Scott Morrison said Australians are tired of walking on ‘eggshells’ while defending Katherine Deves over her transphobic comments.
The Daily Mail reports that the Prime Minister said will continue to support the Warringah Liberal candidate, despite her ‘insensitive’ comments about the trans community.
He said: “The remarks that Katherine has made in the past that have been insensitive... she's withdrawn those remarks and I think she has learned that in taking forward the primary issue that she is seeking to raise, as a woman raising three daughters of her own, is about women and girls in sport.
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“That's what she's seeking to bring attention to.”
He added that Deves is merely concerned about women's sport and has supported a bill that would exclude transgender athletes from sporting clubs based on sex.
But the Prime Minister said the Liberal candidate is becoming a victim of cancel culture.
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“What I won't allow ... is for those who are seeking to cancel Katherine simply because she has a different view to them on the issue of women and girls in sport," he said.
“I think Australians are getting pretty fed-up with having to walk on eggshells everyday because they may or may not say something one day that's going to upset someone.”
Morrison’s comments come after Deves faced criticism after she posted a series of since-deleted tweets on social media.
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She referred to transgender people as ‘surgically mutilated and sterilised’, according to The Age.
Ms Deves also claimed that half of all males with trans identities are ‘sex offenders’, leading to a YouTube video also re-surfacing where she compared trans activism to Nazism.
Yikes.
Deves has since issued an apology, which said: "In my dedication to fighting for the rights of women and girls, my language has on occasion been unacceptable. It has hurt people and detracted from my arguments.
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"I apologise for such language and the hurt that I have caused. I commit to continuing the fight for the safety of girls and women in a respectful way."
In other words, ‘don’t try to cancel me as I’m still lobbying to get trans female athletes banned from women’s sport’.
Interestingly, a recent survey revealed that a majority of female athletes aren't concerned about trans women competing in their sports.
The study, conducted by researchers at Monash University, showed that less than a quarter (24 per cent) of women believed ‘trans athletes have an unfair advantage when they play on a female sport team’.
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They surveyed female athletes from six different sports at 12 randomly selected clubs to get their findings.
On the other hand, 46 per cent of men surveyed felt there was an unfair advantage.
Topics: Australia
Charisa Bossinakis