Andrew Bolt calls gay rights watchdog a “gay gestapo”
Conservative commentator Andrew Bolt has slammed Labor鈥檚 proposed new gay rights watchdog, calling it a 鈥榞ay gestapo鈥�.
Labor has pledged $1.4 million to establish an LGBTI commissioner to act as a champion for the community鈥檚 rights, reported last year.
The election promise this week caught the eye of Bolt, who took to his blog to criticise Labor鈥檚 plan.
鈥淟abor will pay a gay gestapo to hound you,鈥� he wrote.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think anyone is allowed to resist.鈥�
Dr Dvir Abramovich of the Anti-Defamation Commission condemned Bolt鈥檚 comments comparing the commissioner to the Nazi police.
鈥淚t is time that commentators stop taking the easy way out by belittling and exploiting the Holocaust,鈥� he said.
鈥淭here are many ways that we can have a robust and vigorous debate about same-sex marriage and equality, but insulting comparisons to the Gestapo have no place in our society.
鈥淚nvoking painful analogies to the Holocaust to criticise a political action adds nothing to the debate since it bears no historical relevance to the issues of the day and only fuels the demonisation of the LGBTI community.鈥�
Dr Abramovich said the comparison was particularly hurtful given the role of the Nazi Gestapo in killing gay people.
鈥淎s the Nazi state鈥檚 secret police, the ruthless Gestapo was part of 鈥楾he Final Solution鈥�, responsible for arrests, deportations and mass murder, including homosexuals,鈥� he said.
鈥淭o suggest that this proposed appointment is in any way similar to this notoriously evil organisation cheapens the extermination of millions.
鈥淲e therefore urge Andrew Bolt to retract his hurtful remarks and to refrain from employing such equations in the future. No discussion, as passionate as it may be, can justify making inappropriate and misguided Nazi analogies.鈥�
Andrew. you are on the right tract — if one studies Dean smith proposal it is clear that they wanted to force acceptance on all sections of society.
Would that mean that the religious zealots and extremists can be held accountable for discriminatory action such as non service to gays?
Andrew Bolt is a moron. On any given issue, he forms a very predictable far-right view then inserts the old buzz words about the topic in an effort to be controversial.
But in so many cases he presumes with zero evidence that looking out for the human or civil rights of one group is somehow impinging on the rights of everyone else. It’s his basic error on this issue today.
Ordinary folks will never notice the LGBTI commissioner because they don’t do homophobic things. Bolt will do homophobic things so he can then whinge about being on the LGBTI commissioner’s radar. It’s like his section 18C conviction, when he wrote a column asserting specific allegations against specific people so that he could not use the usual 18D ‘fair comment’ defence, then when he got (predictably) convicted in court he used that to convince the Liberal Party to drop section 18C altogether.
Screwing him over on that deal was something Tony Abbott did which I actually cheered. Hilarious.