Melbourne’s GLBTIQ community has responded decisively to comments made last week by former Premier Jeff Kennett, via an advertisement appearing in the Sunday Age on August 3.

Under the headline ‘Unacceptable’, the ad, paid for by a coalition of 12 community groups, condemned Kennett’s ‘ill informed, misguided and plainly indefensible slur against our community’.

“It’s a measure of how strongly our community felt about this situation that within 48 hours, 12 community organisations had organised to agree on a set of words and fund a significant investment. This advertisement is a measure of how strongly the community consensus is on this issue,” said ALSO Foundation CEO Lyn Morgain.

“I have been struck by the apparent gap between the grief and hurt felt by the community; for who this resonates past injustice and present isolation; and the perspective of those who seek to minimise the impact, suggesting it was simply unfortunate or misunderstood,” she continued.

“The point is, if it were a terrible mistake, then all the more reason for the Hawthorn Football Club, AFL and Beyond Blue to come out with an unequivocal repudiation.

“I am certain that if those institutions or the people who represent them had the opportunity to hear the terrible stories of humiliation, harassment, grief, loss and ultimately self harm and suicide- they would act decisively to redress this wrong,” Morgain concluded.

Individuals wishing to make a donation to help cover the full cost of the ad should go to www.also.org.au

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