Gillard pulls out of Australian Christian Lobby's conference

The Prime Minister announced on 6 September that she will no longer be speaking at the Australian Christian Lobby's upcoming conference. It was the only respectable course of action following the extraordinary comments made in recent days by ACL direction Jim Wallace [1]. 
 
The pressure that has been building on the PM over the last month reached boiling point when, at a public debate about marriage equality in Hobart on Wednesday, the ACL's director Jim Wallace made comments asserting that the gay 'lifestyle' is more hazardous than smoking. The Prime Minister announced her withdrawal from the ACL conference in October, saying "I believe my attendance at the conference would be inappropriate".[2]
 
When I started this campaign 4 weeks ago it was both to encourage the Prime Minister to reconsider legitimising the position of the ACL - who do not represent the position of majority of Christians in Australia on the issue of marriage equality, and to ensure that she did not consider engaging with the ACL as an engagement with all or most Australian Christians. I am immensely grateful to the almost 16,000 of you who signed my petition. I was overwhelmed by how quickly the numbers rose, and by the hundreds of emails and other messages I received from many of you.
 
It's now up to the PM to meet with us - representatives of the many Australian Christians who support marriage equality and the 40% of gay couples who identitfy as Christian. We have been assured by the PM's office that our meeting request is being seriously considered. 
 
I am looking forward to the opportunity to discuss matters of faith, justice and equity with the PM and will take a copy of this petition with me to clearly demonstrate the breadth and depth of support for marriage equality, and to counter the caricature of people as faith as inherently homophobic and discriminatory.  
 
I will keep you updated on the outcome of our request for a meeting with the Prime Minister. In the meantime, please continue to contact both the PM and your local member to articulate your support for the Marriage Equality legislation which is before the parliament. My friends at Australian Marriage Equality have a great tool to help with this: http://www.australianmarriageequality.com/whereyourmpstands/

 
Thank you for your support, 
Rev. Carolyn Francis

 
PS. For a good read on the controversy of the last couple of days and the varied opinions on the issue, check out this article in The Age: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/pm-cancels-christian-lobby-visit-20120906-25hey.html 
 
 

[1] 'Smoking healthier than gay marriage', The Age, September 5 2012.
[2] 'Statement from Prime Minister Julia Gillard on ACL remarks', AME, September 6 2012.