1) SOUTH AFRICAN FILM AND PUBLICATIONS REVIEW BOARD OVERTURNS ITS OWN RESTRICTION ON HOMOPHOBIC BOOK:
An adults-only age restriction slapped on the homophobic book, "The Pink Agenda: The Ruin of the Family" by Christian activists (sic) Christine McCafferty and Peter Hammond has been overturned by a review board of the South African Film and Publications Board. The book had been described as "the worst example of homophobic hate speech ever published in South Africa." The Board ruled in January 2002 that the book would have to carry a notice that it was for sale only to people over 18. The reason given was because those under 18 might not be able to separate fact from fiction. At the time, the committee was concerned that the book made assertions that were questionable, hence the adults-only tag. The book's publishers Christian Liberty Books (tautology if ever there was any! -  Eds.) appealed against the decision and at the review hearing the board ruled that the writers have the freedom to express any view that cannot be conclusively proven to incite hatred or violence and lifted the age restriction.   (www.news24.com - 4 May 2002)
 

2) TRADE UNIONISTS IN MARDI GRAS PARADE:
In a letter to the Sydney Star Observer (14.3.02) Ken Davis, international programs manager APHEDA --Union Aid Abroad--  demanded to know why it is that every year the trade union group gets edited out of the two television broadcasts of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras parade?
 This year dykes and fags with the trade unions were accompanied by Sharan Burrow, president of the 2-million member ACTU and probably the most significant political leader to take part in this year's parade. The unionists marched beside an effigy of Workplace Relations Minister (is this an oxymoron?)Tony Abbott as they took a political message to the 2002 Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. Organisers described the Abbott effigy as a "very lean version of Friar Tuck, with a strong influence of Mr Byrnes from the Simpsons, with rosary beads, sack cloth and ashes." Workers Online(1.3.02) reported that unionists marched with the backing of the MUA, AMWU, CFMEU, IEU, NSWTF, CPSU, PSA, LHMU, FSU, NSW NURSES, AMIEU(MEAT WORKERS), FAAA, NTEU, AND THE NSW LABOR COUNCIL. Red was to be used as a unifying theme, because it signifies political challenge to the orthodoxy of conservatism. ( ALSO NOTE GAY AND LESBIAN TRADE UNION CONFERENCE IN SYDNEY DURING GAY GAMES 2002 - see item17)
 

3) AIDS ACTIVISTS ARRESTED IN NEW YORK:
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) reported on 31 January 2002 that seven members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) New York had been arrested that morning. They were protesting at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting which opened that day in New York. The activists demanded that corporations pay for the treatment of all their workers with HIV/AIDS and that the Bush Administration substantially increase the US contribution to the Global AIDS Fund. IGLHRC called for their immediate release of those arrested, stating "Their detention will make us neither more secure nor more prosperous. Granting access to medications to the millions of people living with HIV/AIDS will."
The United Nations Security Council confirmed in January 2001 that the AIDS epidemic unaddressed is a threat to world security. James D. Wolfensohn, head of the World Bank, acknowledged then that the epidemic "is being more effective than war in destabilising countries."
 

4) SOUTH AFRICA REVERSES AIDS VIEWS:
A report in PlanetOut (26 April 2002)  states that the South African government has done a dramatic about-face in its approach to the AIDS epidemic, according to international news reports
The PlanetOut report goes on to say that the government of President Thabo Mbeki has announced it is abandoning its view that HIV does not cause AIDS, but the president has stopped short of accepting a causal link between HIV and AIDS as fact.
 

5)"MBEKI SMEARED ME" - AIDS EXPERT:
As President Mbeki lurches from one AIDS crisis to another in an AIDS-stricken South Africa, the country's pre-eminent black AIDS scientist, Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, has accused Thabo Mbeki's office of waging a campaign of coercion and vilification against medical researchers who challenge the president's unorthodox views on HIV, London's Guardian newspaper has reported. Professor Makgoba revealed the extent of the pressure after an official investigation cleared him of "leaking" his own organisation's research, suppressed for months by the cabinet because the research concluded that about 6 million South Africans would die of AIDS by the end of the decade. Makgoba and other leading researchers accuse Essop Prahad, the cabinet minister regarded as the President Mbeki's "enforcer," of putting pressure on them to support the president's views and suggesting dissenters should leave the country.
Head of the University of Natal's internationally recognised team of HIV experts, Hoosen Coovadia, said that in the past two years the government had bypassed scientists who disagreed with the president. "We have been totally isolated. We know more about HIV and breastfeeding than probably anyone else in the world, but, as researchers, we are ignored by government." (report in www.news24.com - 17 May 2002)
 

6)AND STILL IN SOUTH AFRICA
Wouter Basson, widely reviled as "Dr Death", has had 46 charges of murder, fraud and drug dealing dismissed by the Pretoria High Court in April 2002 after the longest and most expensive trial in South African history. Standing between Basson's accusers and a conviction was Judge Willie Hartzenberg, a judge from the apartheid era, who made no secret of who it was he most admired in his courtroom! Amongst some of the issues dealt with in the court were Basson's claims that he had penetrated the highly secret chemical warfare establishments in Britain, the US and even one in Moscow during the Cold War as he worked with some of the worst killers known to man -- amongst them anthrax, E.coli, HIV, Sarin nerve gas and the ebola virus.
 

7) AGE OF CONSENT ISSUE IN NEW SOUTH WALES:
With the state of Western Australia changing its laws on age-of-consent for gay males from 21 to 16, the spotlight has again fallen on New South Wales, which is now the only state in Australia to have unequal discriminatory age of consent laws for gay males. Age of consent is 18 for gay men in NSW whereas it is 16 for heterosexual males! LGS has written to the Premier of New South Wales asking when that government will change the law and to date the response to both letters has been that the matter has been referred to the NSW Attorney-General for a response. The Greens MP in the NSW parliament is also pushing the issue. In a media release dated 24 April 2002 Greens MP Lee Rhiannon stated: "This is not some obscure medical-theological conscience issue but a straightforward question of equal human rights."
 

8) EGYPT'S HOMOPHOBIA:
The Egyptian government has denied claims by a group of US Congress members that it is persecuting gays. In March 2002, forty US lawmakers sent a second letter to the Egyptian Embassy calling on the government to stop persecuting homosexuals. The Egyptian Ambassador in the USA, Nabil Fahmy, has replied to the letter, maintaining that his country does not persecute gay men and stating there is no law explicitly forbidding homosexuality in Egypt. Fahmy explained that a group of gay men arrested at a boat party on the Nile "were convicted essentially under a law which penalises promiscuity/prostitution" and "that there is no distinction or discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation".
In past months Egypt has tried a large number of gay men, charging them with "habitual practice of debauchery." Many of the men have been sentenced to prison and hard labour. Many went through the public humiliation of being examined to see if they had engaged in anal intercourse. The results of these examinations were presented at hearings before the Supreme State Security Prosecution.
The group of US Congress members replied to Fahmy, saying, "Your selective invocation of certain human rights conventions when it suits your purposes, and your ignoring of others when they don't, is unpersuasive." (Report from Gay.com U.K. as reported in PlanetOut News, 21 May 2002)
The very latest news available at the time of publication of this newsletter, from "the datalounge" on 1 June and quoting a BBC report of 28 May states that court officials in Egypt say President Hosni Mubarak has intervened and ordered the retrial of 21 men convicted last year on charges of "practising sexual immorality", a local euphemism for homosexuality. In an order signed by Mubarak the men will be freed while awaiting a new trial. The government has also officially abandoned plans to retry 29 others found not guilty.
However, "Since November, Egypt has sentenced many other men for homosexual conduct, in other trials," said Scott Long of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, "and the arrests continue. The President's reported action does nothing for other victims still in prison."
 

9) DE FACTO RIGHTS IN VICTORIA BOUND BY LAW:
The June 2002 issue of the Victorian Senior reported that Seniors in de facto and same sex relationships are now entitled to share in their partner's estate, if  that person dies without a will. The law came into effect on 8 November 2001.
Elizabeth Lomas, State Trustees managing director, said this meant de facto and same sex partners now had the same rights to the estate as the married partner provided the surviving partner met certain criteria. These include that where there is both a married spouse and a domestic partner (de facto or same sex) surviving and no will, the 'spouse's share will be shared between the two partners. The proportion received by each depends on the time the deceased lived with either of the respective partners.
That's in Victoria but what about the other Australian States and Territories? Does the Australian Constitution need changing for the federal parliament to some day make the law uniform along with age-of-consent? Any answer? Let's know.
 

10) MELBOURNE QUEER FILM FESTIVAL 14-24 MARCH 2002:
As ever, this film festival had some excellent films, but also, as usual, we were not able to see all of the films - finances and time are always limiting factors! There were some outstanding documentaries, amongst which were four short films with the generic title of "The Colour of Sex". A film about orthodox gay Jews, Trembling before G-d, was interesting, but did not, in our opinion, merit it being an award-winning documentary, which apparently it was. The two Southern African documentaries, Simon and I: Steps for the Future - from South Africa, and Rainmakers from Zimbabwe gave some interesting insights into the two neighbouring countries' responses to homosexuality.  The homophobic Zimbabwean president Mugabe's spectre hung over the fight for human rights in Rainmakers.  Some of the "straight" films were entertaining but not anything above ordinary. All in all, these Queer Film Festivals, held in Sydney during the Mardi Gras festival period and in Melbourne a few months after the Midsumma festival period are worthwhile additions to the filmlovers' diary.
 

11) SPAIDS:
Tree planting dates for 2002 were provided to SPAIDS by South Sydney City Council as: 26 May 2002; 28 July 2002; 8 September 2002. The first, Sunday May 26, could hardly be said to have been successful. Nevertheless, a handful of faithful, encouraged by Sister Nun-Buoy and Mother Abbyss of the Order of Perpetual Indulgence, did turn up on a reasonably sunny day to plant Australian species. The SPAIDS co-ordinators, now resident in Melbourne, are planning to attend the next planting on Sunday, 28 July, in the hope that they may be able to whip more of the faithful to put on garden gloves and come to Sydney Park, St Peters. Sydney's AIDS Groves are one of the few fine existing memorials to those who have died from the effects of the HIV/AIDS in the lesbian and gay communities.
 

12)AIDS COMMEMORATIVE MONUMENTS:
LGS learned from the Melbourne B.News, lesbian and gay community newspaper that the Fairfield AIDS Memorial Garden in the grounds of the now closed Fairfield infectious diseases hospital was rundown and in a neglected state. It seems that this situation was due to the building programme  of the North Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT). SPAIDS therefore approached both NMIT and the union involved in the building project, the CFMEU, and the Victorian AIDS Council(VAC).

VAC and the CFMEU have both responded very favourably to the problem but no feedback from NMIT. We were concerned that access appeared to have been denied because of the poor state of the memorial site especially as the ashes of some of those who had died had been scattered by lovers or families in the Memorial Garden.
On Sunday, 16 June, SPAIDS coordinators visited the closed hospital and rebuilding project. We were conducted to the AIDS Memorial Garden  in the grounds by security personnel. We were told that the previous week the whole site had been cleared and was now easily accessible. We were agreeably surprised to find that really was the case. We were able to take photographs and told that there was a 24-hour cover of the site. Visitors were welcome.

SPAIDS would also like to list for historical and archival reasons all AIDS commemorative monuments and/or gardens around Australia and we request our readers to advise us of any such memorials omitted from this list:
*Sydney Park AIDS Memorial Groves                         *Medlow Bath (AIDS )Memorial Park
*John Hunter Hospital AIDS Memorial Garden           *West Australian AIDS Memorial
*Fairfield House AIDS Memorial Fountain & Garden *Fairfield AIDS Memorial Garden

These will be included on the SPAIDS web site and will be added to -- when and if further AIDS Memorials are established. Our web site is at the top of each edition of the newsletter.
 

13) RESPONSE TO LETTER FROM ADAM CARR IN LGS NEWSLETTER NO.2 2001
 from Peter Collard, Sydney
"I don't see the relevance of the number of G&Ls killed in New York (Sept 11), nor are the numbers of G&Ls amongst the thousands killed by the US bombing in Afghanistan, nor the number of G&Ls mindlessly caught up in the US bloodlust for revenge relevant.
The fact that the Taliban regime was violently anti-gay is of little relevance unless we are fighting to replace it with a pro-gay regime. The Northern Alliance and other Afghan groups are all in support of islamic law. The best that can be hoped for is the replacement of the barbaric execution methods with those approved by the Bush dynasty --firing squad or lethal injection. We are constantly told that this is NOT a war against islam, and so islamic law will no doubt continue to be enforced by any new regime --prolonging the anti-woman and anti-gay  agenda of islam.
While the Taliban were a distasteful regime, they  were the government of Afghanistan and thereby  entitled to make laws. Adam Carr does not seem to be advocating all-out war against Zimbabwe, Malaysia or Israel for their anti-gay laws; and I am sure that the defeat of an anti-gay  regime is not anywhere on the agenda of the US (unfortunate collateral damage). One of the first acts of  the US invaders was to liberate people arrested and held for trial on lawful charges of promoting christianity (the only good thing that the Taliban did).
I certainly do not support totalitarian or terrorist tactics, and I consider the US regime to be totalitarian, fascist, anti-gay and terrorist. The US wants to establish its law worldwide. David Hicks is held as a hostage just as the Abu Sayef hold hostages in the Philippines. He has committed no crime in Afghanistan, USA or Australia but is held in a cage, without  charge, consular access or legal representation, and may not be released unless Australia promises to punish him (for his non-crime of politics objectionable to the US). The Australian government is trying to introduce detention without charge, and imprisonment for not speaking. So, not only will we have no right to free speech, but no right to free silence as well  --in the name of fighting totalitarian terrorists.
The US claims to be protecting freedoms, but see what happened to Anthony Mundine (the boxer) who expressed understanding of the motives of the terrorists. The USA makes great threats to countries attempting to protect their industries, invoking the WTO to get their way, but treats its allies in this "war" with  contempt  by imposing import duties (contrary  to its free trade agenda) to protect its incompetent steel industry. The US insists on consular access to its citizens arrested in other countries, but has been found guilty in the world court of refusing consular access to prisoners in the US. I cannot support a regime of such hypocrisy, and strongly suspect them of an ulterior motive, taking this opportunity to justify the attack on Afghanistan. The official dis-information service has been closed down , so now we should all  believe everything that the US says. But as Afghanistan seems not to have a sea border we won't be hearing of Afghanis throwing babies into the sea, will we? "
Peter Collard's letter was dated 10 March 2002 (Editors)
 

We were recently sent photos of us carrying the Lesbian and Gay Solidarity banner at various demos in Melbourne since we moved here in 2001. This photo was taken on 24 March 2002 at the Palm Sunday rally, and the photo is with the kind permission of PC.

14) 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MURDER OF DR GEORGE DUNCAN:
In 1972 George Duncan, a newly appointed lecturer to Adelaide University's law school, was murdered by person or persons unknown on 10 May 1972 by drowning in the Torrens River
 in the heart of Adelaide. No people have been brought to justice over the affair, and two of three policemen charged with manslaughter in 1986 were acquitted. Calls for a Royal Commission have always been ignored and the mystery of who drowned George Duncan remains unsolved. Duncan's death precipitated the first homosexual law reform in Australia - in South Australia - but this was only partial reform. When Don Dunstan became premier of South Australia in 1975 his government introduced full reform and South Australia became the first state or territory to achieve full decriminalisation.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Dr Duncan's murder and a play is being performed in Adelaide about it. The Melbourne Star in its May 2 issue reported that the author, Ray Goodlass, considered Dr Duncan to be Australia's gay martyr because his death precipitated the first major homosexual law reform in this country. "I saw a play," Goodlass said, " at the beginning of last year in Sydney called The Laramie Project, about the Matthew Shepard bashing (murder) --the case in Wyoming in 1999. And I thought, why is it that no one has written a play about our greatest gay hero? So that was my stimulus."
 

15) AUSTRALIA'S ANTI-TERROR BILLS:
Under these bills, if passed into Australian Federal law, the federal government can define anything it doesn't like as violent, including letter-writing! What's more, the proposed penalties are exceptional. For instance, the penalty for being a member of a banned organisation --25 years imprisonment; for refusing to answer questions even under duress about what ASIO thinks you may know about "terrorism" you face 5 years in jail; and if you are charged with "an act of terrorism" and can't prove your innocence, you face life in prison.
Tim Anderson, wrongly jailed as a "terrorist" in 1978 and later cleared, now lectures in Political Economy at the University of Sydney, and has this to say about the bills: " Any  real 'terrorist act' is already illegal. The real targets of these laws in Australia are not bomb throwers or assassins. The new powers in Australia will be used selectively against activist targets, marginalised groups and individuals, and racial minorities."
 *Some extensive powers in the bills are expected to be amended such as determining which political and religious groups can now legally exist and instead of indefinite detention without being charged with a crime, there is likely to be detention without charge for 7 days. Detainees could be allowed to have access to an approved lawyer but only  after the Law Council lawyer selected has been vetted by ASIO. Proposed changes to the Telecommunications Interception Act --part of the package of anti-terrorism amendments-- will make it easier for police to read a suspect's emails than it is to tap a phone or search premises. And ' a suspect' may be a person only thought by ASIO to know about someone else on its list.
 *Because these proposed terror laws will affect us all from letter-writers to blockaders, from striking trade union members to financial supporters of Greenpeace, the 7 bills must be opposed at this stage any way people --including lesbian and gay activists - see fit.
 *It's too late to put in a submission to the Senate and Joint Parliamentary Inquiries but it's not too late to phone  in your opposition to these knee-jerk bills (or send an email - or a letter) to your local federal member.   *For text of the bills, try website: www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/ASIO/ASIO.pdf
 

16) GERMANY OFFERS NAZI-ERA PARDONS:
A PlanetOut news item on 20 May 2002 reported that German lawmakers had completed the pardon process for thousands of Nazi-era army deserters and homosexuals sent to concentration camps and prisons during World War II. About 50,000 gay men and 22,000 deserters were included in the pardon passed by the lower house in Berlin, an extension of a 1998 law that cleared the names of hundreds of thousands of Germans convicted of crimes under the Nazis.
Of the estimated 50,000 homosexuals convicted by the Nazis, few ever came forward after World War II because of the continuing stigma - as well as the fact that Paragraph 175, the law under which they were convicted, remained on the books of West Germany until 1969.
 

17) CONFERENCES:
 Australian Homosexual Histories Conference 5: 28 and 29 October 2002 - Newcastle
                                               home.vicnet.au/~alga/ahh5.htm
 Queer Studies Conference:                                 29 and 30 October 2002 - Newcastle
                                               www.newcastle.edu.au/school/newc-business/irhr/qs
 2nd World Conference of Lesbian and Gay
                                          Trade Unionists:        31 October - 2 November 2002 - Sydney
                                                www.constructionzone.com.au/workers
             4th National LGTB Health Conference
                                               --Health in Difference:       31 October - 2 November 2002 - Sydney
                                                www.healthindifference.org
It would appear conference goers will have to select those conferences which are of most interest to them and make their bookings accordingly, remembering of course that there are two different cities involved!
 

18) RESEARCH PROJECT: ATTITUDES TOWARDS HOMOSEXUAL YOUTH SUICIDE IN BOTH HETEROSEXUAL AND HOMOSEXUAL COMMUNITIES:
In March 2002 LGS received a request for people to take part in this important aspect of gay and lesbian research. If anybody wishes to take part in the project and complete a survey questionnaire, please contact Mari Molloy who is currently a student of the University of Ballarat, Victoria, and who is in her second year of a professional Doctorate Degree in Clinical Psychology. Mari can be contacted at: minxta@hotmail.com
 

19) SOME PITHY COMMENTS ABOUT THE CURRENT "TERROR WAR":
 First it was to be a Crusade. Then it became the "War for Civilisation." Then the "War without End." Then the "War Against Terror." And now  --believe it or not-- President Bush is promising us a "Titanic War on Terror." (Robert Fisk in The Independent, 13 June 2002)
 These religious nutters are people I've been criticising and fighting against for the best part of my life. But these are also people the US created and trained and funded. (Tariq Ali, author of The Clash of Fundamentalisms and recently in Australia, The Age, 6 June 02)
 Australians have been drawn into this 'war' in much the same way as earlier wars. We have come to expect conservative Federal Governments to fall over themselves, in an effort to please the US Government, as they did during the Vietnam war. So the Howard Government throws troops into a dangerous Afghan operation with no clear goals, echoes George Bush's partisan comments about Palestinians, threatens to involve Australians in aggressive US designs on Iraq, and draws up a list of unprecedented harsh powers to deny Australian citizens their basic rights. (Tim Anderson on the net)
 We have had time now to absorb the 'Fortress Australia" Budget. But does anyone out there feel the slightest bit better protected? Or safer? I, for one, feel less safe, knowing that critical decisions about what actually supports and develops a safe society are being made by people who are apparently so out of touch with reality and basic commonsense. (Stephanie Dowrick, writer & broadcaster in Good Weekend, 1 June 2002)
 Virtually all terrorist acts involve what might be called ordinary crimes --murder, kidnapping, assault, malicious damage and so on-- albeit for political motives. (Justice Hope, Australia's Protective Security Review, 1979)
                                                         Plant a tree on SUNDAY, 28 JULY 2002 in memory
                                                         of someone who has died from HIV/AIDS. Young
                                                         Australian trees supplied by South Sydney Council,
                                                          11am to 3pm, free barbecue lunch around midday.
                                                          -off Barwon Park Road, ST PETERS. Parking avail.
 
 

CURRENT NEWSLETTER AND ARCHIVE OF PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS

Mannie De Saxe also has a personal web site, which may be found by clicking on the link: RED JOS

Mannie's blogs may be accessed by clicking on to the following links:

MannieBlog (from 1 August 2003 to 31 December 2005)

ACTIVIST KICKS BACKS - AKB (from December 2005 onwards)

RED JOS BLOGSPOT (from January 2009 onwards)

CURRENT NEWSLETTER AND ARCHIVE OF PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS

Mannie has a personal web site: RED JOS: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM

Mannie's blogs may be accessed by clicking on to the following links:

MannieBlog (from 1 August 2003 to 31 December 2005)

Activist Kicks Backs - Blognow archive re-housed - 2005-2009

RED JOS BLOGSPOT (from January 2009 onwards)

This page updated 18 SEPTEMBER 2014 and again on 23 APRIL 2017

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