Close to home: what Tony Abbott’s family taught him about gay relationships
hidden behind The Australian‘s paywall, we only have the first two paragraphs to go on, but that is more than enough. Clearly this nausea-inducing sycophancy is what the editors of ‘The Oz’ believe will appeal to their readers, or lure in new subscribers.
Written by Kate Legge (wife of Greg Hywood, CEO of FairFox media), in two paragraphs, gushes over Tony Abbott. It is almost as if there is a competition with Mischa Schubert (see: Abbotts Great Big New Nanny Giveaway), fan-girling over Abbott, as if he was all the members of One Direction and Justin Beiber rolled into one.
Tony Abbott is on record as saying he feels threatened by gay people. In 2010 during an interview with 60 Minutes, Abbott said I probably feel a bit threatened, as so many people do. It’s a fact of life.
and although Abbott defended those comments the potential prime minister was living in a 1950s world [and] said his earlier comment had been spontaneous
. Yes, because that makes the threatened comment so much better.There is no doubt that (homosexuality) challenges, if you like, orthodox notions of the right order of things,
he told ABC TV
However, much like his sudden understanding of working women in wanting to provide nannies for the wealthy, followed closely with saying Prime Minister Julia Gillard has a target on her forehead and commenting on her body shape, Abbott’s words about compassion and support
(Legge) for his sister, is at odds with his complete lack of compassion and lack of support for any other gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex person.
With the wonders of modern medicine – or perhaps spin doctors – Abbott’s homophobia is cured Although Abbott felt threatened and felt that there was something not right about gay people only two years ago, but now, with the wonders of modern medicine – or perhaps spin doctors – Abbott’s homophobia is cured, his compassion for gay people is boundless. His road to Damascus conversion is miraculous. We know better, if we just wait a week or two, Abbott will say something, off-the-cuff that he will later apologise for.
Saying something spontaneously, that he didn’t mean, then apologising, is par-for-course when it comes to Abbott. Tony Abbott’s admission that not everything he says off-the-cuff is the
(source of all quotes: here) – How many different ways can someone avoid saying I Am A Liar, without using those words?gospel truth
… [and that] … that voters should not believe every pledge he makes unless it is written down as the gospel truth
… in the heat of discussion
he sometimes went further with a promise than he should. Quizzed about his broken promise not to increase taxes, Mr Abbott said sometimes absolute weight
could be placed on what is said and other times it was just the give and take of standard conversation
… you go a little bit further than you would if it was an absolutely calm, considered, prepared, scripted remark
So what does that mean for Tony’s new found compassion and support for his lesbian sister. Without reading the rest of the article, I cannot say, but anyone who has followed Mr Abbott’s career would have to doubt Mr-Family-Values has had a change of heart. The Opposition Leader is a traditionalist who believes marriage is for men and women. [Abbott’s sister] is committed to a live-in relationship with her partner/q> (Legge). So perhaps Abbott is compassionate and supportive, he just does not believe his sister is entitled to the exact same rights that Abbott enjoys, as a good, traditional family man.
So what kind of family values does Abbott expose? What are these family values that Abbott thinks are only available to straight couples?
When Abbott was 19, his girlfriend became pregnant and believed Abbott to be the biological father. The couple did not marry and put the child up for adoption. For 27 years, Abbott believed that he fathered this child.
So traditional, so family-values!
I cannot know what The Australian article says, perhaps it is using Abbott’s love for his sister to defend his anti-marriage-equality views, much the same way we hear racists say I can’t be racist, my maid is Asian
. Being compassionate to one gay person does not negate Abbott’s desire to see other gay and lesbian couples refused their human rights.
One last point I would like to raise… why are we hearing about this now? Is this more spin from Murdoch in their attempt to humanise Abbott? Or, is Abbott exploiting his gay sister for political point scoring? Was it true that Abbott pressured the media to drop stories about his sister until it became useful for him? Or, has Abbott’s sister finally gone public for her own reasons?
None of this matters, what Tony Abbott’s sister does is her own business, and she should not have to be in the public spotlight, unless she wants to be. But this whole thing feels like just more breathless worshipping from the Liberal National spin machine, also known as the Murdoch Media
text by @redglitterx
use of additional text by Tony Abbott, and the original newspaper articles I have quoted from is is no way intended to usurp their copywrite
the Australian article discussed is Close to home: what Tony Abbott’s family taught him about gay relationships
: Kate Legge, from: The Australian April 07, 2012 12:00AM
use of any quotes or names is in no way intended to imply that they would in anyway endorse the contents of this post or blog
use of the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz is in no way intended to infringe of their copywrite, or that of Jack Haley who was the Tin Man
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