Did anyone seriously predict that Australia’s first female, unmarried, atheist, living-in-sin prime minister would end up being the religious right’s best friend?
Yesterday, the Australian Christian Lobby announced that the keynote speaker at its national conference in October would be our very own Julia Gillard. The announcement came on the same day that anti-gay activists converged on the lawns of Parliament House for their annual National Marriage Day, which saw politicians from both major parties sharing a stage with some of the most notorious anti-gay fringe dwellers going around.
This raises a few questions. What responsibility should politicians assume when they choose to associate themselves with quite extreme religious groups? Where do they draw the line?