Christian Far-Right Groups To Rally In Sydney This Weekend, LGBT Activists Organise Counter Protest

Far-right Christian groups are planning to gather on Macquarie Street in Sydney this weekend to rally, as LGBTQI activists work to counter with their own protest.

On Saturday, March 18, the far-right groups claim their rally is to “protect our kids” from the “moral decay of society.”

“While it’s entitled ‘protect the children’ or some variation, it’s important to understand the context of the groups and the broader trends in Australia and around the world”, says Jordan Humphreys, a member of Community Action for Rainbow Rights, an LGBTQI activist group, who infiltrated online organisational meetings for the weekend rally.

“A lot of their concerns are about drag queens and teaching the children about sex education and LGBTQI+ people, and there not being laws about Christians being a persecuted minority, that’s the sort of politics of the rally.”

A Serious Demonstration

Additionally, though organised by a coalition of far-right Christian groups, the rally represents a gathering of a wide range of far-right groups and individuals, religious or otherwise.

“We definitely get the sense that it’s a more serious demonstration than we might have supposed at first, especially with people like Mark Latham, Fred Niles, and about a dozen priests all across Sydney potentially involved,” says Humphreys.

The rally has been met with significant backlash from LGBTQI activist organisations, who have organised against the far-right with their own event, a counter-protest running parallel to the gathering.

“We need to show that there’s opposition to the right-wing ideas that are being put forward at this rally,” says Humphreys.

“Otherwise, the whole narrative and political discussions are dominated by what they want.”

The Latest In A String of Far-Right Action

Community Action for Rainbow Rights, organisers of the counter-protest, views the bigoted demonstration as the latest in a string of growing far-right action against LGBTQI people and events throughout Sydney.

“This [demonstration] is the latest in a series of actions by far-right religious groups targeting LGBTQI people in Sydney including the vandalisation of various LGBTQI murals during World Pride, the march through Newtown and the far-right mobilisation for George Pell’s funeral at the start of the year,” writes the group.

“Community Action for Rainbow Rights has called this counter-protest to oppose this bigotry.”

The Community Action for Rainbow Rights counter-protest is to be held on Saturday, March 18, at 9:30am. An initial meetup will occur at Queen’s Square on Macquarie Street in Sydney, across from the far-right rally.

Further information can be found on the group’s Facebook page.