"Disgusting" posters displayed in Melbourne make bogus claims about same-sex families.

Equality advocates have called on the Prime Minister to condemn “disgusting” posters found in at least one Melbourne street that urge Australians to “Stop The Fags”.

The posters, spotted by a Twitter user in Heffernan Lane in Melbourne’s CBD make the bogus claim that “92 per cent of children raised by gay parents are abused” and show a child crouched as two hands hold rainbow-coloured belts in front of him.

A website address, ironmarch.org, found at the bottom of the poster leads to a neo-Nazi forum promoting racism and homophobia.

Long-time LGBTI rights advocate Rodney Croome, who is also a spokesperson for equality campaign just.equal, said the posters come just weeks after a postal survey on marriage equality was announced.

“The hate displayed in these posters will shock and disgust the overwhelming majority of Australians,” Mr Croome said.

He called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to condemn this vilification of LGBTI people, and “set out the parameters for respectful debate”.

“We have long warned the Government that a plebiscite or postal vote on marriage equality would amplify extremist and hateful views – yet the Prime Minister assured us of a respectful debate.

“It is now incumbent on the Prime Minister, who initiated the postal vote campaign, to take responsibility and denounce anti-LGBTI vilification like this poster.”

Mamamia has reached out to the Prime Minister’s office for a response.

Listen: Instead of a plebiscite, why didn’t we just do this? (Post continues after audio.) 

It’s important to point out that the statistic found in the poster is completely inaccurate.

In reviewing 79 studies on the welfare of children raised by gay or lesbian parents, Columbia Law School found “based on over three decades of peer-reviewed research, that having a gay or lesbian parent does not harm children”.

Colombia Law School found that of the 79 studies, 75 concluded that children of gay or lesbian parents fare no worse than other children.

However, the remaining four, which concluded the children face disadvantage, have been criticised by many scholars as “unreliable” as they featured children who had endured family breakups, which CLS describes as “a cohort known to face added risks”.

In Australia, the Institute for Family Studies has also found that children raised by same-sex couples are just as happy and healthy as other children.

“Overall, the evidence does not support the view that same-sex parented families are harmful to children, with a review of Australian and international research… concluding that children in same-sex parented families do as well emotionally, socially and educationally as those in opposite-sex parented families,” an AISF fact sheet published in September 2016 reads.

Meanwhile, the study from which the statistics on the poster were quoted – which was authored by Catholic University professor Paul Sullins in 2015 – has been widely discredited.