Jason Rushton, Australian correspondent for LifeSiteNews:
A board member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) has resigned less than 48 hours after Australian media reported that he had signed a document supporting true marriage.
Professor Kuruvilla George, who is also Victoria’s deputy chief psychiatrist, signed a pro-marriage submission to a Senate inquiry on the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2010 in March. (There are currently three bills to change the legal definition of marriage before Australian parliament, which are the subject of two separate inquiries).
When it was revealed on Sunday by various newspapers that Professor George had been one of a group of 150 medical professionals who submitted to the inquiry that “the evidence is clear that children who grow up in a family with a mother and father do better in all parameters than children without,” there were immediate calls for his resignation.
Kerryn Phelps, the former national president of the Australian Medical Association said the group of doctors - who go under the name Doctors for the Family - should “hang their heads in shame”, and that Professor George’s position on the board of the VEOHRC should be reviewed.
“They should immediately disqualify themselves from dealing with matters of sexuality, as they clearly have no idea about its complexities,” she said.
Although Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark defended Professor George’s right to free speech, opposition Attorney-General Martin Pakula said Professor George needed to explain why he should remain on the board. Victorian Mental Health Minister Mary Wooldridge similarly demanded an “immediate explanation.”
By Tuesday morning, the chair of the board of the VEOHRC, John Searle, announced Professor George’s resignation “due to time constraints and personal reasons.”
For more on this story, see Bill Muehlenberg's commentary.
13 Comments
This is nothing more than orgasm politics.
After reading a number of his postings, I've come to the conclusion that Randy E. King is a troll. The above post is meaningless and makes no contribution to this discussion.
Wow, they didn’t have to even wait for the legalization of ssm for the predictions to come true: “charges of hate-speech and vilification against those who support a child’s right to a biological mother and father would increase, and freedom of speech would be curtailed.”
The reality is that Professor George HAD to be targeted. If there is one thing SSMers can’t stand, it is an educated person against ssm—particularly if they are educated in a field that one might consider relevant to the debate. Sad to say, but a chief psychiatrist who works for the Human Rights Commission was just plain intolerable… for the intolerant SSMers. We all know that they can’t handle ANY disagreement, as evidenced by the persecutions of David Van Gend, and the mounds of other stories featured on this blog. But Professor George was just too much for them to bear.
Note how they are so committed to their ideology that they are willing to jump and say that “it is clear” that this highly credentialed man is not qualified to participate in this discussion. Of course there are matters of disagreement among qualified professionals; but, apparently, SSMers feel that it’s impossible for an educated person to disagree with them!
Professor George shouldn’t have stepped down. The worst thing you can do for a bully is to succumb to their demands. It is a fact that children do best when raised by their married mother and father. If ssm requires this fact to be classified as “hate speech,” then that’s all the more reason to oppose it.
It's amazing that we always have to defend our views, but the other side doesn't have to give account of how their views will help society.
Leave it to LifeSiteNews and NOM to not tell the complete story. George's anti-gay rants not published in this article had more to do with his inability to do his job on Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.
gays are fair they will attack and fire anyone who does agree with them.
How does someone who is doing nothing wrong, get fired?
Hey, not everyone wants to be a politician. What's the pay compared to what's the job? Expert people don't have to sweat it in a job that doesn't pay enough. They are perfectly capable of going elsewhere for a job, or not work at all. The government loses experts because it won't stand on the side of justice. That's why you end with bureaucrats who don't have anywhere else to turn.
Why wasn't he sacked earlier Pete? The timing then is amazing. OF COURSE it "had more to do with his inability to do his job on Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission" It must have!
The conservative christian group "Doctors for the family" are another group of nutbags.
Any doctor who says homsexual sex is bad for your health is NOT a real doctor at all.
I am glad that where I live (California) they are banning "exgay" therapy for minors which genuinely IS bad for your health
Loving,
Save your shameless lies for the HRC blog. Every doctot knows that the muscels of the rectum are designed to push things out; that when you push things in you are slowly killing yourself.
Shameless:
shameless·ness n.
Synonyms: shameless, brazen, barefaced, brash1, impudent, unblushing
These adjectives apply to that which defies social or moral proprieties and is marked by a bold lack of shame. Shameless implies a lack of modesty, sense of decency, or regard for others' rights or feelings: a shameless liar; a shameless accusation.
I am in total agreement that marriage is between one man and one woman. The way GOD designed it..
I agree civil marriage should be the government's subsidy for opposite-sex partners. I think the subsidy should be much more than it is today, and specially for partners who have ENGENDERED children (up to 3, only). There should be a subsidy for partners RAISING orphan children, with preference given to opposite-sex partners, but not for single moms. All moms needs subsidy, and if that subsidy is not from her husband while she cannot work, then it will have to be from the government, or accept the consequences. Single moms will remain single if the government praises and rewards her being a single mom. (The government just doesn't have that kind of money to dish around.) Like Pres. Reagan said: 'Whatever you subsidize, you get more of.'