The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has called on Communication Minister Mitch Fifeld to encourage the ABC to stop exposing children to “rainbow politics” after the children’s show ‘Play School‘ featuring a segment with same sex parents.
ACL spokesperson Wendy Francis said children should not be exposed to images of two men raising a daughter,
“As a grandmother I find it disappointing that the ABC is seeking to include rainbow politics for toddlers when millions of their parents do not agree with redefining marriage in law,” Francis said.
“Millions of Australians also do not agree that two men should be allowed to deliberately deprive a child of its mother. This does not mean two men can not love a child, of course they can. The issue is whether or not it is right for the child to be deprived of its mother and whether this should be taught as ethical to toddlers.”
The segment showed two young girls who introduced their two Dads. The children said their family’s favourite thing to do was go swimming at the pool. The family was also shown doing yoga and reading children stories.
Despite no information being given in the broadcast about how the children were conceived, Francis said the ABC should not be endorsing surrogacy.
“The ABC should also not assume that producing children through harvested eggs and a rented or donated woman’s womb to meet the desires of two men is a public good.” Francis said.
Francis said that as the country moves towards a plebiscite on marriage equality it is inappropriate for the ABC to be using tax payers funds to “push confusing adult messaging to children.”
Australian Marriage Forum: Children should have been asked where there mother was
David van Gend, President of the Australian Marriage Forum said the children’s program had missed the opportunity to ask the young girls about their parentage. van Gend “Where is your mother?” is the only question that mattered.
“Is her genetic mother an anonymous egg donor in India and her birth mother an unknown Australian surrogate? Should a little girl be made to miss out on the love of her mother just because two gay men want a baby?
“No matter how competent each of the men might be, neither can be a mother to a little child; they cannot guide her as a mother would when she is growing from girl to woman, nor model for her the complex relationship of husband and wife.” van Gend said in a statement.
Back in February when the show put out the call for a family to be featured the show’s Executive Producer Jan Strandling defended the segment.
“The idea is to reflect current Australian society by showing a range of family structures and backgrounds. In these stories, we explore the relationships and bonds of a family. We will look at how they care for one another and share experiences, roles and responsibilities.” Ms Stradling said.
David van Gend said the ABC was over-representing families with same sex parents.
“What sort of a national broadcaster would portray that situation to kids as being normal, natural and right? Evenly in the sense of statistical normality, the Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that only one in a hundred couples is same-sex and only one in a thousand children is raised by same-sex couples, 0.1%.”
Mr van Gend said the ABC was massively inflating the representation of rainbow families by featuring gay Dads in one of its four segments in the families series.
A similar controversy arose decades ago when the ‘Play School’ showed a family with two mothers.
The long-running program caused a stir back in 2004 when it featured a very young Brenna Harding with her two Mums.
At the time Prime Minister John Howard called the move “foolish” and then Health Minister Tony Abbott said he found the proposal “shocking”.
OIP Staff
