay people are right while others are not.
I have wanted to die since I was attacked for being gay. When Kevin Andrews and Robert Clark has someone pinning them down at their house yelling Die Fucking Homo, they might understand the high cost to the community of hate crimes. I hope no person has gone through the Hell I have. It is shocking they say such events are about tolerance, they are about pushing people off a bridge, making life harder, when it is already hard.
The only thing Abbott and Napthine has done is to empower some Ministerial thugs to spread a message of hate to anyone passing us in the street, or living near us. Homophobia cost me thousands, but Kevin Andrews and Robert Clark are yet to pay their bill.
The Prime Minister needs to act like a brother and sack Kevin Andrews. I mean for goodness sake, Mr Andrews supported a group that wants Tony Abbott’s sister locked up in a jail. The nutjobs that try and destroy our lives do need a cheer squad from government, they need comdenation. Time to sack Kevin Andrews as he is clearly not part of Team Australia or the Liberal Party values. We do accept the tolerance argument when dealing with Taliban terrorism, and I do not accept it when a Minister is supporting a group that seeks state sanctioned terrorism against GLBTI Australians and their families.
What are Liberal Party Values anyway?
Homophobia, anti-gay marriage laws passed in 2004, undisclosed political donations in a brown paper bag from Mr Tinklier, human rights abuses, Robbing Peter to pay Paul for example (the poor people paying higher taxes – for the rich and powerful that avoid paying taxes)!
No different to Labor Party Values too as well!
Oh really Mr Andrews? So you weren’t just going because you are the WCF Man Of The Year, the WCF International Secretary and the WCF International Ambassador? Really? http://www.thestirrer.com.au/someone-is-lying-about-kevin-andrews/