The Queensland Catholic priest fighting the state’s notorious ‘gay panic’ laws has been overwhelmed by huge levels of worldwide support, with over 100,000 people signing an online petition within a few days after Father Paul Kelly relaunched the protest late last week.Of those now to have put their name to the Change.org petition include American actress Sophia Bush of One Tree Hill fame.
The actress who is also a well-known activist tweeted to her 631,000 followers over the weekend: #EqualityMatters - Tell Queensland to eliminate the ‘gay panic’ defence from law #gaypanic #bullshit.
Father Kelly’s petition has also received support from at least two other priests, with Reverend Sylvia Vasquez, from Walnut Creek, California, tweeting that the law was “absurd in the extreme”.
Catholic priest Father Stefan Hippler, from Cape Town, South Africa, also tweeted his support for his “brother priest”.
Father Kelly, a priest at Maryborough Catholic Church, decided to relaunch the petition after hearing of remarks in late June by the Queensland’s Attorney-General, Jarrod Bleijie, saying any change was unnecessary.
The petition had earlier his year already garnered close to 30,000 signatures as well as the support of British comedian Stephen Fry and fantasy writer Neil Gaiman.
Kelly said the global focus on the “archaic and discriminatory law” was most welcome.
“Hopefully the Queensland Government will wake up to the fact that there is no support for this law, apart from within fundamentalist sections of the LNP,” he said.
“Queenslanders don’t want it, Australians don’t want it, and now we can see the world doesn’t want it.”
Kelly’s interest in the use of the ‘non-violent homosexual advance’ defence used by some accused persons in court cases involving serious assault or murder came after his church grounds were the scene of a killing in 2008.
With over 150,000 people who have now signed, Father Kelly’s petition has now become the largest Australian petition ever hosted on Change.org.