This article was originally published by QNews. You can find the original article here.
The Newcastle Herald has apologised for publishing a transphobic front page advertisement for Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriot party, as the billionaire’s bright yellow ads appear in newspapers across Australia.
Clive Palmer launched the new political party in Canberra last month and is on a publicity blitz ahead of the upcoming federal election.
Palmer says the party is inspired by US President Donald Trump and seeks to mimic many of Trump’s policies, including against trans inclusion.
Speaking at the February launch, he evoked Trump’s executive order on “two genders,” which banned the US government from recognising trans and gender diverse Americans.
On Tuesday, the Newcastle Herald printed an ad on its front page from Palmer’s party trumpeting, “There are only two genders”.
The ad in the regional New South Wales newspaper went on to use other anti-trans language and tropes, including complaining children are being “confused in schools”.
“Give them a normal and safe environment to grow and develop in and let them decide who they are when they become adults,” the ad reads.
Newspaper apologises for Clive Palmer ad
The ad sparked furious local backlash, with LGBTQIA+ venue Bernie’s Bar warning social media followers that the “transphobic and non-binaryphobic” ad was splashed on the paper’s front page and urging them to complain to the Herald.
“Avoid if you can… Do better @newcastleherald,” Bernie’s wrote. “We don’t want this printed in future editions.”
Later in the day, the publisher of the Newcastle Herald pulled the ad from the digital edition of Tuesday’s paper and issued an apology for running it.
“The advertisement offended many of our readers and did not meet our values as a company. It should not have appeared,” Australian Community Media managing director Tony Kendall said in a statement.
“ACM, the publisher of the Herald, has checks in place for political advertising but on this occasion that process failed and the advertisement was not reviewed before publication.
Kendall said the ad has been “withdrawn from the e-edition and will not be published again”.
“We support freedom of speech and a diversity of views. But on this occasion we let our readers and our staff down,” he said.
“ACM and the Herald apologise unreservedly to our readers, the transgender community and to the Newcastle community more broadly for any hurt and distress caused by the publication of the advertisement.”
On Tuesday, the same ad also ran on the front page of The Australian newspaper, with other Trumpet of Patriots ads are also appearing in Nine and News Corp papers across Australia.
Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown said the attention-seeking ads from “a fringe political actor” are designed to do nothing more than stoke division.
“They do nothing to inform debate or promote any understanding of what are complex issues that affect the most vulnerable people in our community,” Brown said.
Political parties urged to commit to trans rights
Meanwhile, national LGBTQIA+ advocacy group Just.Equal Australia has urged all political parties and independents to make commitments to the trans community ahead of the upcoming federal election.
Spokesperson Brian Grieg said this week the group is very concerned conservatives will follow in the footsteps of the Trump administration and “persecute trans and gender diverse people and roll back existing laws”.
The group has written to all major and minor parties and independents ahead of the election.
Just.Equal wants the parties to commit to “no rolling back of existing legislative rights and protections, regulations or programs” including access to gender affirming care for young trans and gender diverse people, as has occurred in Queensland.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has not yet called the election but the poll must be held by May.
