An anti-Safe Schools group has recently started a new campaign – finding parents who do not agree with same-sex marriage/the Safe Schools program, and video them making subtly bigoted comments laid over calming music and images of them smiling and caring deeply for their children.
First up from the page ‘You’re Teaching Our Children What?’ was a mother of four from Victoria, Cella White. Cella’s son seemed really excited by the prospect of being able to wear a dress as his school uniform next year, a rule that Safe Schools introduced to help young transgender children. Cella says she asked her son if he was sure, because ‘this would be a big turning point’.
For a brief moment, you forget what you’re watching, and think she’s about to acknowledge and accept her potentially gender-fluid or transgender child – BUT NO. THE TURNING POINT IS HER CONSIDERING RIPPING HIM OUT OF THE SCHOOL. (You can watch that one HERE, if you enjoy being infuriated.)
Today, the page put up their second video, in which “heroic father” Steve says that his ‘church-mouse’ daughter was ignored by a teacher after stating she did not agree with same-sex marriage, which ‘marginalised’ her.
Steve argues that his daughter NEVER openly states ‘we hate gays’, and that other people just assume she does because she’s Christian – he then goes on to say that his daughter told her teacher that she’s Christian and so does not agree with same-sex marriage.
He ends his video with the statement, “You don’t need a program to teach you that everybody should be respected; everybody should be valued,” which is laughable considering he spent the past seven and a half minutes talking about how he’s taught his children that some people should forcibly have less rights than them.
Here:
This is a nice little peek into the kind of media that will be sitting firmly in our timelines during the plebiscite. The anti-LGBTQIA groups won’t want to appear aggressive like some religious groups; they don’t want to be seen as radical or crazy.
The kind of anti-LGBTQIA messages that will be pushed won’t include Nazi flags, Westboro Baptist Church memorabilia, yelling or slurs; they’ll be calm, they’ll speak softly of the pain they’ve experienced being supporters of ‘traditional marriage’ and they’ll promote homophobic views in subtle and nuanced ways.
FYI: you don’t have to be screaming homophobic slurs and waving a ‘GOD HATES F*GS’ placard to perpetuate homophobia. If you see gay people as ‘weird’, ‘inferior’ or undeserving of the same rights that you have, then guess what? That’s homophobia.
