Okay, this is just hilarious. The group that has been doing the anti-gay work in Russia and Uganda, the so-called "World Congress of Families", is supposed to be having a conference in Melbourne in Australia this Saturday.
The event is supposed to have very high profile speakers, such as Robert Clark, the attorney-general of the Australian state of Victoria, the Australian federal government's Minister for Families Kevin Andrews, and ultra-conservative South Australia Senator Cory Bernardi, whose infamous comparison of marriage equality to bestiality drew outrage and led to his resignation from a position in the government.
The conference has been covered in Australia's media, and has not gone unnoticed by LGBT equality groups. The truly frightening nature of the group, which is so much more than opposition to marriage equality, has drawn severe condemnation and threats of demonstrations at the event.
Something you may be surprised to learn about me is that I actually live in Melbourne. The reason I'm in tune to American affairs is that much more is happening with regard to marriage equality in America than Australia. On the 16th of this month, I went to a pro-marriage equality rally in Melbourne, and heard that WCF had to keep changing where the conference would be held.
Now there seems to be some more explanation for that. The ice-cold reception that Melbourne has given the group is now raising a question as to whether the conference can even happen at all. A combination of security concerns following threats of protests, as well as a lack of venues who want to take them, have them struggling to find a place to go.
From Gay Star News:
The right wing anti-gay and anti-abortion World Congress of Families conference scheduled to be held in Melbourne, Australia this Saturday appears to be becoming a shambles, with it not even having found a venue just days before it is supposed to start.
From
The Guardian:
The controversial World Congress of Families conservative Christian conference is in chaos only days before its scheduled start, after four Melbourne venues backed out of hosting the event.
From
The Age:
The group is currently without a venue for the forum after several locations were cancelled amid threats of protests. [WCF local director] Ms Francis writes that the meeting has been moved several times because of security concerns.
Gay Star News reports on the changes of venues:
The event had initially been going to be held in Mentone St Patrick’s parish hall but the venue withdrew after police advised the venue not to host the event because of security concerns.
Event organizers then moved the event to St Cecelia’s Catholic Church in Glen Iris but that venue also turned them down.
Event organizers then tried to book wedding venue Aurora Receptions in East Brunswick as the venue for the conference but they turned them down as did another unnamed venue.
And they know the kind of trouble they're in. Organizer Margaret Butts told The Guardian:
It’s a mess. We have no venue at the moment – the police are telling us it’s a safety risk because of planned protests and demonstrations. We are frantic at the moment trying to organise something else, we’ve had four venue cancellations. I can’t talk to you because we are just too busy right now.
The WCF is desperately trying to explain away their unbridled, unbelievable, vitriolic hatred and bigotry.
Right Wing Watch on a letter they have sent:
“Sexual radicals have launched a smear campaign to discredit the Melbourne conference, which misrepresents the international pro-family movement and the positions of the World Congress of Families,” the letter says. “Specifically, it is alleged that advocacy of the natural (or normative) family is somehow unfair to other families and that we ‘shame’ single-parent families, homosexual ‘couples’ and the divorced.” (Scare quotes in the original.)
"The goal of sexual radicals is to deconstruct marriage and marginalize the family, and thus to transform society into something unrecognizable to generations past," the letter continues. "Like all social experiments that attempt to create a 'new man,' these are doomed to failure."
You can access the letter
here. Brian Brown and NOM have signed it. Their signature is number 53 on page 6.
What has not been helpful to the WCF is the Human Rights Campaign's newly released report about the group, which you can access here.
There is also a Change.org petition requesting that Australia's government stop being involved in any way with the group. I urge you to sign it and solidify your place in history as having a role in the rebellion against the WCF. Over here, we are working to drive them out of Melbourne.
https://www.change.org/...
The conference is supposed to be this Saturday, on August 30. I'll keep looking out for any new venue, and I'll go if possible. (I'm only 17, and my parents are a little uneasy.) I'll also keep looking out for any whining that NOM or FRC or any other hate group has about our message that homophobia and hatred are not welcome in civilized societies, and that we will drive them out with all the force that we can reasonably use.
So far, so good.
Thu Aug 28, 2014 at 2:41 PM PT: The Australian Senate has passed a motion condemning the conference and urging politicians to not attend.
http://www.abc.net.au/...
Thu Aug 28, 2014 at 8:59 PM PT: The pressure is working. The politicians who were planning to attend are pulling out.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
"Federal Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews has cancelled his plans to open a conference of the controversial World Congress of Families.
Mr Andrews' decision was closely followed by an announcement that Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark and two other Coalition state MPs have also pulled out of the conference."
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/...