Oceania

Raelians censored and expelled by Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade

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After refusing to comply with censorship imposed by Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade, the Raelians have been expelled after 12 years of participation in the event.

After refusing to comply with censorship imposed by Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade, the Raelians have been expelled after 12 years of participation in the event.

Raelian spokesperson Luke Roberts, who also speaks for ARAMIS (the Raelian Association of Sexual Minorities), explained in a statement released today that the parade committee objected both to the use of mainstream religious symbols in the word HOMOPHOBIA and to the phrase, “Homophobia is criminal bible bullshit.”

In his statement, Roberts (aka Pope Alice, an icon of the Gay Movement) denounced the Mardi Gras committee’s request to remove religious symbols from the word “homophobia.”

“It’s an absurd request considering that mainstream religions created homophobia in the first place,” he said. “And use of the word bullshit is really pretty mild when there isn’t a word despicable enough to describe the religious killings of millions of GLBTQ people [the acronym stands for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer] for centuries, or for the ongoing bullying, gay bashing and murders inspired by religious leaders and texts. Nor is there a word to convey the hopelessness that young gay, lesbian and transgender people feel in a world full of religious prejudice against them.”

“It was a worrying development when the Mardi Gras committee pandered to religious pressure and thereby insulted the founders and the very spirit of Mardi Gras,” Roberts continued. “The committee actually lost sight of the reasons this event originated. It appears that religious individuals have infiltrated Mardi Gras to pursue their agendas against gay rights and other freedoms, just as they do in schools and governments.”

Roberts said it’s important for those who disagree with such agendas to speak out now.

“To be silent on this serious matter is to be complicit with the censorship of free speech by the Mardi Gras board and its Parade Committee,” he emphasized. “If we don’t speak out against the homophobic crimes of mainstream religions, we are also complicit in those crimes, and thereby doomed to live truncated lives dominated by religious bigotry.”

“That’s why we’re asking all gay Christians, gay Muslims and gay Jews to leave their religions. By remaining in those religions, they are hypocrites supporting crimes against their own people, and they’re also giving strength to mainstream religious fervor, whether they are openly gay or not.”

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