Reserve Australian army officer and former senate candidate Bernard Gaynor has been disciplined by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) for comments about Islam and the army marching in the Sydney Mardi Gras LGBT rights parade.

Gaynor said on Facebook yesterday that he had been charged seven times by the ADF for, in his words:

‘Criticizing its support of sexually-explicit activity carried out in front of children at the 2013 Mardi Gras, for discussing links between Islam and terrorism and for suggesting that it shouldn’t waste taxpayer dollars on sex-change operations.’

ADF announced last December that members of the army, navy and airforce had permission to march in the Sydney Mardi Gras parade in uniform for the first time.

‘It is really a great time for Defence to be participating. What this tells the international community is that the Australian Defence Force is an inclusive organization,’ said airforce squadron leader Vince Chong.

In a statement defending his comments Gaynor said:

‘Australian Defence Force is sending a message that intelligence officers cannot discuss Islam in any way, shape or form, unless they pass judgment that it is a nice, peaceful religion…

‘It saddens me that the ADF believes marching with groups that conduct sexually-explicit activity in front of children is ok but that it is somehow disreputable to point this out.’

Gaynor, an Army Reservist intelligence officer, was called to appear before his unit yesterday morning and charged with three counts of failure to comply with an order, three counts of prejudicial conduct and one count of disobeying a lawful command, news.com.au reports. He said he would fight the charges in military court on 3 May.

The army officer was de-selected by Katter’s Australian Party in January after he said that he would not want his children to be taught by gay teachers.

Gaynor tweeted about New Zealand’s parliament passing same-sex marriage legislation last week. ‘Just ‘cos Kiwis do something stupid doesn’t mean we shld too,’ he said.