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September 12th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda ELEANOR HALL: Back home again now and a group of protesters in north-west Queensland is calling on the Federal Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter, to acknowledge that there is a homosexual community in his electorate.
More than 70 protesters gathered outside Mr Katter’s Mount Isa office on the weekend.
The rally organisers say that’s a strong turn-out and demonstrates that there is a high level of support for same-sex marriage in regional Australia.
But as David Lewis reports, many of the mining city’s long-time locals are still resistant to the idea.
PROTESTERS CHANTING: Love is love! Love is love! Love is love!
VOX POP: I’ve been with my partner seven years and we just want to get married.
VOX POP 2: I’m sick of seeing us getting slagged off all the time. Now it’s time to stand up and get these laws changed and get things moving along, help out the suicide.
DAVID LEWIS: These are familiar demands but they are not often voiced in remote outback Queensland.
With Mount Isa Mines as the backdrop, around 70 protesters wearing rainbow-coloured clothing and chanting slogans converged on Bob Katter’s office.
The Federal Member for Kennedy famously said he’d “walk backwards to Bourke” if there was a large gay community in his electorate.
These activists say he should start walking.
GAY ACTIVIST: I think he should put his running shoes on right now because obviously he hasn’t been out in his own electorate for a long time. I mean, we all work in his community. We serve him. We’re in the shops and the banks and everything but he doesn’t want to acknowledge that we’re here. He just wants to ridicule us and make it okay for everyone else to do the same.
DAVID LEWIS: Do you think there is definitely a gay community here?
GAY ACTIVIST: There is a massive gay community here. You’ve just got to look around and realise who it is. There’s a heap of us out here today. There’s not all of us here because I think some people are still scared about being ridiculed.
GAY ACTIVIST: Steve Semyraha has been subjected to much worse than ridicule but says he felt it was important to challenge the status quo.
STEVE SEMYRAHA: There’s so many people here that dislike anybody that’s different and I grew up here and I’ve been persecuted so many times. I’ve been bashed and put in hospital, God knows how many times, I’ve lost count. But I’m tough. I can fight.
DAVID LEWIS: Where do you find the resilience to actually show up to something like this, which is a very public affair?
STEVE SEMYRAHA: Well, despite me being different, I still have lots of friends and support.
DAVID LEWIS: Organiser James Newburrie says Steve Semyraha’s story is not unique.
JAMES NEWBURRIE: Thirty per cent of gay teens will commit serious self harm or suicide. That’s compared to 14 per cent of their heterosexual peers. Both of those numbers are way too high but I can’t just sit by anymore and do nothing while empty rhetoric from politicians makes it worse.
DAVID LEWIS: In an effort to bridge the gap between the gay community and local politicians, James Newburrie invited Bob Katter to walk more than 100 kilometres from Mount Isa to Cloncurry to raise awareness of youth suicide.
JAMES NEWBURRIE: I received a very polite letter from his media advisor telling me that it simply was not going to happen. I offered him the dates he wanted, the route he wanted, the charity he wanted – anything and his response was ‘I will not be available’.
DAVID LEWIS: While he’s disappointed with Mr Katter’s response, James Newburrie is choosing to focus on the success of the protest.
JAMES NEWBURRIE: Truthfully, I expected it to be one short fat guy with a sign and this is overwhelming. There are nearly 70 people here in support of this cause.
DAVID LEWIS: But at a local pub across the road from the rally, the crowd is anything but supportive.
PUB LOCAL: I don’t think it’s really a big issue. I just think there are more important things like obviously you’ve got a carbon tax now that everyone’s talking about. The live cattle trade – they’re all big issues for people up here.
PUB LOCAL 2: Marriage is between a man and a woman. That’s all there is to it. There’s offspring, there’s children and when they have a child in a same-sex marriage, I don’t think that works either.
DAVID LEWIS: Do you think most people in the electorate would share your view?
PUB LOCAL 2: Yes. I’m not sure if this is the right type of town for that. This is a very heavy working town, you know. Mining is done by very strong men and women and tools.
PROTESTOR: Honk your horn for love!
(Sound of car honking)
DAVID LEWIS: Back at the protest, organiser James Newburrie is unsurprised and undeterred.
JAMES NEWBURRIE: I would just ask them, next time they drive past a school, look into the school yard and count out nine kids. One of them is gay. Multiply that across the population of the school. They’re their children.
ELEANOR HALL: That is gay activist James Newburrie ending that report by David Lewis in Mount Isa and The World Today did request an interview with Bob Katter, but he declined.
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