One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says parents of young children who believe their child might be transgender should have their children taken off them.
Senator Hanson appeared on the online political discussion program Pellowe Talk to chat about the Queensland government’s recent passing of a bill that outlawed gay conversion therapy. Senator Hanson said she would never support such a ban, and the calls for outlawing the practice only came from a few people who were gay.
One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson shared her view, saying she was sick of the letters that described sexuality and gender, before calling for children who believe they are transgender to be removed from supportive parents.
“The Q is for queer, and I asked the question in parliament – well what is queer? I have no understanding, I’m sorry, I’m from the old school, I’m sick of all these letters. There are about 37 or 39 different categories.”
Senator Hanson said parents who believe take their children to the doctor and believe their children are transgender are “bloody idiots” and “need their heads read”.
“Confusing kids and going to the doctor and parent’s saying ‘Look, my four year old they really can’t identify, and we want to change their sex.’ You are bloody idiots, how can a kids at four year old know if they want to be male or if they actually want to be a girl. There’s more to this and these parents need their head’s read or the kids taken off them, because they want to change their sex because the kids gone and played with a doll.” Senator Hanson said.
The Senator said she believed some parent’s brainwashed their children into believing they were transgender because they really wanted a child of the opposite gender.
“I remember my son and 12 months or 18 months old, he loved having a doll beside him and I put the bloody doll in the cot beside him. Guess what, they’re nothing wrong with him, but kids have to be kids, let them find their own feet, let them find their own sexual preference, who they are, as they go through puberty, don’t try and brain wash them into your way of thinking because you’ve got a boy and you really wanted a girl. It’s not about you, it’s about them finding themselves.”
Senator Hanson said young people should not be able to access counselling about gender until they were over 18 years of age, and she hoped her party would be able to reverse the legislation in the future.
Wendy Francis from the Australian Christian Lobby appeared in a pre-recorded segment and said that she was devastated that the bill banning conversion therapy passed.
“I’m pretty devastated at the moment, because obviously Queensland is the first state to actually pass some of these laws, and what they are targeting is our medical practitioners. When they’re talking about medical practitioners they’re talking about doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, they’re talking about ambulance services. They’re talking about pharmacists. They’ve even included in the bill physiotherapists, dentists, anyone who is the medical fraternity or even counselling.
“From now on, now that this bill has passed, these people – if they counsel a child, or they talk to a child, to in any way dissuade them from wanting to change the gender that they were born with, their sex, if they do anything to dissuade them, they are liable now for 18 months jail.” Francis explained.
The Australian Christian Lobby spokesperson said the outcome of the bill will see health professionals turning away patients who are experiencing gender incongruence.
“We’re talking a really serious penalty and this will make doctors not even want to see these patients, and these people are people who really need to talk to a psychologist or psychiatrist, and what we are doing is actually criminalizing the very people who can help them.” Francis said.
Francis said she considered the Queensland government’s dismissal of criticism of the bill as “diabolical, breathtakingly arrogant” and “ignorant”.
Christian Pastor Mark Powell, who was appearing on the program, said he was concerned that a school teacher might convince one of his six children to become gay.
“Before I’m a pastor, I’m a parent, and I’ve got six children, and you don’t have to be a Christian to understand what a disastrous law this is.”
“The government is overstepping its authority, and its really usurping the authority of parents. I often joke to myself, but I’m thinking I might need to get serious about this. I’ve got six children who all identify as being cis-gendered – which means that they are heterosexual. So if in the future some school teacher convinces them to become gay – should I then take them to the state to become prosecuted?” Powell asked.
“It’s just really championed by LGBTIQ-alphabet soup activists who want to queer heteronormativity. They want gender that is just as basic as biologically male and female to be this spectrum, that you can be anything you like, but at the heart of it its undermining parental authority.” Powell said.
Liberal MP George Christensen said he was concerned that future legislation against conversion therapy would be weaponized and see priests being challenged over advice they give in the confessional.
Graeme Watson
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