Dear Peter
How big is that hole you are digging for yourself at the Christian Democratic Party headquarters?
Your YouTube video “Heal Our Land – Stand for Righteousness”, calling for a shutdown of Mardi Gras ‘anarchy’, as you call it, has caused quite a stir. I am sure you were unaware of the backlash this would create. 20 likes and 700 dislikes, on YouTube, possibly give you some indication of the success of your campaign.
The mindset and language in the video reflects a culture of over 20 years ago (1989) when The Rev. Fred Nile, with several hundred Christians, walked up Oxford Street in a ‘cleansing’ march. Far from that being an act of cleansing Oxford Street from the homosexual menace, Australian society has become more accepting of diversity and many of the inequalities experienced by gay and lesbian people have been addressed. This is not so in some areas of the Christian Church however. History tells us the church rarely leads positive change but in fact often opposes it. Equality for people of colour, interracial marriages and the role of women in the church are just some examples. To enter the political arena you will need to be more in touch with relevant issues.
Like many people who criticise the Mardi Gras parade, you seem to lack understanding of its significance, history and positive impact on the City of Sydney. Far from being a celebration of G-strings, sex toys and debauchery, as you’ve said, it’s a celebration of pride and acceptance for a group of people who have suffered for decades because of their own and society’s ignorance about sexual orientation and gender diversity. Homosexuality is not a sin, it’s an orientation.
Your heterosexuality is celebrated every single day with weddings, engagements, anniversaries, baby showers, christenings etc., so surely it’s not too much to ask that we celebrate who we are once a year.
Summarising your initial video the words, ‘sensationalist’, ‘fear-mongering’ and ‘stereotyping’ come to mind.
I am referring to statements such as:
· “100,000’s of drunken youth will come to Sydney streets and be incited to all kind of lust, filth and moral depravity”
· “Mardi Gras is Sydney’s high day of sexual immorality”
· “Hyde Park will be strewn with the bodies of drunken teenagers. 13, 14 and 15 year old children, celebrating watching and participating in forms of sex they can’t understand.
· “Mardi Gras is a parade of live porn”
· “There will be beatings, drugs, alcohol, violence and debauchery”
· “This is not an attack on bruised and confused individuals”
· “100,000’s of drunken youth will come to Sydney streets and be incited to all kind of lust, filth and moral depravity”
· “Mardi Gras is Sydney’s high day of sexual immorality”
· “Hyde Park will be strewn with the bodies of drunken teenagers. 13, 14 and 15 year old children, celebrating watching and participating in forms of sex they can’t understand.
· “Mardi Gras is a parade of live porn”
· “There will be beatings, drugs, alcohol, violence and debauchery”
· “This is not an attack on bruised and confused individuals”
As if you hadn’t done enough damage…… then you post another video; A Response to Comments on Stand For Righteousness. Wasn’t the hole big enough?
BTW… I do have something to thank you for.
Your video has incensed a number of ministers, feeling that our community might think you represent the Christian church, and they have contacted me, asking if they can march with Freedom2b in this year’s parade. This happened in 2008 when 100 (The 100 Revs) Evangelical and Pentecostal ministers signed an apology and marched in the parade to say sorry for the way the church had treated so many of us. The ministers were moved to tears that day by the ovation of the crowd and the hospitality shown to them by our community.
I think an apology from you is also in order for the misrepresentation of our community and parade.
Peter, I don’t see you as the enemy. The enemy is ignorance. The kind of ignorance demonstrated in your videos and shows that your understanding of sexual orientation, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and LGBT people as a whole is sadly lacking.
Sincerely
Anthony Venn-Brown
LGBT community leader, author of “A Life of Unlearning: a preacher’s struggle with his homosexuality, church and faith”
Well Anthony your professionalism has come through again. You remind me of a Democrat Senator who was also a Uniting Church Minister who would argue for the cause of the LGBT community Well done again
Thank you Anthony for writing this so gently, compassionately and wisely. I haven't yet seen the videos in question, but given your summary of them, I don't think I could have viewed them and then written as well as you have.
Thanks Anthony. Madden certainly lives up to his surname Barbary
Religion is stupid. Gay Pride parades are also stupid.
You deserve each other. Please leave the rest of us, atheist straights, alone.
You're both very weird and pitiful people with a sense of grievance. Which means you're both pitiful.
I'm glad I'm neither gay nor religious. I guess it's too much to ask for that you simultaneously off each other.
@anonymous……Barbary? Sorry I don't get it.
Thanks Anthony. We so need responses like this.
@puzzeled&confused……I little different to the youtube comments eh….hehe
Anthony, what a wonderful letter and thank you for sharing it. This guy really worries me. He is spreading a message of hate but pretends it's not (I think even to himself).
Michelle
I just watched the You-Tube Response video – I hadn't seen it before. It's interesting he says he is not homophobic. He must have realised that doesn't wash because he now states (on his website) that he has been saying he's not homophobic, but in truth he has 'healthy homophobia' (a very dangerous use of language about which I have written letters to a number of people).
What I found interesting, and is an insight into Peter Madden's thinking, is that when he talks about gay people, he appears to relate being gay to having a sex-addiction (rather than sexual orientation).
yes Michelle…..in the sort of circles Peter moves in….because they actually don't know any gay and lesbian people they make the assumption that homosexuality = promiscuity = immorality.
And never seeming to be aware that within both gay and straight worlds there is a spectrum of morality and relationships