Two Christian charities have been granted official permission to keep their board members’ names secret on the grounds of “public safety”, after abuse and threats from gay activists forced an IBM executive to sever his links with a Christian education group.
The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission yesterday agreed to keep the boards of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute and the Australian Christian Lobby off the public record because publication “could endanger public safety”.
The Lachlan Macquarie Institute and the ACL applied to the commission last week after militant gay rights activists targeted marriage equality advocate IBM Australia for employing Mark Allaby, who was on the Institute’s board. Both organisations removed the details of their boards and staff from their websites last week, as gay activists increased pressure on IBM and started to circulate the names and jobs of the Christian board members.
The charities commission took all the details of the two charities off its register, a public record, on receiving the request to keep the names private. After agreeing to the request, the commission put the details of the two Christian charities back on its register yesterday with the names of “responsible people” withheld.
The commission does not routinely grant requests for privacy of board members but has done so in the past for registered charities such as women’s shelters fearful of violence.
Read the full article by Dennis Shanahan at The Australian (subscription only).