Albany Pride will hold a peaceful protest outside a Special Council Meeting on Monday night, and they are encouraging people to attend wearing their Pride colours.
The city’s council will meet for a Special Electors Meeting after activist group Keep Children Safe Albany filed a petition with 350 signatures of 350 local residents who raised concerns about events run as part of the council funded Albany Pride Festival in February and sex education books being too accessible in the local library.
The group fronted by former One Nation candidate Michelle Kinsella recently held a community meeting to outline their concerns in the town, finding support from local council and Liberal party candidate Thomas Brough and independent MLC Sophia Moermond.
In a statement Albany Pride said they did not believe the views put forward by the group were representative of the local community.
“While we acknowledge the right of any citizen to request a meeting such as this, and we are not attempting to divert this democratic process, we know that the premise of this particular meeting is ridiculous and designed to create fear and division within the broader community.
“We don’t think that these views are supported by the majority of Albany residents.” the group said.
The world’s attention turned to the small town in regional Western Australian when during the Pride Festival Councilor Brough raised concern that the plus sign in LGBTIQA+ could include “minor attracted people”.
He later said he was only putting forward the views of local residents who had raised concern with him, but at the recent community meeting he shared his love of US author and commentator James A. Lindsay who has been described as a right-wing extremist.
Lindsay regularly promotes “groomer” rhetoric against the LGBTIQA+ communities and spreads the “white genocide” theory which claims Marxists are attempting to eradicate the white race.
Lindsay made headlines around the world in 2022 when he claimed drag queens and people who are transgender were trying to get themselves killed to create a martyr for the transgender rights movement. He dubbed the alleged plot as “Drag Floyd” referencing George Floyd whose death had propelled the Black Lives Matter movement.
In previous comments Lindsay has described the Pride flag as “the flag of a hostile enemy”, and on multiple occasions he’s referenced a Biblical passage calling for people to be put to death.
Equality Australia says there’s no place for book bans in Australian society
Equality Australia is part of a conglomerate of community groups who are standing up for the rights of LGBTIQA+ people and especially youth in the city.
“Everyone deserves to feel safe in the communities we call home, particularly children and young people. But every day these groups spread their anti-social beliefs; more damage is done.” the national group said as they launched a petition calling on people to show their support.
The statement is backed by a wide range of community groups including Pride WA, Rainbow Futures WA, First Nation’s Rainbow Mob, Pride in Peel, Queer Liberation Boorloo, WAAC, PFLAG Perth, BI+ Community Perth, Youth Pride Network and many others.
The peaceful protest is scheduled to be held outside the City of Albany offices from 5:3pm on Monday night. The Special Electors Meeting is due to commence at 6:30pm.
Update 27-08-2024 10:30pm: The text of this article was changed to clarify that Equality Australia is part of the conglomerate of community groups raising concern, as where it was previously described that they were taking a leadership position, which was less accurate.
Pride WA was also added to the list of supporting organisations and a graphic was added to show the full range of organisations voicing support.
