‘Straight Lives Matter’ rally to be held in Sydney
Protesters push for Parliamentary vote on marriage equality (Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)
A “straight lives matter” rally has been organised to take place in Sydney as part of the protest against marriage equality in Australia.
The proposed rally comes as the Australian government moved forward with holding a postal survey on marriage equality.
Equal marriage protest (PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)
Nick Folkes, of the right-wing anti-same-sex marriage campaign Party for Freedom, organised the rally for September.
Announcing the event on Facebook, Folkes wrote that the rally, which has appropriated it’s name from the black live matter movement, is being held in support of “traditional” marriage.
“We believe tradition is important, and the biological institution of marriage should not be redefined to suit a minority sexual orientation,” Folkes added.
On the website of the party, they declare same-sex marriage as a “fad”.
It reads: “Gay marriage is the latest fad pushed by the left-wing politicians, left wing media, cashed up gay rights groups and social justice warriors under the modern perversion of ‘rights’ as a social justice movement.”
The party also declared LGBT+ rights as a “lifestyle” that poses a threat to children.
“The gay rights movement is based on compassion ignoring the dangers the lifestyle experiment may pose to children.”
The rally has been mocked with LGBT+ activists taking on Folkes for his homophobia.
“When is your next event in Brisbane? So I can be sure to warn all my friends to avoid that too,” one person wrote.
Another said: “The world will keep turning and you’ll still have to keep paying your bills and taxes. It will literally have zero effect on your life so maybe you should just let it go.”
A third added: “The LGBTI community don’t want special treatment they just want equal rights. Let people be happy.”
Protesters push for Parliamentary vote on marriage equality (Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)
The postal vote has been widely condemned by LGBT+ activists in Australia because it is not legally binding and will come at a huge expense of $122 million Australian dollars.
A lawsuit has been launched in the High Court to try and stop the postal survey and there is a 50-50 chance that it will be successful.
It comes after a lawmaker in the majority Liberal Party failed to pass a Parliamentary vote.
Lawmakers then attempted and failed to revive a plebiscite bill in the Senate.
Many feared that the postal vote would become a “hate speech bonanza” as the vote is being conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, rather than the Australian Electoral Commission.
This means that the vote is not subject to the Commonwealth Electoral Act’s prohibition on the use of any malicious or deceptive material.
Special Minister of State Mathias Cormann is putting forward legislation which will force the Bureau to abide by the Commonwealth Electoral Act, which prohibits the use of any malicious or deceptive material.
Labor’s legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus said Labor’s may support the special law on the condition that they can view it prior to backing it.
Dreyfus said that it was “our inclination is to make sure that this is a respectful debate”.
