LESBIAN AND GAY SOLIDARITY
NEWSLETTER
PO BOX 1675 PRESTON SOUTH, VIC 3072 AUSTRALIA PHONE(03)9471 4878
Formerly: GAY SOLIDARITY GROUP Est. 1978 email: josken_at_zipworld_com_au
LGS HOME PAGES: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken
ISSN 1446-4896
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ISSUE 3, 2004 NUMBER 59 JULY-SEPTEMBER 2004
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) SPAIDS: Only one planting per year, and the fact of it taking place on National Tree Day, may help to explain the turnout for 2004 at Sydney Park's SPAIDS Groves as one of the largest for a long time. We were pleased to have at least 40 people visit and plant trees in memory of lovers, friends, family, acquaintances.
What made the event a very special day was that we have been planting for 10 years and this was our 30th planting. Two of those who have given us much support over the years brought a special cake which was lettered SPAIDS - 30, and another visitor also brought cake to celebrate the occasion. We were also very lucky in that the weather was perfect for the day, with lovely sunshine and mild temperatures. It is also gratifying, of course, that the numbers of people being commemorated who have died from HIV/AIDS has lessened considerably in the last few years.
7500 trees planted and 1100 names recorded with our Reflection Area as a lookout on the lovely tree areas helps to make this an AIDS memorial where we can contemplate a disaster which was averted, thanks to timely intervention from significant people in the 1980s.
2) ELECTION TIME in Australia –SHOULD LESBIANS AND GAYS VOTE for either of the major parties federally? Why would they after reading this story?
Jacqueline Tomlins and Sarah Nichols were one of two couples whose applications to Australia’s Family Court to have their same sex marriages recognised in law prompted the government’s recent Marriage Amendment Bill. The Attorney-General Philip Ruddock actually admitted in Parliament that the bill was specifically to thwart the applications. And the Howard Lib/Nat government’s bill did just that. It was passed with the support of the other major party, Latham’s ALP.
The Marriage Amendment Bill, defining marriage as between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, was to ban gay marriage anywhere in Australia as well as any same sex marriage contracted elsewhere in the world. The bill was rushed through federal Parliament during the final sitting before the current parliament was prorogued. Actually, the bill had been sent to Committee for review by the Senate but the government withdrew it from committee and re-presented it.
Parliament was extended in order for it to be heard. The high priority anti-terrorism bill was dropped so the Marriage Amendment Bill could take precedence over it. Into the bargain, debate on the bill was guillotined in the Senate. The minor parties, the Greens and the Democrats, voted against it. Then it went to the Governor-General’s office for royal assent. Why the urgency? Of course, the week following had been set down for the hearing of Jacqui and Sarah’s application in the Family Court.
They had petitioned the Family Court to have their legal Canadian marriage validated in Australia. A recently married gay male couple had also applied for Australian validation. As Jacqui says in a Melbourne Age article: “All (this) so they could knock us out before we got to court.”
Jacqueline and Sarah came to Australia as immigrants. They have been together for 12 years and now have a small son. Jacqui says: “Gay marriage is, very simply, an issue of equal rights; it’s about some people having those rights and some people not. Ironically, it was at least in part to protect our family that we sought recognition of our (Canadian) marriage. Sarah and I want the security that marriage provides for our son.” Not everyone wants access to the marriage institution be they same sex or a hetero woman and a hetero man, but is that any sort of valid reason for denying choice to same sex couples?
Read Jacqueline Tomlins’ story in The Age A3 supplement, 3 September 2004, or the full text on our webpage:Same Sex Marriage Story
3) WHEN MUSIC IS A THREAT TO HUMAN RIGHTS. Emma Young, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald (27.8.04), says: “There is no excuse for selling the albums of a DJ who uses violent homophobic lyrics.”
Young was talking about the lyrics of Jamaican dance-hall DJ Beenie Man. His is one of the most successful mainstream dance-hall names worldwide. Emma Green calls his lyrics utterly offensive. They constitute a radical, right-wing reaction to a lifestyle that isn’t his own. Beenie Man doesn’t try to attribute his style to the invention of a musical character or satire, but acknowledges them as a perpetuation of the prejudices inherent to Jamaican culture. This is no excuse, Emma Green says.
While the freedom of artistic expression is a valuable tenet of democratic society, it becomes less so when it infringes on the freedom of the individual to live. “Bon a fire po a kuh pon mister fagoty” is Jamaican slang or patois for “take a bazooka and kill gay men.” According to Green, this rhythmic persecution is not a one-off: the track Damn promotes the “execution of all queers,” Han Up Deh encourages the hanging of lesbians (“hang chi chi gal wid a long piece of rope”} and the shooting of all gay men and gay women is a general theme. Emma Young concludes her article: Who needs to sanctify the importation of homophobia when our Government and its faithful Opposition are so willing to institutionalise the prejudice in federal legislation? If this is music with a message these days, the gig’s up.
4) BELONGING-IN-MARRICKVILLE SOCIAL PLAN! If you have a connection to the Marrickville Local Government Area you were invited to attend an informal discussion on the Gay Men and Lesbian Snapshot of Council’s Social Plan –“Belonging in Marrickville.” We wondered what prompted this “snapshot” on the 10th September this year. Well, Marrickville tells us that “every 5 years all Councils in NSW must develop a social plan addressing the needs of seven (7) mandatory reporting target groups. In addition to these target groups Councils can also include in their plans other groups in their communities identified as having special needs. Marrickville,” it says, “has an emerging gay and lesbian community and Council has included the needs of gay men and lesbians in their 2004 ‘Belonging in Marrickville Social Plan’.” It seems work done by InterSection in 1997-9 is bearing fruit! So, if you live in NSW, is your Council or Shire doing anything special for lesbians, gays and transgender people? And why not in other Australian States and Territories?
5) ZANZIBAR OUTLAWS GAY SEX: Prison terms are set for anyone who violates Zanzibar’s new ban on gay sex. Those who break the law could receive up to 25 years in prison. Anyone convicted of sex with a minor could get life imprisonment, according to Reuters. Sex between men is punishable by 25 years in jail and sexual contact between two women punishable by 7 years jail. Amani Karume, Zanzibar’s president, signed the measure into law after the bill was passed unanimously by the parliament. “This is what we have been aspiring for,” Sheikh Muhammed Said, a local Islamic leader, told Reuters –from Washington Blade 27.8.04
6) SOUTH AFRICAN COURT CONSIDERS GAY MARRIAGE APPEAL: The attorney for a lesbian couple, who seek to have their marriage legally recognised, told the Supreme Court of Appeal that gays deserve full marital rights. Pieter Oosthuizen told the court “Marriage is a mechanism through which heterosexuals automatically get certain rights and privileges. The one thing that keeps homosexuals from the same rights is a single line in the common law.” Oosthuizen represents Marie Fourie and Cecelia Bonthuys who are appealing against the dismissal of their application to legally recognise their marriage –from Washington Blade 27.8.04
7) 15th INTERNATIONAL AIDS Conference held in BANGKOK: The aim of this year’s conference in the Thai capital was to improve the access of the world’s poor to the life-prolonging generic medicines now available and to advance the international response to the disease. At the grand opening US government representative Randall L Tobias, former chief executive of the Eli Lilly drug group, was briefly forced off the stage by protesters who claimed the US program is pushing the use of expensive brand-name drugs over cheaper generic alternatives. Hank McKinnell, chairman of US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, was forced by protesters to abandon his address altogether. The six days of the conference produced some scary information.
South East Asia: Key to HIV/AIDS prevention and education is a frank and open discussion of sex, sexuality and sexual responsibility. Too bad the press in South East Asia won’t help! Recent research across the region finds the print media is largely a conservative force which maintains sexual double standards while portraying women as sex objects. The principal investigator of the project, Dr Dominic Garcia, said: “Frank discussion of sex and sexuality, and advocacy for sexual responsibility is an essential part of the defence against HIV/AIDS. The sooner people can talk without malice or judgement about something that is so much a part of human reality, the better they can fight the spread of HIV/AIDS.” The research by the AIDS Society of the Philippines analysed press coverage on sexuality and safe sex in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Its basis was the HIV/AIDS threat to South East Asia. The research teams chose two or three newspapers from each country during the period between 1997 and 2002.
INDIA in crisis: Shocking new statistics showing the number of HIV/AIDS cases in India have risen above 5 million are leading to accusations the government is dragging its feet in combating the spread of AIDS in the subcontinent.The new numbers put India just slightly below South Africa, the country with the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases in the world. Activists accuse the government of refusing to acknowledge the need for a frank and open discussion of gay sex. Homosexual acts remain illegal in India. Most gays are underground.
Limited AIDS program in CHINA: The government is providing some free drugs to HIV/AIDS patients. It has begun a campaign to reduce the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS and to encourage testing. It has been predicted that China could have as many as 10 million cases by 2010 if the government fails to adequately fight the disease. Prevention posters and large billboards are appearing in cities like Beijing.
AIDS strikes TEACHERS in KENYA: School teachers, especially those at primary level, are succumbing to AIDS at the rate of five a week, according to a UN report, a little known aspect of the AIDS pandemic in this African country. The universal primary education program is under threat and teacher training needs to be re-examined --teachers should be the ones guiding their pupils on how to avoid HIV.
PNG on the brink of an HIV/AIDS CATASTROPHE: Data on HIV is notoriously unreliable in Papua New Guinea. Most analysts agree that official government figures greatly underestimate the extent of the problem. AIDS has already become the leading cause of death in Port Moresby’s General Hospital. The high incidence of sexually transmitted infections and the prevalence of sexual violence towards women, suggest that PNG is on the brink of a major epidemic. A key challenge for both PNG and its Australian support will be to confront the societal mores that prevent open discussion about sexuality, including violence towards women.
AIDS KILLS MORE PEOPLE THAN TERRORISM: As the Conference wound up in Bangkok the biggest cries came for money for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan pointed out that AIDS killed more people than terrorism, a comment pointedly directed at the US. The small US delegation came under the most fire from activists for its policies to tie funding to programs that emphasise sexual abstinence. Almost 44 million people are infected with HIV, 25 million of them in Africa. Each day, an estimated 14,000 people become infected.
8) UK GAYS ATTACKED AT PALESTINE RIGHTS PROTEST: We were interested to learn that back in May this year lesbians and gays from the OutRage Group and the Queer Youth Alliance joined a demonstration in London to support the human rights of the people of Palestine. They carried placards which read “ISRAEL: stop persecuting Palestine! PALESTINE: stop persecuting queers!” They also urged the Palestinian Authority to halt the arrest, torture and murder of homosexuals. In Trafalgar Square they were surrounded by Islamic fundamentalists, Anglican clerics, members of the Socialist Workers Party and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. They were accused of being Sharon supporters, Zionists, racists, CIA and MI5 agents and of “dividing the Free Palestine movement.” The organisers asked them to stand at the back and when they refused had their placards and banners blocked. The lesbians and gays were shouted down as they tried to speak to journalists and other protesters. Where they could they told listeners: “Both Islamophobia and homophobia are intolerable. Upholding the principle of universal human rights, we call on the Palestinians to recognise the human rights of gay Palestinians.
9) IS IT TIME TO REINTRODUCE CAEs? The restructuring of higher education in Australia, imposed by federal Labor minister John Dawkins in 1987, effectively abolished Colleges of Advanced Education (CAEs). This dramatically raised costs and made “free” tertiary education unsustainable. In a Melbourne Age article earlier this year, Vivienne Roche, a former education bureaucrat, wrote “it’s time to revisit this decision.” She went on to explain that in 1965 the government of the day created a system of two types of higher education institutions: CAEs and universities. Both types offered degree courses but college courses were intended to be more practical and vocationally relevant than those of universities. Only universities were permitted to conduct research. The colleges were said to be “equal but cheaper.” By 1984, a decade after Whitlam abolished tertiary fees, the number of students in CAEs slightly outnumbered those in universities. Pressure for places was high and CAE graduates fared well in the job market. In 1984, seventy percent of CAE graduates were employed full- time six months after completing their degrees, compared with about fifty percent of university graduates from the same year. The abolition of the binary system may well have been a costly mistake. Should we be asking all of the political parties currently in election mode if they are prepared to reconsider a CAE option?
10) AN INVASION OF ALL AUSTRALIANS’ PRIVACY: An editorial in the Melbourne Age (26.8.04) warned that the implications of misuse of electoral roll data demand transparent reviews of all access. Enrolment on the electoral roll is compulsory for all adult Australians. By law, they must promptly notify the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) of changes of address. The AEC also continuously reviews the roll, using data matching. The result is an unrivalled database of Australians that is comprehensive and up to date. The potential commercial and political value of such compulsorily acquired information is immense which demands strict privacy protection. Recent legal amendments, under consideration by Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, were meant to ensure prohibition of the sale or use of the electoral roll for commercial purposes. The amendments were endorsed unanimously by the Standing Committee. The AEC said such protection was a democratic necessity to ensure privacy concerns did not dissuade people from enrolling.
Having failed to gain access via a submission to the Standing Committee, the Australian Bankers Association has had a second go by lobbying the Howard government, and appears to have been successful.
A further concern is the attitude to the use of the electoral roll by political parties. They are exempt from federal privacy laws. The parties have databases --the Libs' Feedback and Labor’s Electrac –that use the electoral roll as a foundation for vast collections of information about individuals, including political leanings, to target swinging voters. This data draws on everything from survey responses, interests and club memberships to letters to the press and phone calls to candidates. The databases are privately operated, so are exempt from freedom-of-information laws. The politicians’ attitude to accountable use of electoral roll data does not inspire confidence in closed-door deliberations on what other uses might be appropriate.
11) WHAT IS A TERRORIST ACT? What should you do if ASIO agents in dark suits knocked at the door and said they wanted to talk to you about terrorism? Contact a lawyer or have someone else in the house do so. In the meantime, do not provide information other than confirming your name and address. This advice appears on a checklist in Terrorism Laws: ASIO, the Police and You, a 42-page booklet launched recently in Sydney by Justice John Dowd. Prepared by the Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network, it is “a practical guide to people’s rights and responsibilities under terrorism laws,” its authors say. “It is very important to understand the difference between ASIO and the AFP,” it states. “For example, ASIO officers can only search, question or detain you if they have a warrant to do so. AFP or state police can detain you without a warrant if they have a reasonable suspicion about your capacity to cause an incident.”
“Fortress Australia” is certainly alive and well, and likely to remain so regardless of the result of the election! When Sydney applauded its Olympic Games athletes in a street march on Wednesday, September 15, an ABC radio journalist covering the spectacle told listeners “there’s more security here than we experienced in Athens!”
12) REASON TO CELEBRATE in NEPAL: Gays and lesbians in Kathmandu who have been frequent victims of humiliation and torture by police have something to cheer about. This is the third year of their organised Pride Street March and the Interior Ministry has concluded that it could not ban their activities. Last month, the Nepali Supreme Court issued a show cause notice to the Interior Ministry seeking a written reply on whether homosexual activities should be banned as demanded by a public interest litigation petition. The petition sought an order to ban the “growing activities of homosexuals in the capital.” In a written reply, the Interior Minister told the Supreme Court “There is no legal provision to ban or punish homosexual activities.”
13) GAY & LESBIAN AGEING ISSUES AT THE NSW ADB CONSULTATION: These Anti-Discrimination Board Consultations in Sydney which began way back in the very early 80s, used to be well attended and quite lively meetings. This one we attended as guest representatives from LGS Melbourne on July 21 was tame by comparison and attracted a mere seven representatives including the two of us. No one from Sydney’s print or radio media turned up to cover the topic of ageing issues for their communities of what one would have expected to be of concern to active lesbian, gay and transgender groups in Sydney. Areas of discrimination do exist for them in the job market as they age and certainly in retirement if they require home care. With so many nursing homes and hostels run by religious institutions, our openness about our sexuality is unacceptable and can lead to blatant discrimination to us, our partners and our friends. We reported on a Forum we had attended the previous weekend in Newcastle. Our report included a letter that a sad and angry participant had received from her superannuation fund. It stated that “new rules extend eligibility for a spouse pension to a spouse or defacto partner (not same sex partner).” She had been devastated to learn that if she died her long-time lesbian partner could not be her beneficiary. The NSW ADB agreed to follow up on the statement even though they understood that the super fund was governed by federal regulations and laws.
Before the Consultation concluded, the secretary indicated to the meeting that the forthcoming ADB magazine, Equal Time, would include an article on Ageing Issues for Gays and Lesbians by Dr Jo Harrison.
14) RAINBOW VISIONS: What to do when you’re not young enough for the latest party! The NSW city of Newcastle is the home of Rainbow Visions Hunter which hosted in July this year an interesting Forum on Lesbian and Gay Ageing issues. It was very well attended and covered roughly five hours of quite intensive discussion in small groups, presentations, and questions and answers on ageing issues recognised by the audience that had escaped the speakers. It did seem though that there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm in the audience for political activism as they began to “feel the ageing thing.” After more than 30 years of the gay rights struggle surely it’s not so frightening to consider some practical ways of lobbying the service providers and the politicians over service discrimination on same sex older couples and singles.
On the previous day, the Newcastle University hosted a lunchtime Seminar in conjunction with the Rainbow Visions Forum, on lesbian and gay ageing. Dr Jo Harrison from Adelaide University and Peter Robinson from Melbourne RMIT, both gave papers on the issue. Copies of their animated presentations are available on one
DVD. For information, email: Ivan.Skaines@newcastle.edu.au
15) JAMAICAN GAY ACTIVIST MURDERED: Peter Tatchell, speaking in London at a vigil for Brian Williamson, said that Jamaica’s Prime Minister Patterson must share responsibility for the homophobic violence in his country that culminated in the murder. He should scrap Jamaica’s colonial era anti-gay laws. Lee Jasper, black rights activist and race adviser to London Mayor Ken Livingston, also spoke at the vigil. He attacked the Jamaican government for “criminalizing homosexuality and violating human rights.” The vigil audience included gay asylum seekers who had fled Jamaica.
16) AIDS IN SOUTH AFRICA: One of the tragedies of the AIDS crisis in South Africa is the fact that there are still HIV/AIDS revisionists writing letters to the media, and in particular to online forums in the media. These people are instrumental in preventing those most in need from obtaining drugs and other medication and medical help which would ameliorate their dreadful situation. The South African president and his health minister are two of those most guilty of this revisionism, thus allowing South Africa to continue being one of the worst affected countries in the world.
17) DONATIONS: We have again received donations, for which we once again express our thanks. We are still posting about 130 newsletters for each issue, and donations assist us with postage and printing. Thanks to everybody for your help.
18) COMING EVENTS of special interest
Australian Homosexual Histories: 6th Gay & Lesbian History Conference at the University of Sydney, Friday and Saturday, 1st & 2nd October 2004. Registration is FREE, donation to cover costs. Info Sydney: Bronwyn Winter; Melb: Graham Willett.
Rainbow Visions Newcastle Festival: from Friday 8th Oct. to Sunday 17th October. For complete listing of week’s activities go to: http://www.rainbowvisions.org.au
Health in Difference Conference 5 at Melbourne’s Telstra Dome Centre, 20 - 22 January 2005 on GLBTI health issues: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/arcshs/hid5
19) INTERNATIONAL ACTION ALERT
Lesbian, gay and transgender groups in Honduras
are asking for letters of support for the Honduran
government’s granting of legal recognition to three
gay, lesbian and transgender organisations to work
against AIDS, free them from discrimination and to
allow them the right to freedom of association.
Religious bodies and their politicians have begun a
campaign opposing the government action on the
grounds it is against public order and that homo-
sexuality is not part of national identity. For a model
letter in Spanish with English translation, email the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights
Commission at iglhrc@iglhrc.org asking for details
of the Honduran and Panama action alerts, or look
on the web: http://www.iglhrc.org/site/iglhrc
The 2004 federal election could be a close result. Either way Australia will need a strong independent group of voices elected in both houses for democracy to work.
CURRENT NEWSLETTER AND ARCHIVE OF PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS
BACK TO LESBIAN & GAY SOLIDARITY PAGE
CURRENT NEWSLETTER AND ARCHIVE OF PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS
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
Page 58