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| Jim Wallace - Managing Director of ACL - Courtesy of ABC News 24 |
A couple of weeks ago,
I conducted an interview with The Honourable Member for Leichardt in
the Australian House of Representatives, Warren Entsch. As many
of you would know, Warren is the Chief
Opposition Whip for the Coalition, while he is also one of the
most ardent supporters of Same Sex and Gender Diverse rights in the
current federal parliament.
During that interview, Warren stated
that he'd like to take Jim Wallace
of the Australian Christian Lobby on a Same Sex and Gender
Diverse study tour throughout Mr Wallace's local area. Such a study
tour would include a trip to the local cemetery where a roll-call of
suicide victims due to homophobic and transphobic comments and actions would be
read out, followed by meetings with the families of the suicide
victims in question as well as a group of devoted long-term same sex
couples. Needless to say, it was a genuine and sincere offer that
Warren made.
Recently I approached the Australian
Christian Lobby, in order to ask what Mr Wallace's response to this
particular offer was. After being unable to reach any members of the
ACL Executive and their staff for comment over the past few weeks, I
finally succeeded in reaching one of Mr Wallace's Press Secretaries, a Mr Ben Williams, at about
3pm this afternoon. For the record, I informed Mr Williams of both my preferred and legal names at this time. After describing Warren's offer in detail to Mr
Williams, I was immediately told over the phone on the record that he was certain that
Mr Wallace was “Unlikely to respond to such hyperbole”.
Now
if you break out a dictionary, you will see that “Hyperbole”
is essentially another word for “exaggeration”. Given the
thoughtfulness in his voice, the sincerity in his eye and his track
record in regards to Same Sex and Gender Diverse rights however, this
offer was no meagre act of exaggeration on Warren Entsch's part, as implied by the Australian Christian Lobby.
Now while I'm not surprised by the
response from the Australian Christian Lobby over this issue, one
must question their intentions and values if they aren't willing to
take a simple, honest and honourable offer like the one made by the
Chief Opposition Whip at face value. Given
that Mr Wallace has recently stated in public that “there needs to
be an open and honest debate” in regards to Mariage Equality
and other Same-Sex and Gender Diverse rights, you've got to wonder
why the executives of the Australian Christian Lobby are refusing to
engage in one of the few activities that might give their position on
minority issues credibility amongst the religious and non-religious
public.
If Mr Wallace and the other executive
members of the Australian Christian Lobby who share his opinions on
Same-Sex and Gender Diverse rights are as certain of their values and
the accuracy of their ideas as they claim, then they should have
nothing to fear by testing them in a real life situation. If they
aren't willing to do so, one must also question their claims about
not being homophobic and transphobic with their comments and actions
as well.
