The head of the Australian Christian Lobby has suggested that supporters of marriage equality may have created and planted offensive posters that were found in Melbourne.

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Appearing on Network Ten’s The Project Lyle Shelton, the Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby and spokesperson for the newly formed Coalition for Marriage, said the posters may have come from marriage equality advocates trying to make a point about the validity of the postal survey process.

Shelton said nobody from his side of the debate could have been responsible for the vile posters telling host Waleed Aly they might have come from the YES side of the marriage equality campaign.

“I don’t know who put that poster up. I can’t imagine anyone from our side would do that. It may have even come from people wanting to prove the sort of point you’re making.” Shelton said.

“I know the people on our side of the debate and we’re not like that and nor would we be like that.

Shelton said that none of the leaders of the NO campaign would make a statement like those contained in the poster, but argued that the leaders of the YES campaign encouraged violence.

“You won’t see the leaders of our side doing that sort of thing. You will see the leaders of the other side encouraging violence against our side. Death threats against venues where we’re holding meetings.” Shelton said.

Shelton repeated his call that the government’s postal survey on marriage is also a referendum of the freedom of religion and the content of the sex education curriculum in schools.

There has been some suggestions that the posters may have originated in a neo-Nazi group after drafts of the poster were discovered on an online message board.

The posters claim that the children of same-sex parents have a high incidence of obesity and depression, and are often abused. The propaganda cites a thoroughly debunked study by US research by D. Paul Sullins.

The Australian Christian Lobby has previously highlighted the study on its website, citing it as an example of why parenting by same-sex couples should be discouraged.

The Australian Christian Lobby’s partners in the Coalition for Marriage, the Marriage Alliance have also previously utilised highly dubious statistics in their campaigns against marriage equality.

OIP Staff

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