Media releaseJanuary 2009 Nixon should not march in homosexual Pride marchAlmost the first thing Victorian Police Commissioner Christine Nixon did when appointed was to endorse and march in the Melbourne homosexual pride march of 2002. NOW, one of the last things she will do is to again march in the same homosexual parade. "We understand that she and Rob Hulls will also address the 'Party' crowd afterwards with a message of support also being presented from Deputy PM Julia Gillard. The normalisation of homosexuality by these people is a disgrace!" Said Peter Stokes, of Christian group Salt Shakers "Mr Hulls will probably be telling them that the Victorian government has endorsed their minority lifestyle by passing many laws to accommodate and endorse homosexuality." He said "Their allegiance to, and support of, a parade that 'honours' a lifestyle many still believe immoral and one that is certainly unhealthy and dangerous, is nothing short of irresponsible." Peter Stokes said. We trust participants will be warned about health risks such as Shigellosis, because, the Victorian Aids Council have recently stated, "Currently in Victoria there is an outbreak of Shigellosis among men who have sex with men and it's not pleasant. ( http://www.sstar.net.au/soapbox/ 2009/01/14/feeling-shitty/1100 ) "We are also concerned that Pride, along with Midsumma organisers, have also consistently exaggerated the size of its event year after year - dishonesty of this sort is not something a Police Commissioner should support either." Peter Stokes, who is also President of the Family Council of Victorian, said. We can but hope that Pride organisers will demonstrate the same conservative approach to crowd and participant 'numbers' expressed by this years Midsumma general manager Adam Lowe when he stated "I don't think Midsumma has ever really taken attendance numbers in any formal way, so I have been a little bit conservative about this year's attendance numbers in the planning." (MCV 15 Jan 09) We have been saying for years that midsumma and pride figures are grossly exaggerated. Proper calculations would result in a Pride crowd estimate of less than 10,000 rather than the usual nonsense organisers trot out of 50,000 spectators. "When one considers that around 5,000 people are in the Fitzroy St, St Kilda precinct on any summer Sunday - so how many really turn up specifically for this event?" Stokes said. Event organisers need to come clean. Once again we will be monitoring the pride march and estimating the crowd size. We will also be photographing the crowd and placing the photos on our web site as evidence as we have done in the past. For further comment contact Salt Shakers - Peter Stokes - Ph 0413 084 145
|