BRITISH comedian Stephen Fry has lent his support via Twitter to moves to end Queensland's "gay panic" legal loophole which considers homosexual advances sufficient aggravation for murder.
Queensland priest Father Paul Kelly started an online petition against the law, which Fry today promoted to his 3.7 million Twitter followers.
Fry's support came as the petition passed the 10,000 signature mark.
Father Kelly said he was delighted with the response to the Change.org petition but is doubtful that the Labor Government will act, given they have had plenty of opportunity to do so while in power.
"The Bligh Government really just seems to be tinkering at the edges of reform," said Father Kelly.
"Given that, there is an opportunity for Opposition Leader Campbell Newman to seize the initiative and to take a positive step towards reducing discrimination and violence towards
gay and lesbian people in Queensland," said Father Kelly.
Richard John Meerdink, 41, and Jason Andrew Pearce, 38, were jailed for the manslaughter of Wayne Robert Ruks, 45, in the grounds of Maryborough's St Mary's Catholic Church in July 2008.
The court did not accept their defence that Mr Ruks had followed them to the church and tried to grab Pearce's crotch before he was punched and kicked to death.
Under current Queensland laws, unwanted homosexual or heterosexual advances can be used as a partial provocation defence to violent crimes.
"I'm utterly appalled that a law that so revoltingly and openly discriminates against gay people is still tolerated in a modern society,'' Father Kelly said.
"Queensland is now one of the last states upholding the idea that a person can be panicked enough by homosexual people to justify grievously bashing them to the point that they die.''
Attorney-General Paul Lucas said the Queensland Law Reform Commission had in 2009 recommended that judges decide in individual cases whether or not a sexual advance amounted to provocation.
Mr Lucas said that in line with the QLRC recommendations, the state government had also changed the criminal code so that words by themselves could not be used in establishing the defence.
He said a committee had been established to consider "non-violent sexual advances in the context of establishing provocation'', and would report back to the government by the end of this month.
The committee had been set up before the petition was started, he said.