Gay rights activist slammed for lewd tweets

Writer and same sex marriage campaigner Benjamin Law has come under fire over lewd tweets in which he jokes about 'hate f---ing' the homophobia out of 'anti-gay MPs'.

Mr Law, a columnist with Fairfax and the creator of SBS comedy series The Family Law, first posted the tweet on August 30, prompting a flurry of comments aimed at individual Coalition MPs.

'Start with Hastie,' one tweet read, to which Mr Law responded: '(sighs heavily, unzips pants)'...

Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has responded to the lewd tweets by saying traditional marriage campaigners such as himself have been targeted with similar comments 'over the last year'.

'As to Mr Law's tweet. Look, if you want to search for filth on the internet, you don't have to go far. You can find it on Twitter, so the substance of the tweet - yes, despicable. But, you know, sticks and stones will break my bones, names will never hurt me - as we've all learned over the years,' Mr Hastie told Sky News.

'What's important is that Mr Law is ... a mainstream activist and he's also, just today, published a Quarterly Essay of 25,000 words on Safe Schools and why he thinks it should be rolled out nationally. He has a prominent position and I guarantee you if anyone did that on the No side, they'd be out of a job by sun down.'"
http://www.skynews.com.au/news/politics/federal/2017/09/11/benjamin-law-under-fire-over-lewd-tweets.html

"I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it."
- Voltaire

I think that's really all that needs to be said on the matter. The right to free speech must necessarily include the right for people you don't like to say things you don't like, or it isn't really free.

Should we now expect pitchforks and flaming torches from the baying right-wing mob as in the Abdel-Magied case? Will your mob hound him out of the country as well? After all, Law is left-wing, gay and Asian - a bigot's trifecta. Have you made any death threats to him yet, leo? You'll be letting down your side if you don't.

Toni Lavis,

LOL, try discussing, not side-stepping.

If you can find any genuine Left in the commentator concerned you would be stretching it.

No doubt Law's vile tweets will win him friends with the ABC and other regressives. More paid appearances on q@a and the drum. Shows you why the swamp needs draining. These grotty little creatures make the alt right look tame. A conservative would lose their job for pointing out obvious health risks of sodomy while this clown is cheered. Sick society! Just like the vomit that Deveny spews the abc remains silent.

From what I've heard about this 'safe schools' programme I would've thought all our schools were pretty safe? What additional measures are they to introduce to make them any safer I wonder.

Or have some school received threats of a kind that caused the authorities to take these additional measures to increase the safety, for both staff and students alike? And they're now reacting to that latest threat?

An opponent of same-sex marriage slammed Alan Joyce
(CEO OF QANTAS - and gay) with a lemon meringue pie
as Joyce was giving a public speech to 500 business
people in Perth in May this year. The offender's clear intent
was to make a public statement and to generate
publicity.

Now with the controversy over a joker's tweets on social media
it shows that things can get very personal. When the
political relies on the personal, all campaigners open
themselves to greater than usual personal scrutiny.

Anyone who takes a public personal stand on same-sex marriage
opens themselves up to a very critical public gaze. Hence Tiernan
Brady's advice of keeping it respectful has validity in this
context.

The thing is - this is not about fighting all sorts of wars.
It's about a very simple straight forward proposition - it's
about the opportunity of have our say.

We need to get out of the politically instinctive mode of
"attack, attack, attack." Get our feet off a war footing with
a clutch of battle cries and simply take the opportunity
to have our say.