Question: What do you get when a suicide-prevention nonprofit expands its services to include domestic violence services? Answer: Ugly.
Context from Wikipedia: Lifeline is a non-profit organisation that provides free, 24-hour Telephone Crisis Support service in Australia. Volunteer Crisis Supporters provide suicide prevention services, mental health support and emotional assistance, not only via telephone but face-to-face and online.
29 April 2018
Suicide prevention group Lifeline is being lobbied to remove controversial feminist Clementine Ford as the keynote speaker of domestic violence awareness forum.
A change.org petition argued her previous tweets saying ‘kill all men’ and ‘all men must die’ made her unsuitable to address the ‘Recognise, Respond, Refer’ event in Melbourne next month.
Incredibly, Lifeline was reluctant to tell a woman calling for the violent deaths of all men that she’s unsuitable to participate in events hosted by a suicide prevention organization.
…’It is common place for a range of views and perspectives to occur in a discussion panel,’ [Lifeline] told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Lifeline does not necessarily agree with any particular panel member or commentator’s views.’
Clementine Ford said she had ‘addressed the intention behind these statements numerous times’.
‘If we lived in a world where women were murdering men en masse and men genuinely had reason to fear they might be murdered in their beds by a gang of marauding feminists, I would agree with your concern,’ she told Daily Mail Australia on Monday.
‘As it is is, we live in a world where it’s women who are being murdered by men at a minimum rate of one a week in this country, not to mention the countless circumstances of sexual violence, physical harassment and ongoing domestic violence perpetrated against women.’
The author of ‘Fight Like A Girl’ has also previously tweeted ‘I bathe in male tears’ and last year wrote ‘Have you killed any men today? And if not, why not?’ in a book signed for a fan. [GQ: I found it; added below]
Ms Ford… is due to speak at the State Library Victoria on May 29 at the ‘Recognise, Respond, Refer’ forum moderated by former Ten and Sky News presenter Tracey Spicer, who is spearheading the ‘Me Too’ movement against male workplace sexual predators in Australia.
I was never curious to see what would happen when a suicide hotline got Converged by #MeToo. Maybe the same nonprofit that convinces suicidal men to continue living shouldn’t simultaneously call out men as sexual predators?
THEY FINALLY AGREED! A petition to shut down the event succeeded with 14,342 signatures. Lifeline gave the follow apology:
“The employees and officers who duped us into hiring a spokeswoman who repeatedly called for the deaths of all men have all been fired immediately for sabotaging Lifeline’s very purpose for existing. To prevent this from happening again, we pledge to immediately terminate all association with anybody who makes public, genderwide death threats or is known to ever have made false accusations of rape or domestic abuse. Such behaviors contribute directly to the male hopelessness and despair that we wish to heal.”
Sorry, it must be Friday afternoon. That was incorrect. Here’s the real apology:
https://www.change.org/p/13156494/u/22744842
MAY 14, 2018 . Thank you for letting us know how the panel membership for the DV Alert forum event has impacted you. We appreciate it has been an issue that has triggered strong emotions and reactions. As such, we have reconsidered the event.
The forum, including a panel discussion, was intended to be the final event in a month long series of activities. We were open to various ideas being considered in the discussion. However, we are concerned that the forum will not be able to be conducted in the spirit intended and to continue with it will cause some people further distress . and may impact on our ability to offer support to all people in our community. We do not see our role as one that should ever promote conflict or distress and have, therefore, decided to not proceed with the forum.
Lifeline.s mission is to support all Australians in crisis and to do so in a non-judgemental and respectful manner. We do hope that you understand our decision regarding this event and that you continue to support Lifeline and our vision for an Australia free of suicide.”
The Feedback Support Team
Lifeline Australia
That is no apology. It’s a windy notice of event cancellation. Refusal to admit any wrongdoing just means they’ll be back next year with more government funding.
Men are under such incredible pressures these days that we can’t even use a suicide hotline without a real danger that the person on the other end will be a #MeToo activist. God grant that the Manosphere will help those the authorities can’t be bothered with.
Speaking of hotlines, I’ll close with this.
http://antifeminismaustralia.com/clementine-ford-phone-sex-operator/
Clementine Ford used to be a phone sex operator
23 September 2017
It appears her motivation for doing so was partly money, and partly due to the fact that no boys found her attractive or wanted to have sex with her. It is believed that this was the main reason she became a feminist. …
Surprisingly, she even felt sorry for some lonely men she received calls from who didn’t even want to talk about sex. Such a contrast to her vile .kill all men. speech today.
“But it was unbearably sad to receive calls from men not even interested in sex. Lonely men with no one to talk to, who wanted someone not only to share in the minutiae of their day but also their passions and dreams at a starting price of $3.95 a minute. All these years later, it still makes me sad to think that there are people for whom human contact is in short supply.”
grrr.
i’ve always wondered about those hotlines. are they really confidential? are they recording you? (i know legally they have to state they are recording if they are, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t). idk … i guess i’m not very trusting of people who say they want to help you. my experience has been that people want to help you in ways that are convenient for them and that make them feel good, not in ways that actually help.
“are they really confidential?”
Not really. Suicide hotlines are notorious for calling the police on you if they believe a suicide attempt is imminent. Then you have an arrest record, an official psychiatric evaluation guaranteed to be negative and secondary consequences such as missed work, loss of security clearances and firearm confiscation. The government/feminists don’t want to help men. They want to keep men working on the plantation.
Real help for men is having male friends they can hang out with and talk to. Not anonymous phone chats.