Former Liberal candidate Katherine Deves says Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews should be voted out, listing the funding of Victoria’s landmark Pride Centre as a reason his government needs to be removed from power.
“He’s been fluffing around, spending $25 million on the Church of Pride, you know the ‘Woke Cathedral’ overlooking Saint Kilda.” Deves said during an appearance on The Paul Murray Show on Sky News on Wednesday evening.
Victorians will head to the polls on Saturday with predictions the incumbent Labor government will be reelected for a third term, but with a likely reduced majority.
The funding of the Pride Centre was just one of several reasons Deves put forward for removing the current Victorian government alongside the state’s long Covid-19 lockdown and an increase in migration from Victoria to other states.
Victoria’s Pride Centre houses a wide range of LGBTIQ+ organisations, creating a focus for support and community building. Several organisations call the centre home and it features flexible and multi-use spaces for hire, including, meeting rooms, rooftop terrace, co-working spaces, a theatrette and gallery.
Working within the centre is media outlet Star Observer, Melbourne’s long running LGBTIQA+ bookshop Hares and Hyenas, Australian Queer Archives, Joy Media, Switchboard, Transgender Health organisations, Thorne Harbour Health, Switchboard, youth organisation Minus 18 and many others.
While Deves campaigns against transgender people being able to participate in sport alongside cis-gendered people, she recently stressed that she was not homophobic and has many gay friends.
In an opinion piece published on the Sky News website Deves appeared draped in the Pride flag, listing her links to the LGB communities. The wannabe politician, who failed to win the seat of Warringah for the Liberals at the last federal election, argued that many gay and lesbian people do not believe in including transgender, queer and asexual and other identities within their communities.
Employing a gay childcare worker, officiating friends same-sex weddings, having a gay sibling, attending Mardi Gras, and previously living in San Francisco’s Castro district are among the examples Deves lists of her being supportive of homosexual people.
In her piece Deves questions if there is a transgender community, alongside outlining her opposition to gender affirming healthcare being available to younger people, and her stance against self-ID laws.
“What is the ‘trans community’?” she asks. “Because I fail to see what a distressed same-sex attracted teenage girl with a GoFundMe for a bilateral mastectomy has in common with a middle-aged man who has decided to publicly flaunt his cross-dressing fetish full-time.”
Deves says she believes there will be a parliamentary inquiry into transgender health care in Australia and that most gay and lesbian people, in her view, were probably gender non-conforming when they were growing up.
“One of the saddest ironies of this debate is that those who are gay or lesbian were highly probable to have been gender non-conforming growing up.” Deves said.
OIP Staff
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