South West LGBT+ community angered by Australian Christian Lobby booking Bunbury venue for ‘The Truth of It’

A conservative Christian organisation linked to supporting controversial figures such as Israel Folau has been slammed by a leading South West LGBTQI+ group for planning to bring a seminar that will “spread hate” to Bunbury next month. The Australian Christian Lobby is taking its “The Truth of It Live” show on the road, with managing director Martyn Iles and WA co-ordinator Peter Abetz promising to offer audiences “the truth of scripture applied to thorny issues”. ACL was barred from hiring out the Albany Entertainment Centre for its WA tour on the grounds that the show’s content would conflict with its venue hire policy. But Friday saw the State Government backflip on the ban — a move advocacy groups such as OUT South West have labelled as “disappointing” and “harmful” to young LGBTQI+ people. ACL currently has its Bunbury event listed as “venue TBA” on its website, but Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre yesterday confirmed the seminar was booked at the venue for August 23. “BREC, as a venue for hire, supports an open-booking policy regardless of religious, social or political affiliation, and a confirmed booking does not reflect an affirmation or support by BREC’s board of management or staff, on the content of any booking,” a spokesperson said. The City of Bunbury said it had no involvement or control in relation to what bookings were made at BREC. ACL has been a major supporter of rugby union star Folau who was sacked by Rugby Australia over homophobic comments. The religious group’s website features videos saying “’transgenderism’ doesn’t exist” and insisting that God made people “men and female”. OUT South West has organised a “stand against hate” protest to take place outside BREC on the day and co-chair Cassandra Hymers is encouraging community members to show their support. Ms Hymers said they were not fighting against Christianity, but trying to stop “hate speech”. “Australia has the highest rate of trans suicide in the world ... 48 per cent of trans youth have tried to take their own life ... and events like this are harmful to their mental health,” she said. She said she found Bunbury to be a supportive and inclusive environment when coming out, but had concerns the event would change that. Mr Abetz, a high-profile supporter in the failed No campaign in the same-sex marriage plebiscite, said he “didn’t buy” claims ACL had engaged in hate speech. Bunbury’s event is currently sold out at 680 RSVPS — the second highest of ACL’s four planned WA events, with more than 2800 for Perth, 520 for Albany and 240 for Geraldton.