‘Disrespectful and derogatory’: GP suspended for social media posts about abortion, gender and Covid
A Victorian GP has been suspended after an anonymous tip-off about his social media activity. Critics say the decision sets a dangerous precedent.
At Work
Don't miss out on the headlines from At Work. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A conservative Christian GP has been found guilty of professional misconduct after complaints were raised over more than a decade worth of his “offensive” social media posts about abortion, the LGBTQI+ community and Covid.
Lawyers for Dr Jereth Kok have blasted Tuesday’s ruling by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), saying it represents a “deeply concerning shift in regulatory scope over personal speech”.
One post that landed Dr Kok in hot water was a satirical article by conservative Christian US website Babylon Bee titled “Instead Of Traditional Warfare, Chinese Military Will Now Be Trained To Shout Wrong Pronouns At American Troops”.
Instead Of Traditional Warfare, Chinese Military Will Now Be Trained To Shout Wrong Pronouns At American Troopshttps://t.co/5ZbPfXyZ6H
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) March 20, 2021
VCAT found the post, re-shared by Dr Kok, was “inconsistent” with the Medical Board’s Code of Conduct as it “failed to respect and be sensitive to gender diversity”.
“The Tribunal is comfortably satisfied that the post was denigrating, demeaning, disrespectful and derogatory to LGBTQI+ community as it trivialised reference to the identity issues of some in the LGBTQI+ community,” VCAT said in its decision.
Dr Kok told the tribunal he believed “that the Bible very clearly teaches that homosexual conduct, which includes same-sex sexual activity and relationships, is immoral” and that “the Bible obliges Christian believers to refrain from all immoral conduct, including homosexual conduct”.
“I have provided care to many gay and lesbian patients without ever disclosing my personal views to them,” he said in his witness statement.
“This was no more difficult for me than providing non-judgmental care to heterosexual patients having extramarital affairs (which I personally disapprove of) or even convicted criminals.”
In other posts Dr Kok railed against abortion, describing it as the “massacres of babies” and “baby killing” and referring to medical practitioners who engage in the practice as “butchers” and “serial contract killers”.
Dr Kok told the tribunal that as a Christian “I believe that life and personhood begin at conception” and “I abhor the way our society conceals the truth about abortion by using deceitful euphemisms”.
VCAT upheld complaints against a number of the posts, finding that they denigrated, demeaned and slurred medical practitioners who provide abortion treatment to patients.
The tribunal found Dr Kok had similarly demeaned doctors who “recognise that people who identify as transgender are not suffering from a mental health condition”.
In various posts on the topic of gender dysphoria, Dr Kok had described transgender surgery as “medical butchery” and “mutilation of genitals” and labelled doctors who performed the procedures as “crooks”.
Dr Kok, who previously practised at a clinic in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, was suspended by the Medical Board of Australia in August 2019 after anonymous complaints were raised about his social media activity dating back to 2010.
More than six years on, VCAT last week upheld Dr Kok’s suspension, finding 54 of the 85 offending posts amounted to misconduct under the Health Practitioner National Law (Victoria) Act 2009.
VCAT found Dr Kok had also “expressed sentiments of violence and made derogatory statements” towards racial and religious groups, despite acknowledging that a number may have been “meant by Dr Kok in some sort of humorous way”.
In a number of inflammatory posts — which Dr Kok insisted were satirical or sarcastic in nature — he called for the colonisation of “primitive yellow people and black people” and described Chinese people as “ching chongs”.
“It’s time that those primitive yellow people and black people progressed,” Dr Kok wrote in one post, which came in response to the 2015 Obergefell decision in the US legalising same-sex marriage.
“If they won’t do it by themselves, we ought to colonise them, that we might educate them in equality, social justice and human rights.”
In another post, Dr Kok replied to a friend who had joked about “ordering some Zyklon B from Amazon” and “inviting the inferior races over” for a shower with the hashtag “#illridewithyou”.
Dr Kok told the tribunal the post was in the context of the December 2017 terror attack in Melbourne and “specifically, [the fact that] anybody who expresses concern about religious inspired terrorism will be labelled a ‘Nazi’”.
VCAT also found Dr Kok “denigrated, demeaned and slurred persons that accepted and considered it right to follow Covid-19 public health orders” and “in relation to Covid-19, drew on and legitimised anti-vaccination and vaccine hesitancy rhetoric and contained misleading information regarding vaccines”.
Dr Kok had railed against “authoritarian” lockdown measures and likened taking the Covid vaccine to playing “Russian roulette”, among other similar comments.
“Some posts provide information about important health matters, but the information is not balanced or unbiased and does not show an understanding of public health principles including for health promotion, disease prevention and control,” VCAT found.
The Human Rights Law Alliance (HRLA), which represented Dr Kok, said the tribunal gave little weight to constitutional or freedom-of-speech protections despite the “political, religious and satirical nature” of the posts.
HRLA added that the decision “sets a concerning precedent for freedom of speech in Australia, particularly for professionals who hold Christian or conservative beliefs”.
“Dr Kok is disappointed that he was unsuccessful with his submissions to the Tribunal that free speech principles should be upheld and that Medical Board discipline should relate to clinical conduct and should not police religious and political expression,” HRLA said in a statement to news.com.au on behalf of Dr Kok.
“Dr Kok of course respects the Tribunal’s decision and is taking advice on the decision and will now turn to preparing for the sanction hearing that will follow these findings.”
HRLA noted the case “did not relate to his medical practice, as the Tribunal acknowledged”.
“Dr Kok accepts that some of the language he used in his social media posts was regrettable and on reflection he would not use that language again,” the statement said.
“He notes that this relates to only a proportion of the posts that were impugned by the Medical Board and that he communicated this acceptance to the Tribunal at his hearing.”
Dr Kok was “heartened that the Tribunal found that the Medical Board’s allegations of misconduct were not satisfied for over one third of the social media posts subject to allegations”, HRLA added.
“Many of the posts were found to be purely political or religious commentary and so fell outside the Medical Board’s remit. Dr Kok was also pleased that the worst allegations suggesting that he supported genocide and violence were not made out and that the Tribunal recognised that many comments used satire and sarcasm.”
Christian political party Family First on Monday condemned the ruling, describing it as a “gross injustice and a chilling attack on freedom of speech”.
Family First said it would fight to repeal “similar anti-free speech laws” in all states and would field candidates at upcoming elections in South Australia, Victoria and NSW.
“Dr Kok has harmed no patient. His only ‘crime’ was to express his views online — many of them satirical or Christian in nature — and for that, he has been punished with the loss of his medical career,” Family First national director Lyle Shelton said in a statement.
“This is not justice, it is un-Australian. This is Victoria’s ‘ministry of truth’ enforcing ideological conformity and crushing dissent.”
Originally published as ‘Disrespectful and derogatory’: GP suspended for social media posts about abortion, gender and Covid
‘More human’: Australia has changed forever
Australia has undergone a huge workplace change, with experts agreeing the way Aussies work has been completely overhauled.
Proof Aussies more desperate than ever
Australia has now beaten a grim record set during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it’s not something many Aussies will want to hear right now.