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Gays can be 'pansies', Australian court rules

By Nick Squires in Sydney

Calling one of the stars of the television series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy "a pillow biter" and a "pompous little pansy prig" was offensive but permissible, an Australian tribunal ruled today. Veteran radio broadcaster John Laws, nicknamed Golden Tonsils for his deep voice and six-figure salary, made the on-air remarks in 2004 about Carson Kressley, the blonde-haired star of the popular TV show. He launched the tirade after watching Kressley on television at the Melbourne Cup, where the American had been invited to judge a fashion competition. "He was judging girls - now what the hell does a pillow-biter know about judging girls?" Laws asked. "They should have had a few truckies down there, or me….fair-dinkum Aussie blokes judging fair-dinkum Aussie girls. Not this pompous little pansy." "I remember when Australia was a land of proud, dedicated women and hard-drinking and hard-talking men. Why this sudden proliferation of pansies I don’t know. The sooner this fairy flies out and lets us judge our own women on our own criteria the better." Declaring Australia a land of "truck drivers, wharf labourers and free thinking red-blooded men," he then went on to play a recorded message incorporating the words "piss off pansy". A gay rights activist, Gary Burns, filed a complaint with the Administrative Decisions Tribunal in New South Wales, saying Mr Laws’ comments portrayed gay men as dirty and perverted. The tribunal agreed that Laws’ remarks amounted to vilification of homosexuals, but dismissed the complaint on the grounds of free speech. "We rule unanimously that the statements that Mr Laws made constituted homosexual vilification, because they incited severe ridicule of homosexual men on the ground of their homosexuality," the tribunal said in their judgment. "By majority, we rule further, however, that his publication of these statements on the radio fell within an exception established by the (Anti-Discrimination) Act that is designed, within appropriate limits, to preserve freedom of expression. Our majority decision is accordingly that the publication was lawful." Laws, one of Australia’s best known radio presenters, had argued that his comments were tongue-in-cheek and intended to be funny. Burns said he was disappointed by the decision and had gone to the tribunal to "stand up to bullies". He added: "I took this action because I believe it’s important to stand up and erase hate in society." "I didn’t win on this occasion, but I will continue in my mission to dissuade hate in society." A lawyer for Laws’ radio network, Southern Cross Broadcasting, said the result was "what we had hoped for."