One Nation party candidate dropped over anti-gay comments
A candidate for the One Nation Party in Australia has been dumped by the party leader after she posted a series of anti-LGBT messages on social media.
Shan Ju Lin was running for a seat in Ipswich, Queensland, but was suspended from the party after she wrote on Facebook that “gays should be treated as patients”.
One Nation, a right leaning Conservative party, revoked endorsement of Ju Lin for refusing to “heed the warnings” made by the party over her “denigrating remarks”.
The post, which has since been deleted, claimed that gay people should be treated as patients.
She made the comments alongside a link she shared to an article about George Harass and Douglas Wirth – two men who were accused of sexually abusing their foster children but were cleared of any wrongdoing in 2014.
“Thanks for all supporters, no matter what happened, I will continue to hold the values that we are holding,” Ju Lin wrote on Facebook following the “dis-endorsement.”
Ju Lin said that the decision to halt their endorsement came as a “complete surprise”.
“This dis-endorsement decision has come as a complete surprise as One Nation has no policy to be adhered to on this issue except for that of a referendum on gay marriage whereby the community would have its say,” she said.
“The speed of the dis-endorsement decision – without any chance to defend myself – has also been remarkable.”
She added that the co-founder of One Nation, Pauline Hanson, still had her “wholehearted support”.
Hanson has previously said that she does not agree with marriage equality, but would support it because she is a “people’s representative”.
The senator also said that she believed if people felt so strongly about getting married, they could move to somewhere where it’s possible because “the gay and lesbian community did not require a marriage certificate and they should be content with civil ceremonies.”
