It’s safe to say Australian MP Bob Katter has a less-than-ideal record when it comes to gay issues. On second thought, his record is abysmal. In 1989 he made a comment that continues to surface that there are almost no gay people in North Queensland, and that if they represented more than .001 of the population, he’d walk backwards from Bourke (which we can only assume is far away).
He’s voted against anti-discrimination legislature to protect LGBT people, and in 2011 he said the prospect of same-sex marriage, “deserves to be laughed at and ridiculed.”
Which makes this clip of Josh Thomas taking him to task all the more satisfying. Rarely do you get to see a right-wing politician have to react in real time to a logical breakdown of the terrible things they’ve said. But watching Katter squirm as Thomas makes point after point is like seeing a car crash in slow motion. Katter can’t even get himself to look directly at Thomas — his eyes dart nervously around the room instead.
Thomas, who is a gay comedian with a well-respected queer-themed television show called Please Like Me, chimes in after an unsatisfactory answer by Katter to an audience member’s question about how a “reluctance to address homosexuals as well as their civil rights is quite detrimental to their mental health.”
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Josh tells Katter:
“You say a lot of really important, powerful things…When I hear you talking about dairy farmers, and you say people in the cities should spend more than two dollars on milk I agree with you. But then when you go out and you deny the existence of homosexuals in North Queensland — they exist, there’s an app called Grindr, I’ll put it on your phone — you disenfranchise the community.”
Here’s the clip:
1EqualityUSA
The tape ends at 3:58. The expression on the bigot’s face accurately depicts the self-important, unapologetic, smug sense of self-righteousness that haters have. The distortion that hate pushes on facial muscles is almost supernatural.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
He looks so freakin uncomfortable like he pooped his pants and can not wait to get the flock outta there. Because he knows he has absolutly no logical response to what is being said to him…………. Absolutely Brilliant
Rob Seneca
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: Yes, but do Australians see bigoted he is? If they kep electing these kinds of people, it doesn’t seem they have a clue.
light
@Rob Seneca: Sometimes its who is the best of the lot, whose to say the other choices weren’t even more bigoted then he is?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@Rob Seneca: Just goes to show America does not hold sole possession of voter stupidity………..
IcarusD
“Hooray for gay people! Here’s some glitter.” Love it.
rochellion23
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: The thing is, that yes he’s homophobic and that is appalling but he has fought hard for indigenous rights and agriculture in the north. The people who vote for him don’t see/understand the harm that homophobia does or rate it lower than other things in importance. I understand the logic, don’t agree with it, but understand it.