Exclusive: Australian No campaign tells activists to play off fears over ‘gay sex and gender-bending’
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PinkNews Exclusive
Australia’s Coalition for Marriage is telling activists play to fears over LGBT sex education and gender issues as the country votes on same-sex marriage.
The Coalition for Marriage has become the primary ‘No’ campaign in the country as it heads to the polls in a postal ballot on whether to allow same-sex marriage.
The group bills itself as a “grassroots movement” that will be on “the front line to defend traditional marriage in Australia”.
At an induction session for Coalition for Marriage activists attended by a PinkNews reporter, the group’s campaign leadership played up fears over sex education and transgender issues.
The session was led by one of the group’s senior field ops chiefs, who explained to volunteers that “by taking gender out of marriage, you’re taking gender out of society”.
The campaign leader also claimed that equal marriage would be an attack on families because “the government, by default, becomes the parent”.
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The officials also sought to play off fears over transgender issues, reflecting tactics which have been seen across the country – despite the postal vote being exclusively on the issue of whether gay couples should be allowed to marry.
The campaign chief falsely told activists that the vote was actually on “a package deal that will lead to more gender-bending, politically correct programs like Safe Schools”, an LGBT anti-bullying campaign that has been much-maligned by conservatives.
They described the vote as “our last stand against this radical ideology”.
As well as large pools of funding that have allowed it to outspend the ‘Yes’ camp with a string of TV ads, C4M boasts a large volunteer count – with officials explaining to volunteers that it “outnumbers” the Equality Campaign “three to one”.
During the event one attendee questioned the need for any vote on same-sex marriage to begin with, arguing that “same-sex couples already have all the rights that they need”.
Another claiming that same-sex marriage “denies basic biology”. The C4M official leading the event responded “absolutely”.
The official also addressed a recent stunt in Sydney where a skywriter was hired to display the message ‘Vote No’.
The C4M was not directly involved, but explained it was masterminded by “a group of proactive passionate members of our community who agree with us”.
Recent polling showed that support for equal marriage had dropped sharply in Australia, as anti-gay marriage activists continue the scaremongering campaign focused on unrelated issues.
The country’s anti-LGBT lobby has taken to branding the same-sex marriage proposals ‘transgender marriage’ in a bid to adopt US-style ‘wedge issue’ tactics.
In a release last week, anti-gay marriage activists took the claims to a bizarre extreme – using fears about transgender women to try and convince lesbians to vote against equal marriage.
Voting is open now in the postal vote, which is advisory in nature and non-binding. Voting will continue until November 7, with the result announced on November 15.
