On Wednesday, the Katter Party’s Queensland Senate nominee, Bernard Gaynor, took to the tweets to both defend his colleague from Victoria, Tess Corbett (who had linked homosexuality with paedophilia), and to declare that he wouldn’t want a gay person teaching his kids. Here’s what Gaynor had to say:
23 January: Bernard Gaynor @BernardGaynor
As a KAP senate nominee in Qld and former Party National General Secretary I fully support Tess Corbett. #auspolBernard Gaynor @BernardGaynor
I wouldn’t let a gay person teach my children and I am not afraid to say it #auspolBernard Gaynor @BernardGaynor
If we value free speech and democracy then we would respect the right of Christians to hold their views about right and wrong #auspolBernard Gaynor @BernardGaynor
Woah! Just said prayers & put kids 2 bed.Came back to find many ppl tweeting against parental discretion over teachers #goodluckwiththatBernard Gaynor @BernardGaynor
Parents should have discretion over who teaches their children #auspol
Yesterday morning, reacting the furore about what he said, Gaynor put out a press release to ‘clarify his comments’. In it he said that even Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard support parental choice, and that:
“This is not controversial. Any society with a basis in common sense would support parental responsibility.”
“It would be a sad day for Australia if its Christian population was prevented from freely practicing its religion.”
Gaynor has since been suspended from the Katter Party and therefore disqualified from the Queensland Senate spot. What’s ironic about the entire episode though, is that in essence Gaynor’s press release was right; in recent weeks Prime Minister Julia Gillard has shown a position very similar to Gaynor’s.
I’m not saying that Julia Gillard believes there is a connection between homosexuality and paedophilia, and I’m pretty sure she would find Corbett’s views as repulsive as anyone else. But Gaynor’s position and argument was one based around religious freedom; that as a Christian man he should have the right to choose who teaches his children based on his religious beliefs. For him, that means no gays near his kids.
It sounds strangely familiar. In fact, it was just last week that Julia Gillard was reported to have actively reassured religious groups, and in particular the Australian Christian Lobby, that their legal rights to discriminate against homosexuals would not be encroached upon. Gillard told these groups that under the new Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill, religious organisations would retain their right to discriminate against those who might cause “injury to religious sensitivities.” (It was this bill that Corbett was being asked about when she made her statements). It has been specifically clarified that members of the GLBT community can fall under this grouping.
What does that mean? It means that religious schools and organisations will be able to continue to discriminate against teachers and staff, refusing to hire or being able to fire someone because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or trans*. It also means that religious schools would continue to be able to block the enrolment of students because of their sexual orientation.
Whilst this may not be a broad-scale policy that Gaynor seemed to be advocating, one that allows parents to block LGBT teachers supervising their kids wherever they send their students, the principle is pretty much the same. It is a policy cloaked under the guise of religious freedom, which allows religious institutions to discriminate against GLBT people based on their sexuality and their gender identity.
And whilst Gillard clearly wouldn’t stop LGBT people teaching her children (if she had them), and whilst she doesn’t believe there is a connection between homosexuality and paedophilia, her policies are supporting, and even encouraging, those who do to discriminate at will. She has become an enabler of people like Corbett and Gaynor; an enabler of discrimination.
When you think about it this way, you can see that there is really little difference between the two; the bigot and the enabler. In fact, I have to ask myself who is worse? Because the bigot can only flourish as those around enable their behaviour. And in recent weeks, it’s Julia Gillard who has become the enabler of bigots all around the country.