A Petition to Sack Perth’s Lord Mayor Now Has Six Times As Many Signatures As He Got Votes
Throw the whole (transphobic) man away!!!
A petition to stand down Perth’s Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas has 11,059 signatures, almost six times more than the 1855 votes with which he won the election in October.
Less than two weeks after being elected, Zempilas made transphobic comments on 6PR radio station. When discussing the first World Gay Boxing Championships which will be held in Sydney in 2023, he told listeners “if you’ve got a penis mate, you’re a bloke. If you’ve got a vagina, you’re a woman. Game over.” In the same interview, he later used the slur “hermaphrodites”.
Basil Zempilas, as someone who is part of both the LGBT Community and the Greek-Australian community, you’ve really embarrassed me and many like me with your ignorant transphobic comments. You totally deserve all this backlash.
— Chris Macheras (@chrismacheras1) October 29, 2020
TW: mis-gendering
The comments Basil Zempilas made yesterday about our trans community are incredibly distressing.As newly elected Mayor, he has responsibility to be better than this. When you make such ignorant comments, you traumatise & harm members of your Perth community.
— Alison Xamon (@AlisonXamon) October 28, 2020
The petition states “this is not how a Lord Mayor should be acting, this is not how any person in power or not in power even, should be portraying any other human being regardless of sex, gender, sexuality, race, this is 2020 not the 1950s!”.
Following backlash, Zempilas — who also appears regularly on Channel 7 as a media personality, and has a column for The West Australian — for apologised for his “inappropriate” comments and stated that he “forgot [he] was mayor,” which led to further criticism.
https://t.co/U3RKqH7RD9: So, as Mayor, he’s only pretending not to be a regressive bigot? So much for integrity😡This excuse is as lame as it is ridiculous!
— amante2 (@AmeliaBee7) October 31, 2020
A protest took place in Perth last Saturday, attracting a large turnout. Organisers described the mayor as “nothing but a transphobic and anti-homeless bigot. He has used his position amongst the corporate media (which he still inhabits) to spurt this bigotry.
“When trans people are being denied existence, the right better expect resistance. Such is the attitude we should take here in Perth with our new bigoted mayor.”
Hi everyone, reporter @gavinheight here. I'm in Perth at the protest against the transphobic statements made this week by the mayor of the City of Perth, Basil Zempilas. I'll add to this thread with interviews, photos, and ofc the spiciest posters! @JOY949news pic.twitter.com/ioZ1eSyCIN
— The Informer (@TheInformerJOY) October 31, 2020
Zempilas has also made inflammatory remarks about Perth’s homeless population, vowing to “forcibly remove” them from the CBD, views which first came to light in a column he wrote before being elected.
“I’m sick of being told by people who don’t live and work in the city like I do that it’s not that bad — actually, it’s worse,” he wrote.
“The look, the smell, the language, the fights — it’s disgusting. A blight on our city.”
Though he also apologised for these comments, it’s scary to imagine what else we can expect from his mayor-ship, given he’s only just begun. My suggestion? Throw the whole man away.