In the “Twitter election”, the parallel universe that has been running through the #ausvotes hashtag on Twitter, Family First Queensland candidate Wendy Francis has caused a stir. Francis posted a stream of tweets claiming, “Children in homosexual relationships are subject to emotional abuse. Legitimising gay marriage is like legalising child abuse” and similar. The internet and Twitter being the way they are, a politician can make an ill advised comment and delete it. The traces remain, however – if someone sees something particularly noteworthy, they will be sure to take screen caps and distribute them widely.
“Bigotry and homophobia in politics” reads almost as an apologia for Francis’ own words simply because they are born of ignorance and are not as repellent in the author’s eyes as those of One Nation’s John Groves. While Francis has never incited people to violence as Groves has, simply chalking Francis’ claims up to ignorance is irresponsible.
The author, “Bastard Sheep” (who apparently does not use his real name online), believes that education is the solution to Francis’ issues and worldviews. The fact remains that she is espousing the viewpoint that gay marriage and child abuse are the same thing. Francis’ claim is that she speaks for the “concerns of mainstream Australia”. She wants “mainstream Australia” to listen to her, and therefore she firmly believes that what she is saying is true and in the country’s best interests.
The “Bigotry and homophobia in politics” blog entry illustrates that a story can spread across the Twitter and blogospheres and be interpreted in a variety of ways. For Bastard Sheep, Francis’ comments were insignificant relative to the violent threats of John Groves, and not taken on their own merits.
(A more in-depth account of the John Groves issue, which is a mixture of reportage and opinion, is available at Nicholas Perkins’ blog.)
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