This article was originally published by Lucy from Naarm. You can find the original article here.
Transgender readers are warned that this story contains extreme examples of transphobic hate, religious bigotry. If this material raises concerns for you, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or find other ways you can seek help in Australia, the US, the UK, or internationally.
FamilyVoice Australia, currently led by Peter Downie, initially positioned itself as a charity seeking to advance the interests of Christianity, however as of late the charity has pivoted hard into extreme transphobia and direct political activism, both activities which appear to be contrary to the rules for ACNC registered charities.
FamilyVoice describes itself as a charity seeking “to proclaim the goodness and truth of the Triune God as revealed in His Holy Word the Bible, in the person of Jesus Christ, God the Son, and in creation.”
According to the ACNC registered charities cannot have a purpose of promoting or opposing a particular political party or candidate, however FamilyVoice Australia have been brazenly disregarding this requirement.
FamilyVoice Australia often runs campaigns like “Thank WA Liberals for ban on transgender drugs for kids“, which serves no obvious purpose but to promote the WA Liberals to its audience. More damningly, a campaign titled “Throw out Lidia Thorpe” campaigned directly against the Senator over her protest against the King.
There is simply no argument to be made that campaigning against Lidia Thorpe for her protest against the King advances the Christian Faith. You might be shocked to learn this, but the King of England is not a spiritual leader of any faith. These actions clearly directly violates the rules against campaigning for candidates.
Further to the argument that FamilyVoice no longer aligns with its listed purpose of advancing religion, It has previously campaigned to Defund the ABC on the basis that an ABC report noted the level of racism in Australia. Additionally, it ran a campaign in support of a Muslim soccer player’s homophobic comments, with no listed basis other than the promotion of ‘diversity of thought’.
There are countless other examples of FamilyVoice promoting MP’s and Senators by “thanking” them. Or calling out MP’s and Senators to essentially campaign against them.
The true smoking gun that the charity engages in political campaigning is that their Facebook page carries a political advertising authorisation statement, which is required for all political advertising in Australia.
However even more concerning than their unlawful political activism, is the anti-transgender behaviour of the charity on social media. On the 8th of December 2024 FamilyVoice posted this screenshot pictured below. The screenshot depicts a news article about the death of a transgender woman. The screenshot is not recent but is from a UK Mirror article dated back to 2019.
FamilyVoice Australia, who I must remind you supposedly exists “to proclaim the goodness and truth of the Triune God”, clearly posted this screenshot to mock the transgender woman for her death, and to mock transgender people more widely.
If more proof is needed that this was posted in a malicious and mocking spirit, neither of which are fruits of the Spirit, the audience of FamilyVoice reacted with primarily with the “Haha” Facebook reaction.
Further posts by FamilyVoice Australia make it clear, that a primary goal of their transgender campaigning is to incite contempt and hatred for Transgender people.
On a personal note, I would love to see a Christian defence of this post. It is just pure hatred and mockery from a supposed religious charity.
Here are some more examples of mocking, inciting contempt and hatred towards, and otherwise unsavoury posts that do not align with any definition of advancing Christianity.
This does nothing but to incite contempt, ridicule and hatred for transgender people.
It is clear that under the ACNC guidelines, the charity should be deregistered as it no longer aims for the goals of advancing religion. Additionally, the charity often promotes and opposes political parties and candidates, which disqualifies the organisation from being a charity under ACNC rules.
As a Christian, it is clear to me that this charity is abusing the exemption for religion, and will put other religious charities at risk by calling into question the appropriateness of having a religious charity exemption if this is the quality of charities that grow out from the exemption. The ACNC must step in to strip FamilyVoice of their charity status.
Transgender Christians, like myself, do not deserve to be insulted and derided in this way by so-called charities pretending to advance their interests. The ACNC must act against charities who claim to advance Christianity but instead act to spread hate and division.
FamilyVoice Australia receives a GST concession, FBT rebate, and Income Tax Exemption from the Federal Government.
If you also believe FamilyVoice Australia is behaving improperly and should have their charity status removed, you can let Peter Downie, their director, know by reporting the charity to the ACNC.
If you choose to report to ACNC, I recommend familiarising yourself with the rules for ACNC charities before making a complaint.
If this material raises concerns for you, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or find other ways you can seek help in Australia, the US, the UK, or internationally.
