Parents in New South Wales have raised concern over chastity speaker Jason Evert speaking to their children at their Catholic Schools.
The US based author delivers talks encouraging youth to abstain from sex outside of marriage and has previously described homosexual people as being “disordered” in one of his books, although the reference was removed in later editions.
Parents have told the ABC that they were alarmed that Evert was scheduled to speak at the all-girls St Joseph’s Catholic College in East Gosford in New South Wales.
They say Evert’s views on sexuality and women’s roles are alarming, and some parents have vowed to keep their children home on the day his talk is scheduled.
The school has responded saying students would only attend the event with parental permission, but parent’s say this was only added after they raised concern about the upcoming event.
The school has responded saying the talk will be delivered compassionately and noted that Evert has travelled the world sharing his message of chastity, as well as being the author of many books.
Evert posted a comment to social media saying he hoped to speak to 6,500 students during his Australian tour.
His most recent book is Male, Female, Other – a Catholic Guide to Gender Identity.
Several online petitions have been launched calling on the Catholic Church and its schools to cancel the talks.
In 2020 several talks Evert was set to give in Ireland were called off after there was a public outcry over his views on homosexuality.
They highlighted the false claim Evert had previously put forward in a handout named Pure Manhood where he stated that gay men only had half the life-expectancy of heterosexual men.
