August 9, 2010
Over the last couple of days there has been talk on twitter regarding the tweets of Family First Queensland senate candidate Wendy Francis (@wendy4senate). Over this time, many people have pointed out her bigotry to her, which was reported in Fairfax Media this morning by Ben Grub (@bengrubb).
I sent a tweet this morning to her twitter account after watching her performance on a Sunrise debate (link).
[Image not archived: .@wendy4senate Viewed the debate on Sunrise. you are extremely rude and devaluing the lives of gay people and secular society #ausvotes]
Tweet to Wendy Francis, Queensland Senate Candidate for Family First
I thought this was fairly respectful but still pointed out my strong belief that her views are bigoted. After returning home from coffee with my mother-in-law this afternoon, I found this tweet waiting for me from John Groves (@h20aquarium). His account says that he is the State President for One Nation Victoria.
[Image not archived: @NicholasPerkins I can understand why U are a Phoofter]
Tweet from John Groves, State President of One Nation Victoria
I’m sure my wife finds this interesting news.
Reading further, I found another tweet in which he offers his support to Wendy.
[Image not archived: @wendy4senate U have a backer in me, love to do some Poofter Bashing from time too time,The Reason as a kid I was abused by such an Animal]
Tweet from John Groves, State President of One Nation Victoria
I’m not going to touch his comments regarding what happened to him as a child. It is not my place. It is my place to comment on his comment that he would love to do some ‘Poofter Bashing’.
I was actually concerned that this might be a fake twitter account. There are many that pop up all over the place, so I did some investigation. Searching on the net for “John Groves One Nation” lead me to the website of the Victorian branch of One Nation.
Sure enough, it mentions that John Groves is the state president and that you can contact him on his mobile. So I thought I would. I wanted to confirm whether these were really his thoughts, or the thoughts of some bigot trying to use his name and position.
Here is a transcript of the conversation, taken down by Natalie for me as I recounted it to her after the call. It is as accurate as I can make it, and I have not omitted anything intentionally.
I rang Mr Groves and asked him questions in regards to One Nation’s official policy on gays and gay bashing and comments made on twitter under his name. I indicated I’d gotten his number from the One Nation website, I didn’t troll the White Pages to find his contact, he had made himself publicly contactable.
He immediately sounded agitated and said that I had “well and truly got the message” to which I asked “Is it One Nation policy to promote gay bashing and discrimination against gay people?” He continued to say that I had “gotten the message” and repeated comments made on his twitter account regarding being assaulted as a child by “those animals” and that he will “not stand for gay people” and to “get out of [his] face”. At this time I asked him to confirm that this is One Nation policy to which he continued to verbally abuse me, assuming I was gay, he indicated once more to “get out of [his] face” and hung up.
So I guess it is his account and I guess they are his thoughts. So therefore I want to hold him accountable for that.
Not only is it abhorrent that you would want to bash someone on the basis of their sexuality, it is also illegal. For a state president of a political party to promote the bashing of any section of society shows a political party that is out of touch with what I expect, and what I suspect most Australians expect of a political party.
I cannot stand by and watch as my friends get targeted by bigots and used as a political football by those who wish to turn the moral compass of Australia on its head. The idea that gay people are somehow lesser human beings, or even animals, is just so far wrong that there are no words that I can find to describe how shocked and appalled I am.
I will stand up to these people, but I can not do it alone. I ask you to please make sure that people like John Groves do not get the chance to get the agenda for this country. There is enough discrimination and bigotry in the world as it is.