Liberals should have nothing to do with a festival that promotes harmful gender conversion therapies for children such as puberty blockers, hormones and mutilating surgery.
Family First NSW Legislative Council lead candidate Lyle Shelton made these comments as Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane and some of her team confirmed they will march in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras as “Sloane Rangers”.
“When the Leader of the Opposition marches under the banner of Mardi Gras, she is lending her moral authority to a political movement that actively promotes the discredited idea that some children are born in the wrong body.
“Chemical castration and mutilating surgery are not the answer to a child’s mental distress.
“Kellie Sloane’s decision to march is every mum and dad’s worst nightmare. The last thing parents suffering under the cost-of-living crisis want is the pressure of worrying about LGBTQA+ programs in their kids’ schools.
“There is direct line from the political activism of the Mardi Gras to Macquarie Street to the classrooms of New South Wales,” Mr Shelton said.
“This is about whether a major political party will stand up for the rights of parents to have their children protected from confusing and harmful ideas about sex and identity.”
Mr Shelton said the parade also celebrates and entrenches a redefinition of marriage that severs the institution from its foundation in the union of one man and one woman.
“No one wants to stop people loving whoever they want. But civil society should not deliberately sever a baby’s love and primal desire for his or her mother or father so the lifestyle choices of adults can be satisfied.
“The Liberal Party once claimed to champion families. Immersing itself in Mardi Gras shows it has embraced an ideology that is destabilising them at a time when Australia needs strong families more than ever.”
“If the Liberals will not defend families and protect children from harmful gender ideology, Family First will,” Mr Shelton said.
Contact details:
