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.

//LOL, try discussing//

I'm sorry, princess. What would you like me to say?

Foxy,

You are showing remarkable equanimity where anal rape is trivialised and laughed at, made the butt of jokes so to speak, by Benjamin Law, given his employment and association with SBS.

"Domestic violence a 'silent epidemic' in gay relationships

Domestic violence has become a "silent epidemic" in the gay and lesbian community despite being the subject of increasing scrutiny in heterosexual relationships, according to the AIDS Council of NSW.

Roughly one in three lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) couples experience domestic violence. Those statistics are echoed among the general population..."

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/domestic-violence-a-silent-epidemic-in-gay-relationships-20150415-1mm4hg.html

Is it just a silly joke because it was directed at a heterosexual and family man? What about a woman, would it still be just a joke?

//Is it just a silly joke because it was directed at a heterosexual and family man? What about a woman, would it still be just a joke?//

There is only a single criterion upon which to judge a joke: whether or not it is funny.

Which is of course purely subjective. We don't all laugh at the same things. Offensive comedy can be extremely funny: certain sections of the community were deeply offended by 'The Life of Brian'. I'm sure runner still is. But without Monty Python, where would we get scenes like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBOQzSk14c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPGb4STRfKw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ

But these days, Monty Python aren't offensive any more: we've moved past that point.

This is how you do offensive comedy these days:

**Trigger Warning**: Not safe for runner. Not safe for children. Not safe for those of a sensitive disposition. Not safe for SJW's, fans of political correctness etc. Possibly unsafe for Tories - tests remain inconclusive. Best consumed with a minimum of earnestness & indignation.

NB: There is a Canadian comedian as a warm up act, who isn't very good. The main attraction is Frankie Boyle, who has a heavy Scottish accent. It's fairly easy to tell them apart: the one with the Scottish accent is fatter and has funnier jokes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8_3_IY83fI

I liked his Ayers Rock joke XD

Really puts Mr. Law's feeble contributions into perspective, doesn't it? That's how you go about offending people properly.

leoj,

This is more than just "silly jokes"
or slamming people in the face with pies. Or even boys
wearing dresses et cetera. It goes
much deeper than that. It shows that both proponents
for, and opponents of, same-sex marriage have a clear
intent to make public statements for their "causes"
and generate publicity and controversy in their
campaigns.

I stated earlier 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 (anal rape, domestic violence, et cetera),
and simply concentrate on the very simple straight
forward proposition that the Government has placed in
front of us. We should not be deterred or our attention
diverted by anything else
at the moment. We simply need to take the opportunity
to concentrate on having our say.

And this as you know does not mean that I condone or approve of
rape or domestic violence or anything else that is
being used as a diversion. Those are separate issues and I have
made my position quite clear on them in this forum
over the years.

Toni Lavis,

The issue is hypocrisy. For example,

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/08/frankie-boyle-is-a-cowardly-bully-and-im-ashamed-i-ever-stood-up-for-him/

Do you agree that if Benjamin Laws 'joke' was from the other side the offender would indeed be subjected to pitchforks and flaming torches from the baying left-wing mob and hounded out of his job? No matter, there are the well publicised examples anyhow.

The good thing is the freedom of speech that allowed Benjamin Laws to model his and ors hypocrisy, the hypocrisy of gay politics and at the same time provide a case example of how limitations on free speech such as 'that' Section 18c.

My "a case example of how limitations on free speech such as 'that' Section 18c", omitted its final clause,
"a case example of how limitations on free speech such as 'that' Section 18c remind that free speech hasn't got many supporters in the federal Parliament".

Benjamin Laws is an immature, pretentious fool who undermined, set-back, the labours of the earnest.

Tony,

Given the furore when Abbott stood in front of a sign that said "ditch the witch", I doubt the left would have maintained the call for free speech if a conservative commentator had called for Gillard to be anally raped.

Julia Gillard maintained that Tony Abbott's career should have been ended because a poster, 'ditch the witch' with a cartoon witch on a broomstick, was one of the many posters behind him when he addressed a crowd. Senior Labor politicians, PM and Ministers, stormed about it.

"Five years later, Ms Gillard has told ABC journalist Sarah Ferguson, in part three of her The Killing Season: The Long Shadow documentary, that should have finished Mr Abbott's career.

"I really don't know why this wasn't a career-ending moment for Tony Abbott – sexism is no better than racism," she says.

Former trade minister Craig Emerson says he "felt like vomiting when I saw the signs.."
[SMH, June 23 2015]

If we're going to start to add up who said what
about whom over the years - what will that
achieve?

We have political commentary on many sides
that we can point the fingers at.
Mine side is better than yours?
Really? I don't think
that anything productive will be reached in discussions
of this sort - just more
attacks and the spread of hatred. And surely we can do
better than that.
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth will result
in us all ending up blind and toothless.
Most of us are surely better than that.

I believe the 'safe schools' agenda is far more divisive than we are led to believe. I vaguely remember it was introduced under the banner of stopping school bullying. What we were not told was the ones being bullied were in fact 'different'. The schools started telling the children, 'you can be whatever you want to be' implying gender choice. I thought gender fluidity was another phrase used. So it turned out that any child that considered themselves to bat for the other side was set upon for doing so. Don't kid yourselves, I know just a fraction of this awful legislation, but the little I know gives me grave concerns and fear for our children and where these sick bastards are leading them. It's such a farce, these pathetic teachers will not lift a finger to discipline the same children that they will happily groom, making them just another pedophile. A govt sanctioned one. How do you like that?