JIMBOOMBA residents say religious tracts with handwritten words pushing for people to vote against same-sex marriage are offensive.
Krystal Patterson said she was shocked to find a leaflet with words “Love Aust. vote no; Hate God vote yes” in her postbox.
The words had been written, together with a phone number.
“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the way people go about campaigning is wrong,” she said.
“This has gone too far.”
Rhonda Harvey said a tract she received stated she would go to hell if she voted yes.
She said the person delivering the leaflet had driven to other houses, but past hers while she was in the yard and then returned when she walked to the house.
“If people are going to hand out something like that they should own it and not do it on the sly,” she said.
Ms Harvey said she had written to the church named on the leaflet – Christian Witness Ministries Fellowship – and returned the tract.
“The campaign is bringing up hate towards people,” she said.
“I am all for people having their own opinions, but I don’t appreciate people bringing hate into my home.”
Ms Patterson said she realised churches might want to campaign against same-sex marriage, but there were better ways to do it.
“People might be yes voters and still love God,” she said.
“This (tract) just makes the church look bad.”
Senior pastor at Christian Witness Ministries Fellowship Jeff Pitman said they had religious tracts for their members to distribute.
“Anything additional to the pre-printed tract is not endorsed by us,” he said.
Mr Pitman said the church had reiterated its guidelines – which included not adding information to the tracts – to its members.
Last week a graphic sign featuring hand-drawn images of male and female reproductive organs was hung above three northbound lanes of the M1 through Springwood.
Marriage equality campaigners have also come under attack on social media for sending out messages via text which recipients found annoying and unsolicited.
LGBTI Legal Service president Matilda Alexander said far-right groups had been given a platform for their messages of hate and vilification by the same-sex marriage survey.
“This is a public act that exposes people to a form of homophobia that we hadn’t seen before the vote,” she said.
“We are just seeing so much unlawful hate-speech being directed at gay and lesbian people throughout Australia.”
The legal service established the Like Love project to address vilification during the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey period.
They plan to present cases as part of a complaint to the Anti-Discrimination Commission at the end of the campaign period.
