Videos circulating on WhatsApp in the days before LGBTQ+ activists say they were set upon by a mob outside a church in Sydney urged people to disrupt the protest and “drag” the LGBTQ+ activists away “by their fucking hair” and to “defend our family values”.
Two men were arrested after a violent altercation between a group of men and LGBTQ+ protesters outside a Catholic church in the south-west Sydney suburb of Belfield, where One Nation’s Mark Latham was giving a speech about “parental rights” and “religious freedom”.
The LGBTQ+ activists say they were protesting peacefully against the Latham event when they were set upon by a mob.
The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, on Wednesday condemned the violence.
“Last night was a disgrace,” he said.
“There is no place for violence in our state, particularly during election periods.”
The group of men who showed up on Tuesday night appeared to be from a loose coalition of faith groups that had come together in online forums and closed WhatsApp groups in the wake of a sexual joke about Jesus that aired on The Project in early March.
The group were encouraged to attend on Tuesday evening in one video to “fight the agenda” of “fanatical and leftist lbgt and media.”
In videos posted to the WhatsApp groups on Monday, one man said attenders should “grab them and drag them by their fucking hair and get them out of there”.
“You go there tomorrow and you fucking shake them up, and you drag them by their fucking head, and you remove them from St Michael’s Belfield,” he says in the video, posted from his car in the lead-up to the incident.
In another message shared in the WhatsApp groups, religious communities were encouraged to attend the “gathering” and to “stand with the truth to defend our family values, children, society and country.
“We are merely making stand in defence against the continuous attacks by the fanatical and leftist lgbt and media movement who continue to twist the truth and fabric [sic] lies,” the message read.
“We will not give up and we will continue to fight their agenda with our words and with our blood if need be!”
Other members of the groups encouraged attenders to conduct themselves peacefully.
In videos of Tuesday evening’s violence seen by the Guardian, men from the large group that swarmed the LGBTQ+ protest are seen chanting “leave our kids alone” as police protected the activists.
In one video, police are accused of “protecting the peadophiles [sic]”.
Another video, shot from the inside of a car, shows men yelling at the LGBTQ+ activists as they got into taxis to leave.
“Fuck off back to Newtown you dogs,” they yell. “Don’t come back to this area you dogs.”
The church event at which Latham spoke was promoted by a group called Christian Lives Matter in the days prior.
The Guardian understands Facebook has previously removed content in the past from the Christian Lives Matter Facebook group for breaching its hate speech policies.
Facebook is now monitoring the group and will remove it from the platform if it continues to breach its rules.
The small LGBTQ+ protest was organised by Community Action for Rainbow Rights, who said it was peaceful.
One of the CARR protesters said they only wanted to stand across the road from the church with signs, make their point and then leave.
“When we got there, we were full-on mobbed,” the protester told said.
“They grabbed one of the protesters by the hair and threw them to the ground, they punched people in the face, they threw bottles, handfuls of gravel.
“We were just surrounded by these people who were out for our blood, basically. It took a lot for police to push them back and for us to make our escape.”
Police made two arrests after Tuesday’s incident, including a 34-year-old man who was charged with encouraging the commission of crimes. He is due to appear in Bankstown local court on 11 April. Another man was charged with common assault and will appear in Bankstown local court on 30 May.
A separate protest on 18 March in Sydney’s Hyde Park was advertised in the same WhatsApp groups as “A stand to protect our kids, a stand against the moral decay of society” on a digital flyer.
The independent member for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, accused Latham of fuelling hate and division.
He said anyone considering voting for One Nation must realise they are “voting for an extremely hateful and dangerous individual who risks causing a great deal of damage to our state”.
“It really is incumbent on political leaders to call this out and to show support for the LGBTIQ+ community,” he told reporters on Wednesday morning.
Asked for a response to Greenwich’s comments, Latham said he had given “dozens of speeches in this campaign highlighting leftwing attacks on Christianity, of which the transgender radicals last night displayed yet another example”.
“One Nation never surrenders to cancel culture and the denial of freedom to speak the truth.”
The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney condemned the violence, with a spokesperson saying the mob did not represent the church’s parish.
“Violent acts towards anyone is incompatible with the Gospel and never acceptable. For Christians and for all Australians, the events that occurred last night do not represent who we are and must be condemned.”
The Maronite Eparchy of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania said in a statement that they condemned the “violent clash,” and called on followers to express their views in “a manner consistent with our Christian values.”
“The freedom of expression and opinion is important for all of us. However, we reject any form of activism – regardless of perspective or point of view – that either deliberately incites or instigates violence of any kind, for this behaviour is destructive and tears us all apart,” they said.
