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13 hours ago
A group that espouses anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments is moving an International Men’s Day (IMD) run that is akin to a government-funded run aimed astatine “supporting men and boys”.
The Australian Men’s Health Forum (AMHF) is nan government-funded highest assemblage for men’s intelligence and beingness wellness and has coordinated IMD, an yearly arena connected 19 November, since 2017. This year’s taxable is “supporting men and boys”.
Meanwhile nan Fatherhood Foundation, trading arsenic Dads4Kids, says it is nan “global integer driving unit and nan coordinating kindness for IMD”. It is simply a blimpish Christian organisation focused connected reinforcing accepted gender roles and has “celebrating men and boys” arsenic its theme.
The domain names and logos of some sites are very similar, but nan AMHF is not affiliated pinch Dads4Kids.
“AMHF is not affiliated pinch immoderate International Men’s Day website that does not support this inclusive attack to marking nan date,” AMHF’s main executive officer, Glen Poole, said.
It was not clear which group came up pinch their logos aliases domain names first and location is nary proposal that either group has deliberately copied nan other, conscionable that nan 2 campaigns are similar.
AMHF says it was invited to coordinate nan Australian time by world laminitis and University of nan West Indies world Dr Jerome Teelucksingh, while Dads4Kids says it useful pinch Teelucksingh.
Much of Dads4Kids’ nationalist worldly promotes anti-feminist, anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments and it has pushed for nan authorities of fathers successful family custody battles for much than 2 decades.
Warwick Marsh is nan laminitis of Dads4Kids and nan self-described world integer coordinator of IMD. In a station astir this year’s IMD, Marsh wrote some masculinity and femininity are nether attack, but nan greater threat is to masculinity.
“The onslaught against men is truthful ferocious that masculinity is successful threat of extinction,” he wrote.
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In a tribute to blimpish commentator Charlie Kirk earlier this year, a station (reposted from a different group) quoted Kirk arsenic saying “feminism must beryllium defeated for nan westbound to beryllium saved” and that “having children is much important than having a bully career”.
In 2024, Marsh’s boy and Dads4Kids main executive officer, Nathaniel Marsh, wrote that his takeaways from a clip he had watched were that “feminist ideology is simply a crab connected society” and that nan men’s authorities world Janice Fiamengo made “a beardown lawsuit for being ‘anti-feminist’”.
Warwick Marsh has written submissions to authorities inquiries referring to a archive he published called “21 reasons why gender matters”, successful which he said “extreme feminists and homosexual activists” person sought to minimise nan differences betwixt nan genders.
He described transexuality arsenic a “deceptively fierce disorder” and uses quotes describing homosexuality arsenic “perverse”, falsely blaming it for a scope of societal ills.
He wrote that “healing is possible” and “many person near nan homosexual lifestyle”.
He was fired arsenic a wellness ambassador successful 2008 for nan document, pinch past wellness curate Nicola Roxon calling it “quite abhorrent”, but he continued to mention to nan archive successful submissions.
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In a submission to a 2009 bill, he talked astir nan “lifestyle choice” of those who “want to prosecute successful unnatural homosexual sex”.
In a submission to a 2023 measure connected a family rule amendment aimed astatine protecting women and children from family unit maltreatment and astatine elevating nan information and needs of children, Marsh said it was “based connected a father-phobic, extremist feminist ideology”.
In 2017 nan group was accused by LGBTQI+ activists of trying to politicise fathers time and trying to declare victimhood successful nan same-sex matrimony debate.
Poole said that successful 2011, nan UK IMD co-ordinators developed a diverseness and equality connection clarifying that nan objectives of IMD applied “equally to men and boys irrespective of their age, ability, societal background, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, belief belief and narration status”.
Professor Michael Flood researches men, masculinities and gender astatine nan Queensland University of Technology.
He said he was initially “hostile” to IMD because “in galore ways it represented anti-feminist perspectives connected men, women and gender”, implied a parallel pinch International Women’s Day and framed men arsenic victims.
But he now speaks astatine IMD events. “In nan past decade I’ve seen a increasing number of events and discussions astir IMD that admit issues of intelligence health, suicide, different genuine forms of disadvantage that immoderate men look but without nan broader benignant of anti-feminist framing that had problem me,” he said.
“So while I still person immoderate ambivalence astir nan day, I’m besides happy to speak astatine IMD events talking about, for example, men’s health, and nan links betwixt men’s wellness and nan Man Box aliases wide societal expectations of masculinity and nan harms they tin enforce connected men and those astir them.”
Flood said it could beryllium “tricky” for immoderate to spot whether an IMD arena was anti-feminist aliases not, but that astir of them these days are “well-intentioned efforts to reside genuine forms of harm that men face”.
He said while nan time had been a “vehicle for legitimising anti-feminist views”, it is “redeemable”.
Multiple IMD events are not affiliated pinch Dads4Kids aliases AMHF. Guardian Australia contacted Dads4Kids for comment.
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