"I'm not homophobic" - Wendy Francis Gay parents have lodged hate-speech complaints against an Australian Senate candidate who equated same-sex couples raising children with child abuse. Queensland Family First Senate candidate Wendy Francis wrote in a Twitter post that "children in homosexual relationships are subject to emotional abuse. Legitimising gay marriage is like legalising child abuse''. The post was eventually deleted after a storm of angry comments. Kelly Pilgrim-Byrne from the Australian Coalition for Equality is raising a young child with her partner. She says all credible research shows children raised by same-sex couples have the same levels of emotional, intellectual, social and sexual adjustment as their peers. "The real danger to my child, and other children raised by same-sex couples, is from the bigotry and hatred stirred up by people like Wendy Francis," she said. "Parents like me across the nation are angry that our families are under attack and some of us have responded with complaints to our state anti-discrimination commissions." Anti-discrimination complaints have been made in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania. Pilgrim Byrne is urging parents in other states to do the same. She says a public apology from Francis is necessary to begin to undo the damage caused. However the Family First candidate has far from backed down – she is now likening what she calls the 'parentless' generation to the Stolen Generations. "What I did say is that I believe that the most optimum situation for a child is to have a father and a mother," she told ABC Radio's PM program. "What I was actually saying was that we don't know yet what this social experiment is going to result with. "What I was saying is, under normal circumstances, if we were to do a social experiment on our children we would count that as emotional abuse." Francis says she is not homophobic, only that she "just does not agree with kids being brought up with a gay couple as surrogate parents". It comes as the party Francis hopes to represent in the Senate has disendorsed a candidate for backing gay marriage. Family First says David Barrow misrepresented himself after signing a secret affidavit denouncing the party's values. In an affidavit posted online Mr Barrow states that he supports the marriage of any committed partnership and says same-sex couples should have the right to adopt. He also declares abortion is a woman's choice. Barrow was running for the seat of La Trobe, in Melbourne's outer east.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 11th August 2010 - 9:46am