"I was not an author of that story," he told AAP.
"I have no discrimination against gay people - I have a lot of gay friends and I worship their friendship.
"If I'm still an ambassador, I'll work with dark people, foreign people, gay people and everyone, that's my motto," he said.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9684.html#
"Mr Williams yesterday told The Australian that he did not pen any of the offending comments and denied any bias on his part against gays or women.
“Some of my best friends are gay people,” he said.
Mr Williams said he was wild about the accusations levelled against him and would take legal action to prevent damage to his reputation if need be. “If I’m still an ambassador, I’ll work with dark people, foreign people, gay people and everyone, that’s my motto,” he said."
Yesterday, Roxon referred to the statements in 'Gender Matters' as “extremely offensive” and “abhorrent”.
“I immediately sought an explanation yesterday from Mr Warwick Marsh and Mr Barry Williams about comments attributed to them,” Roxon said in a statement issued to MCV.
“Mr Marsh has not repudiated his offensive comments. This makes his position as an Ambassador untenable and I have made a decision to dismiss him from this role.
“While Mr Williams has acknowledged that he put his name to the document with 33 others, he has publicly and unequivocally disowned the views set out in the document.
“He has assured me of this directly, and has expressly stated this publicly. I accept his explanation.”
http://mcv.e-p.net.au/news/roxon-dismisses-anti-gay-ambassador-4557.html
Mr. Williams, however, repudiated the document, which Roxon, according to Australia’s ABC News, called "quite abhorrent." "Look, it is very strong stuff,” Roxon said, “but I think that this is a document that was authored by 34 people. I think that Mr Williams' sins are not having read and taken care what he put his name to," she said. "He has publicly and expressly disassociated himself from any of these comments and I am prepared to accept that explanation."
"Mr Williams told The Age that he often did work for the Fatherhood Foundation but would "have to re-read the paper" before he could endorse its contents again.
Mr Williams said that while he did not support gay marriage, he did not discriminate against gay people.
"I have nothing against gays ... I admire a lot of really good gay people and have some gay friends," Mr Williams said.
"Last year my brother died of cancer and there was a lovely gay couple that looked after him. I'm an indigenous person so I don't discriminate against anyone.''
http://www.theage.com.au/national/health-ambassadors-slammed-over-hate-document-20081126-6ib6.html?page=2
No comments:
Post a Comment