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Australian Health Minister Fires Men’s Health Ambassador for Documenting Risks of Homosexuality

“Today someone who dares to speak the truth about homosexuality will lose his job. Tomorrow he will likely see prison, fines and other draconian penalties imposed."

By Ellen M. Rice
 
SYDNEY, December 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last week, Australian Health Minister Nicola Roxon appointed Warwick Marsh of the Fatherhood Foundation as one of six men’s health ambassadors who were charged with the task of building a federal men’s health policy, in part to address the epidemic of male suicide in Australia.  The Australian homosexualist group, Coalition for Equality, however, immediately demanded Marsh’s firing, and two days later, on November 27, he was gone.
  
Marsh drew fire from the Coalition for Equality largely because he was one of 34 co-authors of the Fatherhood Foundation’s document, “21 Reasons Why Gender Matters.”  The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the pro-homosexual Coalition immediately urged Ms. Roxon to fire Mr. Marsh, and fellow men’s health ambassador Barry Williams, of the Lone Fathers Association, another co-author of the Gender Matters document.  Coalition for Equality Spokesman Rodney Croome said, "If the federal government is sincere about an inclusive and effective men's health agenda it must remove these hatemongers immediately."
 
Mr. Williams, however, repudiated the document, which Roxon, according to Australia’s ABC News, called "quite abhorrent."  "Look, it is very strong stuff,” Roxon said, “but I think that this is a document that was authored by 34 people. I think that Mr Williams' sins are not having read and taken care what he put his name to," she said. "He has publicly and expressly disassociated himself from any of these comments and I am prepared to accept that explanation."  Nonetheless, Croome says he wants Williams fired for his advocacy against homosexual “rights.”  
 
“Gender Matters” controversially describes homosexuality as a "gender disorientation pathology," characterizing it as a "symptom of family dysfunction, personality disorder, father absence, health malfunction or sexual abuse."
 
Marsh, however, has continued to defend the document, for which he has been fired. 

Until this recent event, Roxon had been considered something of a “moderate.” In 2004, after Prime Minister John Howard’s National Marriage Bill, which sought to protect true marriage, was stopped in the Australian Senate, Marsh and others organized the National Marriage Forum, to which Howard, the Deputy Prime Minister, and then-Labour party opposition leader Ms. Roxon were invited.  Roxon appeared and stunned the record-smashing crowd by announcing that the Labour Party would support the controversial marriage bill. 
 
Homosexualist advocates criticized Marsh at the time for his role as Master of Ceremonies at this Forum, at which they claim a speaker called homosexuality “vile and shameful.”  Marsh, however, explained to LifeSiteNews (LSN) that the speaker in question chose to read the Scriptures during the luncheon and the “vile and shameful” remark was a modern translation of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Chapter 1.
 
Marsh told LSN that Roxon was at the forum, and knew all about him.  She, along with other MPs, received a copy of "21 Reasons why Gender Matters."  Marsh characterizes Roxon’s supposed ignorance of his record as “a gross lie.”
 
LifeSiteNews.com contacted the Ministry of Health, which provided Roxon’s comments from a Dec. 1 press conference:  “I take responsibility for not having undertaken the proper [vetting] process,” she said, claiming she was unaware of Marsh’s views on homosexuality. “My strategy was to ensure that we have more people, not just health professionals, out promoting the need to get men engaged in and using health services. I am very confident that this is a good idea.

“Everyone makes mistakes and I think that I have made clear that I take responsibility for that.”
 
Marsh received news of the firing via an email from the office of the health minister, not from Ms. Roxon personally. He states he has received no personal contact from Roxon.  

With moderates such as Roxon bowing to pressure on homosexual rights, Australian family advocate Bill Muehlenberg stated that Australia is “not far from fascism”: “Our Labor government,” said Muehlenberg, “has declared war on anyone who dares to challenge the powerful homosexual lobby.

“Today someone who dares to speak the truth about homosexuality will lose his job.  Tomorrow he will likely see prison, fines and other draconian penalties imposed. … This is really about shutting down debate, silencing differing opinions, and forcing the Australian public to embrace the homosexual agenda.”
 
Calls to Cardinal George Pell of Sydney Australia were not answered by press time.
 
To express concerns:
 
The Hon Nicola Roxon MP
Minister for Health and Ageing.
Australian Labor Party
 
Parliament House Contact
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Tel: (02) 6277 7220
Fax: (02) 6273 4146
Email:
 
Related LifeSiteNews.com stories:
 
Australia Grants Homosexual Couples New Legal and Financial Benefits, but not Marriage
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08043004.html
 
Australia’s Cardinal Pell Warns of Coming ‘War’ on the Church from Biotech, ‘Gay Rights,’ Islamic Fears
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07103005.html
 
Australia Strikes Down Law Recognizing Same-Sex Unions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06061301.html

Australian Government Will Overrule Gay “Marriage” Law
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06060610.html

First Australian Territory to Grant All Marriage Rights to Same-Sex Unions 
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06032805.html

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