Senate candidate for Family First Wendy Francis yesterday compared legitimising gay marriage to “legalising child abuse”, causing uproar on Twitter and angering the gay rights lobby.

“Children in homosexual relationships are subject to emotional abuse. Legitimising gay marriage is like legalising child abuse,” Francis, Family First's lead Senate candidate in Queensland, said in a Twitter message which has since been deleted.

Yet the comment, which also came in a statement calling on Labor and the Coalition to “end the gay marriage debate”, remained on her website when viewed at 9:30pm Sunday night. It was later removed from her site at around 10pm.

Thousands of Twitter users blasted Francis for her comments after they were made on Sunday on the social networking site.

“Your baseless claims are astounding,” said Twitter user StephenAKing. Channel Ten signed comedian Josh Thomas chimed in too, saying “I don't like you” to the senate candidate.

The gay rights lobby said the comments were offensive and stigmatised the thousands of children living in same-sex families.

"Comments which characterise same-sex families as promoting emotional abuse towards children is deeply, deeply frustrating and offensive,” said Senthorun Raj, policy and development coordinator at the Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby.

"In Australia there over 4,380 children living in same-sex families, and to have children in those families be stigmatised by such comments, stigmatising their same-sex parents, disenfranchises those children and effectively promotes attitudes of homophobia that will continue to marginalise and ostracize children and parents living in same-sex families.”

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald