Loree Rudd, sister of former Australian PM Kevin Rudd, has come under fire for comparing gays to Nazis. Earlier this week, she accused Labor members of being brainwashed by a "global gay Gestapo" to accept same-sex marriage. The Gestapo was the secret police of Nazi Germany. It maintained offices at all Nazi concentration camps, where millions of gay men were executed along with Jews, political dissidents and others. The organization's normal methods of investigation included blackmail, threats, extortion, harassment, and torture. The Anti Defamation Commission has demanded an apology."I call them the global gay Gestapo: it is the lobbying movement that is brainwashing people, particularly the young in the community that this (homosexuality) is an optional extra in life."Rudd, a "devout Christian" who is nevertheless divorced, is lobbying Labor t0 reject marriage rights for LGBTs at its national conference in December, having written to every Federal MP as well as newspapers and fellow Labor members in Queensland, to voice her opposition. As prime minister, Kevin Rudd opposed legalising same-sex marriage; his successor, Julia Gillard, has adopted the same stance.
ADC chairman Anton Block said in a statement on Friday:
"It is completely unacceptable for anyone to co-opt and trivialise the name of one of the most active and feared arms of the Nazi machinery for their own political purposes. To use [the Gestapo's] name in this context shows a level of ignorance and insensitivity that has no place in contemporary political discourse. It is highly offensive, and we call upon Ms Rudd to apologise immediately and unreservedly."Four state Australian Labor Party conferences have endorsed same-sex marriage, but New South Wales Labor has deferred a decision until the national conference in December.
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