Doug PollardTranscript - Kelly Pilgrim-Byrne & Family First
Kelly Pilgrim-Byrne
Doug: We’ve been hearing a lot of nasty things from various Family First candidates around the country. There was a guy in Hasluck last night apparently, who was saying all gays are diseased and ought to be treated. He also said that all children are inherently bad and have to be taught to be good. So, he obviously takes an optimistic view of the world; but one of the nastiest things that was said was by Wendy Francis, she’s the Queensland candidate for the Senate for Family First. She appeared on television debating, if that’s quite the right word – with Fiona Patten from the Australian Sex Party – but she said some pretty nasty things about gay families on a tweet on Twitter that she’s now trying to walk away from and Kelly Pilgrim-Byrne took exception to it – and Kelly, joins us on the line now.
Kelly: Hi, Doug. How are you?
Doug: I’m pretty good; so, what did Wendy say?
Kelly: Well, she essentially equated same-sex families and the children within those families as being subjected to emotional abuse.
Doug: I - - -
Kelly: (and) She went on further to say that legitimising gay marriage would be the equivalent of allowing child abuse.
Doug: How charming.
Kelly: Isn’t it – and – well, I saw those comments, firstly – and it went beyond the usual, narrow-minded, stereotypical stuff that we’re used to.
Doug: Yeah.
Kelly: (and) It actually appeared and felt very much to me like an allegation.
Doug: Yes.
Kelly: Being a same-sex parent of a three year-old little girl, myself(sic) and my partner took great exception to it. We will not be called child abusers by anybody least of all, a political senate wannabe, really. In short. But aside from all of that what it does is it creates such stigma for our families and I particularly have just have had enough of hearing this stuff and – thinking – that these people think that because of the positions they’re in, that they can just say them and walk away.
Doug: Yeah, she seems to have forgotten that Twitter is a public forum - - -
Kelly: M’mm.
Doug: [laughs]
Kelly: Absolutely and I’m very pleased to see the negative response and feedback loop that she’s received through her comments because it might give her the message that middle-Australia doesn’t believe what you(sic) believe.
Doug: Yeah. I’ve just tracked down the Twitter post, she said: “Children in homosexual relationships are subjected to emotional abuse … legitimising gay marriage is like legalising child abuse - - -”
Kelly: Yeah, exactly - - -
Doug: - - - that’s a pretty foul thing to say isn’t it?
Kelly: It’s absolutely so distasteful. It really is. What’s even more distasteful is that in subsequent interviews she actually did say that she just hopes the whole thing blows over.
Doug: Yeah, she has issued a – sort of, apology but you’re not finding that enough, are you?
Kelly: I’m not finding that authentic, Doug, to be honest - - -
Doug: [laughs]
Kelly: - - - and I’m not finding it authentic purely because she issues the apology, says it’s unreserved and then goes on in slightly softer language to repeat exactly what she has said, previously.
Doug: Yes – and at the same time also blaming her staff - - -
Kelly: Yes, yes - - -
Doug: - - - for not getting her words right and not allowing her to edit it so, ‘it’s not my fault anyway, gov’.
Kelly: Yeah, absolutely. Passing the buck. She just talks about she just wants it to blow over and this is obviously one – you know, a way in which she can try and allow that to happen however, it doesn’t blow over for our families - - -
Doug: M’mm.
Kelly: It become embedded into the fabric our daily lives.
Doug: (and) Then - - -
Kelly: [Indistinct] messages that we hear. It’s not okay, it’s not okay for these people to think that they can just say it.
Doug: So, what are you doing about it Kelly?
Kelly: Well – you know, I’ve lodged a complaint with the Queensland Anti-discrimination Commission – m’mm, they will go through their normal processes now which will involve either accepting or declining – rejecting, the claim. I hope they do accept it. I can’t talk very much more on that because it might, you know - - -
Doug: Yeah. Yes, indeed - - -
Kelly: - - - but in-so-much as not accepting Wendy’s apology what I would like to see is a more – an unconditional apology published much more widely than just on her blog - - -
Doug: M’mm.
Kelly: This obviously, went nationwide and a lot of people heard it. A lot of gay families heard it and a lot of children of same-sex families heard it and I would like those same people to be able to see an unreserved apology from her. Unconditional. I would also like it to be published – m’mm, in the gay press nationwide - - -
Doug: Yes.
Kelly: But above that and beyond that, it’s so important that Family First and their members actually understand why what they have said is so offensive and I don’t believe they do get that.
Doug: No, I don’t think they do either - - -
Kelly: Yeah.
Doug: I mean, that so-called apology from her didn’t – well, it read to me as though it was written by somebody else - - -
Kelly: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Doug: - - - it was put through the P.R. spin machine.
Kelly: Yes.
Doug: Just in case you didn’t know, I’ve been told this morning there are two gay dads here in Victoria who have referred her remarks to the Anti-vilification Commission here, as well - - -
Kelly: Fantastic.
Doug: - - - so - - -
Kelly: Yeah, I’m getting lots of calls, lots of Face Book messages – lots of females, people are enraged and rightly so – and these laws are in place for us to be able to use for situations exactly like this one and we should use them.
Doug: M’mm, incidentally, her tweet brought some more nasties out of the woodwork – the state president of One Nation, Victoria – John Groves - - -
Kelly: Yeah.
Doug: - - - replied back to her: “Wendy, you have a backer in me. Love to do some poofta bashing from time-to-time, the reason? As a kid I was abused by such an animal” now, without getting into what happened to him as a child, there is no excuse to go around saying ‘I love to do poofta bashing’ that’s encouraging violence.
Kelly: There’s not – I mean, all of this – all of these comments incite hatred. They do. They have the potential to hurt all of us and again I say, it’s not okay for these people to do it and we need to hold them accountable – and we need to stop them and – you know, education – yes, is absolutely part of that. We need to make sure that through education, they learn a different story and a different history. But we also, sometimes, are going to have to use legal avenues to stop them from doing it.
Doug: Yeah, there comes a point where you just have to – you know, instead of rolling over you’ve got to do something about it - - -
Kelly: Enough is enough, yes.
Doug: Well, good on you Kelly. Best of luck with it.
Kelly: Thanks, I appreciate - - -
Doug: If I - - -
Kelly: - - - doing it as well, I also wish them luck.
Doug: Yes. The more complaints we have in, the better – because she has to respond individually to each one.
Kelly: She does and critical mass on these things is always a positive thing.
Doug: Okay. Thank you very much, Kelly.
Kelly: Thanks for talking to me,Doug:.
Doug: You’re welcome.
Kelly: ‘Bye.
Doug: So, incidentally – you can raise your own complaint about this, if you’re outraged by the Family First candidate saying that legitimising gay marriage is like legalising child abuse – if you think that’s vilification, you can raise a complaint about that.
If you think that the state president of the One Nation, Victoria, John Groves should not have said he backed her because he loves to do some poofta bashing from time-to-time, you can raise a complaint about that.
You can actually raise a complaint direct with John Groves, himself. Because if you go to the One Nation Victoria website you’ll find some information about John Groves and all the other candidates on there including John Groves’ mobile telephone number. So, you’re quite welcome to give him a call and tell him what you think.
No matter which way you look at it a normal family idealy shoild be rasied by a father and mother.
No wonder kids of today are confused and have no reall morals anymore.
There has to be a line drawn somewhere and this same sex parenting experiment is amounting child abuse .
You may say what about single parents were there is at least one parent missing well if you look at it those kids raised by single parents have loads of problems.