On Saturday, One Nation candidate Shan Ju Lin was dumped from the party after she published a number of horrendous homophobic Facebook posts.
In one post, she referred to homosexuality being an illness, and said that gay people should be “treated as patients” and must “receive treatments”. She also says “abnormal sex behaviour leads to abnormal crime”.
In the post, she refers to a case where couple George Harasz and Douglas Wirth were accused of sexually abusing their foster children in 2011 – both men were cleared of any wrongdoing.
Lin also said that she was deeply concerned about the Safe Schools anti-bullying program, because it promotes “gay lifestyles, which [are] against the traditional values”.
“The gay community always say they are born like that … the best way to know if they’re born like that, they at least need to have a medical consultation so they know if they’re born like that or not.But now instead of that the Government is putting Safe Schools in our education system. I just linked all of this together and it made me so worried and so angry.”
Leader of the party Pauline Hanson said in a statement afterwards that Lin‘s views were not shared by the party:
“I will not stand by and allow people to trash the party or my name, so I make no apologies for being tough on candidates.”
Now, Shan Ju Lin has spoken to the ABC about the incident, says she will not apologise and claiming that she did not believe her posts were homophobic – she was simply concerned about child welfare (despite the fact that 1) the two men involved have been completely cleared, and 2) sexual abuse of children obviously does not exclusively happen families with same-sex parents.)
“I can’t see anything wrong with my post … I asked another candidate to check and he couldn’t find anything wrong with my post.”
In a statement posted to Facebook, Lin says she has only had contact with One Nation chief of staff James Ashby, who she suggests made the decision:
“The speed of the disendorsement decision – without any chance to defend myself – has also been remarkable.At no time have I been able to speak directly with Pauline Hanson.”
Lin also told the ABC that she was not considered still running for the seat, but has received encouragement from supporters and has been contacted by other parties who are willing to support her outdated views.
Source: ABC.
Photo: Facebook / Shan Ju Lin.
