Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, and actor Magda Szubanski have spoken out against Liberal candidate Katherine Deves.
Deves, who has campaigned for the Sex Discrimination Act to be amended to allow for discrimination against transgender women, is the Liberal candidate for the NSW seat of Warringah.
She was hand-picked as the candidate by Prime Minister Scott Morrison who earlier this week was singing her praises and voicing support for her views. As videos of Deves appearing on discussion panels and deleted social media posts have been highlighted, the PM has distanced himself from candidate.
Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame said Deves had trivialised a serious subject.
“Katherine Deves has equated positive relationships education for LGBT youth to ‘grooming’. Not only is this deeply insulting to the LGBT community, it trivialises very real experiences of one of the most evil forms of calculated psychological violence.” Tame posted to Twitter.
Magda Szubanski said the commentary from Deves was “downright cruel”.
“The comments from Deves are ignorant as well as distinctly lacking in compassion and common sense. In fact, let’s just say it…they’re downright cruel,” she said.
In 48 hours Deves has issued multiple apologies as different statements from her past have been highlighted in the media.
On Wednesday she apologised for the language she had used when discussing a young transgender man whose family shared a photo of him after top surgery, while also apologising for saying the Pride flag “triggered” her.
On Thursday she issued an apology for comments she’d made describing youth initiative Wear It Purple as “grooming”, and for comparing activism against transgender people to standing up to the Holocaust, and for suggesting that 50% of transgender women, and 20% of all men, were sex offenders.
“In my dedication to fighting for the rights of women and girls, my language has on occasion been unacceptable. It has hurt people and detracted from my arguments,” the statement said.
“I apologise for such language and the hurt that I have caused. I commit to continuing the fight for the safety of girls and women in a respectful way.” Deves said.
OIP Staff
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