Gays don't want marriage

John Heard is at it again, missing the point entirely (click on the headline to see his latest rant in the Herald Sun).
He says that same sex attracted men and women "simply don't want gay marriages" and most gay partners have "no intention of ever "formalising' their relationships."
The point, however, is not that we want marriage - we want EQUALITY. A great many heterosexual couples aren't keen to marry, and many have no intention of formalising their relationships, but they can if they want to.
We can't, and until that is changed, we remain unequal and our relationships branded inferior.
I don't especially want marriage, but I will fight for it till we get it.

UPDATE
After meeting John Heard and being subjected to his bullying and hectoring on air, I'm even less inclined to give his point of view the time of day.

One point - he says on his blog that we 'massaged' the listener feedback, implying that we made it seem less favourable to him than it was. In fact, we declined to read out all the messages, or parts of messages, that were nothing more than personal abuse directed at John. For the record, of the 60+ responses in the course of the show, none backed John 100% and only a handful backed him in a qualified fashion. The rest disagreed with him.

Several - and many responses to me privately afterwards - expressed great sorrow and sympathy for John, and prayed that he would come to his senses before it was too late.

He says a lot of other things I could take issue with, too, but I decline to waste my time

Eye Candy II

For gentlemen who prefer blonds, even when they come out of a bottle, this young man is worth a look.

Natural blond would be better, but at least this gives us a chance to offer to do his roots for him.

And we could touch up the carpet to match the curtains while we're about it.

Is he really this shape, or have Cosmopolitan resorted to photoshop to exaggerate his V?

Skins star Mitch Hewer posed naked "to raise awareness for the Everyman male cancer campaign", or so he says.

He also talks about what girls like about him, so perhaps he plays for the other side. But in that pose, who knows what he may be hiding?

Weekend eye-candy

We can't always be so serious. Sometimes we need a little light relief. So here's a bit of eye-candy to brighten the weekend.

I'm not much on rugby players as a rule - battered noses and cauliflower ears are not my thing. But at 19 this guy has most of that still to come.

He's Will Chambers of Melbourne Storm, and with a come-hither look like that, I reckon he'll go far, in or out of the scrum.

I certainly know how far I'd like him to go!!

Mimicking Howard

Couldn't say it better than this, so I won't.

The only thing I can add is that for me at least the honeymoon is over. After all the guff about keeping his election promises, when KRuddy found he had given two contradictory ones - one to the pseudo-Christians of the Australian Christian Lobby, that he wouldn't allow anything that 'mimics marriage', versus one to the gay community and the ACT, that he would let them legislate for civil unions - he decided to mimic Howard and keep faith with the pseudo-Christians.

Lest we forget, Australian Christian Lobby officer-in-charge is Brigadier Jim Wallace (above), former counter-terrorism expert and ex-head of the SAS, an organisation dedicated to perverting affable young Aussies into inventive and secretive elite killing machines, sent overseas to deniably murder for their country. Hardly the most Christian of professions.

ACT caves in - 'nationally consistent' plan in tatters

After promising to pass a civil partnerships bill in the teeth of federal opposition, the ACT government made a humiliating climbdown today and agreed to pass the measure minus the public ceremonies that Robert McClelland insists, "mimic marriage."

Tasmanian activist Rodney Croome says Kevin Rudd may offer a national partnership registration scheme as a trade-off.

Some such move became essential last week when when West Australia joined New South Wales in refusing to enact a state registration scheme.

The position of the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia is not known, but sources suggest they too were poised to refuse to fall into line the the federal governments plan for a system of 'nationally consistent state-based registries.'

Since the existing registries in Tasmania and Victoria are not consistent neither with one other nor the now-emasculated ACT measure, that plan is now dead.

The government have still not produced a logical coherent justification for enacting a separate but unequal system of relationship recognition for same-sex couples.

Meanwhile the Greens will introduce a same-sex marriage bill into the upper house.

Saints ace wants gay jibes ban - full text

Russell Robinson - Herald Sun - May 03, 2008 12:00am

Former St Kilda champ Nathan Burke teams up with a farmer to press the AFL to introduce rules protecting gays and bisexual people from sexual vilification

NATHAN Burke quickly learned never to take a backward step.

Frankston’s Pines estate was tough and the kids who survived were flint-hard or could run fast.
Those who didn’t adapt, the so- called sissies and pansies, were generally ostracised.

The St Kilda champion draws on those experiences to guide him.

Such was the case when he took a telephone call from gay activist Rob Mitchell for his help.
It took less than five seconds for the former Saints skipper to agree.

Together, this duo is fighting for gay rights in Victorian sports clubs, and Burke believes they’ll have little trouble recruiting other champion athletes.

They have already seen Victorian Youth and Sports Minister James Merlino, who has promised his support.

Now they’re looking to the Australian Football League in the hope of establishing an education program, and a system of penalties and sanctions similar to its successful racial vilification measures.

“I grew up in a tough part of Frankston and’ can visualise kids who’d been branded as sissies, pansies, or who played with the girls,” Burke says.

When it came time to play football at lunchtime they’d be told to, Go back and play with the girls, you’re not playing with us.

As you grow older you start to realise the harm you were possibly causing, even though you might not have been one of the Instigators.

“The fact that you didn’t actually stand up and do something about it at the time, you still feel it, By being passive you are still culpable.”

He says that was a reason to accept Mitchell’s invitation.

“When Rob rang me and identified the problem I could’ve been passive and just wished him good luck, but that would’ve been perpetuating what did as a kid,” Burke says.

In a separate development this week, the Federal Government announced it would scrap discrimination against gays in Commonwealth laws.

More than 100 amendments will be introduced to Parliament next month in areas ranging from superannuation, taxation, social security and health care.

But in the community vilification of gay, lesbian and bisexual youth, particularly in sports clubs and rural areas, remains an alarming social problem.

Depression awareness group beyond- blue says recent studies have found gay men aged between 18-24 are 3.7 times more likely to try to commit suicide.

Most of these attempts occurred after they had identified themselves as gay, but before they had a same-sex experience and before outing themselves.

Mitchell, 44, says he chose Burke because of his football profile and his experience as a player during the controversial racial vilification times.

‘For me, it’s all part of the same thread. You’re discriminating against someone for something that can’t be changed,” says Mitchell, a farmer and computer programmer.

But is the problem so significant to warrant more rules and sanctions?

“That depends on what criterion you use,” replies Mitchell. Maybe the numbers are fewer, but let’s look at the impact because what happens to the people on the receiving end of the vilification — their risk of suicidal thought more than triples.

“So, let’s say in Victoria there are 10.000 people being vilified because of their sexual orientation.

“If you gathered them together on a football oval, would you be prepared to tell them: ‘We’re not going to look after you because there’s not enough of you being degraded?’

‘That’s the message you’re sending to them. Then there are those standing on the sidelines who get an implicit message that it’s OK to vilify people.’

Burke, who retired five years ago after 323 games and was recently appointed a St Kilda director, works for a management consultancy with expertise in cultural change.

“I dare say that among the 600-plus AFL footballers there would be a gay player . . the statistics show that would be the case,” he says.

“So, why haven’t they come out like (former rugby league champion) Ian Roberts? I don’t know,
“I’m pretty sure nowadays that at an AFL level it wouldn’t be a problem for the other players. We’ve all moved on,”

Burke says throughout his career stones circulated about certain footballers including teammates.

‘But they were rumours, There Was nothing concrete,” he says.
“You’d get players from other clubs coming up and saying things like, ‘This bloke hasn’t got a girt, and ‘The boys are really suss about him’.”

Burke recalls the AFL's initial approach to racial and religious vilification on the field and the players’ reactions.

“First of all the league had to get a policy in writing, because just to go around and tell people they shouldn’t abuse people racially would never have taken hold.

“That’s no way to change a culture. By having it in writing, that keeps the players accountable.

“Then the AFL needed some high profile champions to push the cause, such as (Bomber) Michael Long, and before him (Saint) Nicky Winmar.

‘Now they have an education program which every player goes through every year. I sat through the initial ones and there was a lot of scepticism, with questions like, ‘They call themselves wogs, so why can’t we cal] them wogs?

‘Then after every year the skepticism gradually wore off,”

Burke believes the change occurred because some players became aware of the social significance, some feared the penalties and others respected Long and others who pushed for reform.

Burke and Mitchell have had talks with senior AFL officials. Now they want to see AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou copy the racial program to protect gay and bisexual players.

They want to show him the dramatic statistics of suicides by young gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
The State Government has taken steps to counter anti-gay bias.

Alter their meeting with Merlino the pair were told in a letter of an impending manual to help sports leagues and clubs on governance.

“I anticipate there will be a chapter in the manual on the topic of combating discrimination in all Its forms . . . It would be useful to get your group’s input into the drafting of this particular chapter,” Merlino wrote,

Burke knows change is overdue.

“As a friend of mine recently said, ‘You can only whinge for so long’.”

ANYONE with personal problems can call Lifeline on 131 114; Victorian Statewide Suicide Helpline on 1300 651 251.

Rainbow Special Tonight

On tonight's Rainbow Report we'll be devoting the show to the coming legal changes:

Stephen Jones from VGLRL on what's in, what's not,and what next.
Rodney Croome on the politics of it all, the wriggle room for the Liberals to back away from support, and how Canberra's surprised at the way gay marriage has suddenly become THE issue.
Andrew Grenache of Australian Marriage Equality on how major corporates are signing up to recognise gay marriages, civil unions and registered partners in their company benefits schemes
And Mark Orr, President of ACON on growing old disgracefully and how the changes will make life easier for mature gays and lesbians.
Plus insightful analysis from Cathy Anderson and Ron Theile - tonight, 7-9pm Joy 94.9 streaming live at joy.org.au for non-Melbournians.

Doug

Nepal gets its first gay representative in parliament

Sunil Pant has to be one of the worlds great gay heroes. He put gay rights on the Nepalese national agenda, defending gays, lesbians and in particular mehti (cross-dressers) from a hostile society and a corrupt government and police.

That would be an achievement in itself, but he's done it in the middle of a revloution and civil war - a truly amazing achievement.

HIV+ man has "no memory" of stabbing taxi driver

Dear God, what a shock to read this. Although I met Parrish only once, I have corresponded with him many many times over the years as he sought to publicise his battles with more or less everyone, from the health minster to the Alfred Hospital, the housing commission, over his health, his treatment, his partners health , his housing . . . . in fact, Parrish and I first spoke when I refused to broadcast an item about him on Joy, and he said he would picket the radio station! What a tragedy for Parrish, his partner Peter, and the poor cabbie!

Honouring Heroes and History

I love projects like this. When I first came out, I didn't know we had a history, or heroes, hell, I didn't know we even existed for a long time, thinking I was probably the only one for miles. Our past had been so buried and our present was unreported.
One of my first heroes was Dirk Bogarde, who was brave enough to play a blackmailed married gay lawyer in the film Victim, when to be gay was still illegal in the UK. Too closeted to come out himself, he was handsome, talented and courageous.
I hope his life will be remembered in the UK's Proud Heritage project - another great idea. An online museum of British gay history.