Dr David van Gend, the President of the Australian Marriage Forum, has hit a speed hump publishing his new book. The printer contracted by his publisher has refused to print the publication.
Dr van Gend’s book Stealing from a Child: The injustice of marriage equality sets out opposition to allowing same sex couples to wed.
Publisher Connor Court has been told by printer McPherson’s that they will not print the title due to its content.
Dr van Gend has told The Catholic Leader that he was shocked by the printer’s decision, but also respected their right to turn down the business.
“It is a shock to find a commercial printer acting as a censor for the gay lobby,” Dr van Gend said.
“That has a chilling effect on free public argument in a free society.
“However it is within their right as a private company to discriminate against people like me on ideological grounds. I accept that.
“We are not like some people who would take anti-discrimination action. We do not think those sort of laws are worthy of a free society and we do not use them.”
Dr van Gend is currently touring around Australia to launch the book. His publisher was able to find another printer to print the first 3000 copies that had been ordered.
Connor Court have told print industry website ProPrint that they will be withdrawing all their business from McPhearsons and their parent group Opus.
“We see this as censorship, and we will not be printing with McPherson’s or Opus for any of our books again. We are currently looking at another printer to do this job,” said Anthony Cappello founder of Connor Court.
Following the first launch event in Brisbane over the weekend Dr van Gend released a video saying he hoped the book would give great encouragement to people who supported traditional marriage.
The Opus group was contacted for comment.
