Jonathon Moran: How it felt to hear Anthony Mundine say the solution to homosexuality is death
THE interview I did with Mundine affected me. It made me feel sick and has sat with me. Homophobic hate is usually more subtle but it hurts nonetheless. Mundine’s views are more like a cricket bat to the head.
Confidential
Don't miss out on the headlines from Confidential. Followed categories will be added to My News.
OH, the irony. Anthony Mundine telling an openly gay man th e solution to homosexuality is death or capital punishment.
Some have called out Channel Ten for being irresponsible for giving Mundine a platform to air his views on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!
Mundine did not say any of his homophobic rubbish in the jungle. If he did, it certainly didn’t make it to air. So to blame Ten is completely unfair and misguided.
It was myself and another journalist from Fairfax that gave him that platform.
And while it was hard to listen to face to face, and even harder to transcribe and write into a story, and I completely disagree and find his comments offensive, I firmly believe professionally and personally he is entitled to his opinions.
Like all of us in a democratic society, he is entitled to share those views — however ugly they may be to me or anyone else. Yes, we should question those opinions but to squash those views would make me as bad as him.
I truly feel sorry for Mundine for harbouring such feelings towards homosexuals.
I told Mundine I am gay in my post-jungle exit interview. It is on camera. He told me he didn’t care that I am gay, that he has gay mates, he just believes it is wrong. He respects people for what’s in their hearts.
That doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t need his respect.
But it is his truth and his view. Again, for me to say he can’t have those views would be as bad as him.
The interview I did with Mundine affected me, it made me feel sick and has sat with me for a couple of days but the fact is some people feel that way. I’d rather people be aware of those opinions existing than pretend and hide my head in the sand.
Homophobic hate is something I’ve lived with for as long as I can remember.
Usually it is more subtle but it hurts nonetheless. Mundine’s views are more like a cricket bat to the head.
Prior to going into the jungle, I asked Mundine respectfully about his Muslim faith.
I also asked his views on homosexuality, gay marriage, contraception and abortion. In that same conversation Mundine said he believes in polygamy and that he’s entitled to multiple wives.
“For me, the creator, Allah, who created us, who knows us better than we know ourselves, made it forbidden. That is what the creator has set, these are his perimeters, not mine, and I follow them.”
Mundine told a Fairfax journalist he thought gay people should not be on television because it is a bad influence on children.
With those comments in mind, I again broached the subject when he came out of the jungle.
That is when the boxer and father of seven children to four women said his faith and his god dictates that being gay is wrong.
He took it further, saying marriage equality and acceptance of homosexuality will lead to paedophilia.
But it was his solution to deterring homosexuality that really struck hard.
“If I was in society, just like in the Aboriginal culture, same thing, that homosexuality is forbidden and you do it and the consequences are capital punishment or death, you think you are going to do it? Or think twice about doing it? Hell no. Even if I was born like it I wouldn’t think that. That is the only way to deter the problem.”
I am no expert on religion, and again I don’t agree, but it seems Mundine interprets his faith to be the complete truth in life and he lives by that.
Everyone has different sides to them. It is a shame Mundine has ruined any good will he may have earned himself by showing a softer, less controversial aggressive side to his personality in the jungle.
It is true to form, though. Mundine makes controversial statements for headlines.
Weeks before going into the jungle, he lashed out at “white boy” Jeff Horn. More stupid comments from a man intent on being controversial.
There is a side to Mundine I appreciate. I agree with many of his views on indigenous Australians, for example, and believe he could be a real leader of change in that area.
It is sad though that is overshadowed by his stupid comments on issues of sexuality and women, who he thinks shouldn’t wear a skirt above the knee to protect her from “other men having prerogative thoughts” about them.
Before the jungle, he said: “If you look at the statistics, they probably haven’t moved from 10 years ago — the imprisonment rate, black deaths in custody, the suicide rate, mortality, so many statistics still prove that indigenous Australia are at the bottom of the barrel.
“In order to improve that, there has to be significant changes.”