Leaked emails show Liberal Party revolt over Katherine Deves’ anti-trans comments
Former Prime Minister John Howard has backed embattled Liberal candidate Katherine Deves as she faces a grassroots revolt over her views.
Liberal candidate Katherine Deves is digging in over calls to quit, warning she “will not stop fighting” and revealing she had received “death threats” over her transgender views.
As she secured the backing of former prime minister John Howard for her candidacy for the seat of Warringah, at least one local Liberal branch is calling for her to stand aside for the good of the party.
But in a letter to supporters tonight, Ms Deves said she was withstanding a savage backlash and had received “death threats”.
“My opponents, parts of the left media and twittersphere have been unrelenting in calling for me to be disendorsed, because of past statements.’’ she said.
“I have been bullied in the most vile way and received death threats. I’m not going anywhere, as the Prime Minister said yesterday.”
Ms Deves said her strong commitment was that Warringah should have a plebiscite.
“As with many seats across Sydney, how I was selected was not my decision. It was not how I wanted to come to represent you,’’ she said.
“I want to echo the sentiments of our FEC President, that depriving you of that is against our values.
“Our focus must now be on taking the fight to Zali, and stopping a Labor/Greens coalition from ruining Australia.”
Howard backs Deves
Former Prime Minister John Howard has backed embattled Liberal candidate Katherine Deves as she faces a grassroots revolt over her views on trans teenagers.
Mr Howard has joined Tony Abbott, the former Member for Warringah, in backing the rookie candidate.
“Mr Howard strongly supports Ms Katherine Deves. She is the endorsed Liberal candidate,” a spokesman told news.com.au
Ms Deves is facing a revolt over her anti-trans comments with branches in her own electorate demanding she resign.
It has also emerged that the Member for North Sydney Trent Zimmerman has privately urged the Prime Minister’s office to dump Ms Deves.
Last night, he said he was not prepared to discuss private conversations.
NSW Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack, who is a member of NSW state Parliament who recently announced her retirement, said that the Liberal Party values were being “trashed” to chase the votes for “bigoted people.”
“This was not what the party was formed for,’’ she said.
“So singling out trans people and trying to run some sort of wedge issue...is the antithesis of what my party stands for.
“The Prime Minister has completely orchestrated this all by himself. (It is) an evil strategy.”
In a new leaked email obtained by news.com.au, the NSW Liberal President Chris Stone has been urged to ask Ms Deves to stand aside in the next 24 hours.
“It is apparent to me and others in the Party I speak with that, unfortunately, Katherine Deves needs to be replaced as the candidate for Warringah,’’ said Simon Moore, president of the Neutral Bay Branch in the federal electorate of Warringah.
“Her numerous statements about transgender people are offensive and can’t be condoned.
“They are not in line with broader community sentiment, particularly in Warringah. Whilst she has apologised for these statements, they are so recent and numerous that they will continue to haunt the campaign, not just in Warringah but elsewhere.
“Her advocacy for women’s sport appears to be a front for her deeper anti-trans views, and she doesn’t seem able to handle this complex matter in a way which is compassionate, equitable and inclusive.
“Her extreme views threaten the re-election of Members being targeted by progressive independents. Had she made comparable comments around race, the matter of her continued candidacy wouldn’t even be up for discussion.
“I hope that she can be persuaded to stand aside for the good of the party.”
The leaked email exposes the latest call for Ms Deves to stand aside, and follows a demand from NSW Treasurer Matt Kean for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to dump her.
Pressure has been building for Mr Morrison to take action over the controversial candidate with an earlier leaked email obtained by news.com.au revealing a civil war inside the party, with Condamine Liberal Party branch president Walter Villatora voicing fury about Ms Deves.
Bizarre Nazi comments unearthed
The email leak comes as Ms Deves was caught out invoking the Nazis again to attack trans rights as “sinister” comparing one case as “akin to the grudge trials of the Third Reich”.
In the new unearthed tweets, she also warns Australia risks another stolen generation if trans teenagers are removed from loving homes because their family doesn’t support hormone therapy and surgery.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison now has 24 hours to decide whether to dump Ms Deves as a candidate with final nominations about to close for the election.
In the latest unearthed tweet that was published in April, 2021, Ms Deves discusses an overseas trial involving a father who did not support a teenager transitioning.
“This will go down in history as akin to the grudge trials of the Third Reich,’’ she wrote.
“I do not like to invoke Nazism but the parallels are remarkable and deeply sinister. We can only hope that when society comes to its senses, it’s redeemed by trials similar to the Nazi wife and the border guards.”
The case involved a Canadian man who was arrested and jailed after repeatedly violating a court order that banned him from speaking publicly about his son’s gender transition.
The teenager was born as a female and reportedly identifies as transgender and prefers the use of male pronouns.
In response to the comments, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Darren Bark and Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Peter Wertheim called on Ms Deves to declare such comparisons have no place.
“It appears Ms Deves has a history of making inappropriate and ill-considered statements comparing modern day events to the horrors of the Nazi era,” they said.
“While Ms Deves’ recent apologies are welcome, it is well and truly time Ms Deves declares that such comparisons have no place in public debate in Australia. We invite her to visit the Sydney Jewish Museum to learn what life under Nazism was really like, and to understand how her comments trivialise some of the worst evils in history.”
Last year Ms Deves also slammed a West Australian court decision in which a judge dismissed an appeal from the parents of a trans child who was taken into foster care.
“Australia has a very dark history of children being taken from their families by the state (because) bureaucrats thought they knew better,’’ she wrote.
“Don’t we owe it to lessons of the past, such as our shameful Stolen Generation scandal, to stop the destruction of families for flawed beliefs?”
Deves linked trans kids and autism in submission
Ms Deves also believes many trans children diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” are simply on the autism spectrum.
In unearthed comments from the political candidate for Warringah in NSW, Ms Deves authored a submission also suggesting that gender non-conforming children and teenagers “would likely grow up to be gay or lesbian if they are left alone”.
The submission also claims that establishing gender neutral toilets can lead to an increase in urinary tract infections (UTIs) because children and teens are fearful of going to the toilet.
Arguing against the need for medical interventions, she states that rather than needing hormones or surgery, many had pre-existing mental health issues or were on the autism spectrum.
“There is a growing group of concerned parents who have suffered already due to this policy - ordinary, caring, diligent parents whose children have come to believe “transitioning” is a solution to their problems,’’ the Save Our Women’s Sport submission states.
“Many children ‘diagnosed’ with ‘gender dysphoria’ have pre-existing mental health issues; are on the autism spectrum; or are simply gender non-conforming and would likely grow up to be gay or Lesbian if they are left alone.”
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There is some scientific research including by the University of Cambridge that people who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth are three to six times as likely to be autistic.
However, other scientists have cautioned that the biological relationship between gender dysphoria and autism is not well understood and the risk is that linking gender dysphoria to autism could lead to discrimination.
A British researcher Simon Baron-Cohen has sparked controversy with his “extreme male brain theory”, which claims high levels of testosterone (a male hormone) in the womb results in an extreme male brain or male pattern of thought, which leads to both autism and gender dysphoria.
However, this hypothesis only potentially applies to females who develop ASD and gender dysphoria.
On April 21, 2021 Save Women’s Sport Australasia founder and spokeswoman Ms Deves also appeared at a hearing of the Education Committee of the NSW Legislative Council, chaired by NSW One Nation Leader Mark Latham.
The hearing was established as part of an inquiry into Latham’s bill to “prohibit the teaching of the ideology of gender fluidity to children in schools”.
The submission to the NSW inquiry also claims girls will get UTIs if school toilets are unisex.
“There is ample evidence of girls being adversely affected at school via rebranding of female toilets as ‘gender neutral’ or allowing biological males access to this space,” the submission states.
“There are reports of girls electing to self-exclude, being subjected to period-shaming, and refraining from eating and drinking (with a commensurate rise in UTIs).”
The written submission also claims that simply allowing the discussion of gender identity in the classroom could lead to children being taught that “girls have penises”.
“Arguing that NSW school children should be taught factually untrue and ideological concepts such as human beings can ‘change sex’, or ‘boys can be girls, or have periods’ and some ‘girls have penises’,” it states.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is under intense pressure to dump Ms Deves who previously said transgender teenagers are being “surgically mutilated”.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean took the extraordinary step on Friday night of demanding the Prime Minister dump Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves over her “horrendous” views.
He told news.com.au that the Prime Minister must disendorse her as a candidate.
“This is not an intolerant society,” he said
“These kinds of horrendous views are not okay, and I’m sure the voters of Warringah agree. Time for the Liberal Party to beat them to it and disendorse her.”
Mr Kean added: “There is no place in a mainstream political party for bigotry.
“Coming out as transgender would be hugely challenging, especially for kids, and political leaders should be condemning the persecution of people based on their gender, not participating in it.”
His intervention followed calls by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s to end the “pile on” of a “brave woman.”
But a leaked email obtained by news.com.au from Condamine Liberal Party branch president Walter Villatora has voiced fury about the candidate for Warringah.
“I’m sorry Jeff, presidents and many members are calling for Ms Deves resignation in light of her hurtful and divisive comments that have proliferated the media,” he wrote.
“Particularly in the last few days, focusing on Nazis, sex offenders and the physical mutilation of young people.
2GB radio host Ben Fordham has come to the defence of Ms Deves, saying Mr Kean is “kidding himself” calling her to be dumped, and that none of Ms Deves comments “warrant her being cancelled”.
“Katherine Deves is a warrior for women,” he said.
“Matt Kean should mind his own business and focus on his job. He’s got no idea what he’s talking about.”
News.com.au broke the story on Tuesday night that Ms Deves had deleted her Twitter account after becoming a candidate.
But a search of archived posts revealed she had suggested trans children were surgically mutilated and that she found the rainbow Pride flag “triggering”.
She later issued a public apology for her language and vowed to prosecute her campaign with respect.
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