LESBIAN AND GAY SOLIDARITY NEWSLETTER NUMBER 63

           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

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1) FIRST THINGS FIRST! Apologies are due to you from us for offering you such a late first issue of the Newsletter for 2006. There should have been a couple of issues ahead of this one. We’ve been dragging the chain, obviously. No excuses! A lot of newsworthy items have become redundant. Issue 63, therefore won’t contain all we would have wished but what we have got for you is very relevant, so here goes!

 

2) SPAIDS 32^nd PLANTING SINCE 1994 takes place on National Tree Day, Sunday 30^th July 2006, at Sydney Park, between 11am and 3pm. We invite you to celebrate with us in the AIDS Memorial Groves Reflection Area and help us back-plant where some trees have not survived. The Council nursery supplies the young Australian native trees which you may plant for someone you wish to remember in this way who has died from HIV/AIDS or from other causes. Council also supplies the spades and covered area with chairs and tables as well as a barbecue lunch around noon. Sydney Park is at the end of King Street, Newtown, opposite St Peters Railway Station. Look for the tall chimneys of the old brick works. Plenty of parking.

 

3) SAME-SEX NATIONAL INQUIRY BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT into Discrimination Against People in Same-Sex Relationships. Even though submissions have closed, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) will be conducting public hearings as well as public forums. These will take place as follows: SYDNEY July 26, Hearing, 9am-4.30pm, Forum 6-9pm; same times apply for other cities; PERTH August 9 Hearing, August 10 Public Forum; ADELAIDE August 28  Hearing & Forum; HOBART September 25 Hearing only; LAUNCESTON September 25 Public Forum only; MELBOURNE September 26  Public Forum only, September 27 Hearing only; BRISBANE October 10 Public Forum only, October 11 Hearing only; ALICE SPRINGS October 16 Public Forum only; DARWIN October 17 Public Forum only; CANBERRA October 20 Hearing and Public Forum. Rural and Regional meetings are still to be announced and there could be additional capital city meetings should demand require it. Further information on venues for hearings and forums from HREOC on (02) 9284 9600 or email: samesex@humanrights.gov.au

There were well over 300 submissions, some of which are already available on the HREOC website. The public forums give you the opportunity to air your views on how discriminated against we are by federal and state legislation. So if you feel like it go along and let them have it. Remember what Ruddock said about the A.C.T. Civil Union Act that allowing gay couples to celebrate their relationships with the dignity of a ceremony and a celebrant was “quite provocative.” Remember too that Howard banned government departments from making submissions to the HREOC Same-Sex Inquiry whereas government departments and agencies have been able to make  submissions to inquiries such as those on disabled employees, children in immigration detention and many others.

 

4) BOYCOTT WORLD PRIDE 2006: “As people of different political, ethnic and religious backgrounds who have made our contributions over the years to lesbian and gay freedom in Australia, we call on individuals and organizations not to support World Pride in Jerusalem this August.

 

Jerusalem is not the internationally recognised capital of Israel; Jerusalem is illegally annexed to Israel, and its quarter million Palestinian residents are besieged and oppressed, cut off from their neighbours in Ramallah and Bethlehem by the Apartheid Wall. Queer Palestinians from the other side of the Wall won’t be able to come to Jerusalem for the parade, nor will Arabs from neighbouring countries, nor citizens of other countries, such as USA, who have Palestinian family backgrounds. It’s as if we were holding Mardi Gras in Oxford Street, but people from Ryde and Bankstown couldn’t cross the borders to come; nor could half the visitors arriving at Mascot.

 

World Pride will benefit the Israeli state and its tourism industry. It will make things harder for lesbian and gay groups in Palestine and other Arab countries. It is the moral equivalent of going to an international gay festival run by the Gay Association of South Africa in 1986. Israel is making war on the Palestinian communities in the Occupied Territories, starving them out, restricting their movements, crushing their economy, taking each day more water and land; at the same time Israel denies rights to its own Palestinian minority, and rejects the rights of return of millions of refugees.

 

We understand that some want to support World Pride to confront Jewish fundamentalists, to bring the queer equality message to the Middle East, and to celebrate the relative comfort and rights of Jewish queers in Israel. We don’t view the Palestinian and or Arab governments as either blameless or beacons of queer liberation. But as we see it, in the words of the Israeli queer group, Dirty Laundry, there’s ‘No Pride in Occupation.’ We look forward to the day when we genuinely can enjoy Pride in a free Jerusalem.”  –the text of a letter, signed by a number lesbians and gays, being sent to the gay media in July 2006.

 

5) INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA:  People around the world participated openly in various events on May 17 this year against prejudice towards LGBT people in the second annual International Day Against Homophobia, or IDAHO, but not in Australia apparently. It seems gay politics in Australia is in a somewhat sad state.

In the UK, Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes MP, addressing the London protest, criticised the UK Home Office handling of gay and lesbian asylum claims. He told the rally: “I want the Home Office to endorse the idea that lesbians and gay men are a legitimate social group at risk of persecution in many countries. It is a shame that 70 years after the Nazi persecution of gay people, there is still no proper recognition of those persecuted on the basis of their sexuality.

 

 

6) BOOKS AND PERIODICALS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Two current periodicals provide significant contributions to the political debate. The QUARTERLY ESSAY, Number 22, the second issue for 2006, features Amanda Lohrey analysing the machinations of the Christian Right in Voting for Jesus –Christianity and Politics in Australia. From Hillsong to Family First, Lohrey argues that Christians in politics have far less influence than they would like –the government uses them when convenient and otherwise disregards them. Published by Black Inc, $14.95 current issue.

The other quarterly is OVERLAND, Issue 183, The New Australian Ugliness,   featuring amongst others Natasha Cica on the cultural politics of the built environment and Katherine Wilson reporting on one of controversial Canadian PR consultant Ross Irvine’s workshops for corporations and small business, titled “The best strategies to win against activists” around Australia. Published by O L Society Limited, $12.50 (Winter 2006).

Antony Loewenstein’s FORTHCOMING BOOK, My Israel Question, is sure to stir the pot of controversy. The undeclared war in the Middle East is the abiding conflict of our era, with little apparent hope of resolution despite years of peace talks. Loewenstein, a young Australian Jew, asks how much Zionism –the ideology of Jewish nationalism --is to blame for the intractable conflict. About My Israel Question, John Pilger commented: ‘I can think of few books about Israel and Palestine, written by an Australian, as important as Antony Loewenstein’s brave j’accuse, in challenging the propagandists to give up their addiction, he is a truth-teller bar none.’ Melbourne University Publishing, $32.95 (out August 2006).    

 

7) VICTORIA’S ELDER ABUSE PREVENTION INQUIRY fails lesbians, gays and transgender people: On September 20 last year (2005) we watched the SBS television Insight Forum ‘When I get Older’ about ageing and nursing home care. No mention whatever was made of how community minorities get treated as they age unless they are heterosexual. Everyone is heterosexual? That same week we received an invitation to a Forum organised by the Department of Victorian Communities Office of Senior Victorians, the ALSO Foundation and Gay & Lesbian Health Victoria. The forum was to focus on specific issues facing GLBT seniors. We attended on September 26.

There were 17 people at the forum; 12 were probably like us representing lesbian and gay organisations. The others were from the organising team. We were each given a  Consultation Paper on the Elder Abuse Prevention Project which aimed to seek our views on elder abuse prevention. The discussion got under way but from the start it became obvious that the departmental bureaucrat running the show had no idea that she was confronting an audience of lesbians and gays. Her heterosexist introduction must have been the one she used for all the forums she had been chairing. In the discussion that followed she dismissed the suggestion that discrimination against lesbians and gays was an active form of abuse as unacceptable. Homophobia is very much alive.

No recording or notes of the discussion that followed appeared to be taken. We were all fairly outspoken about the lack of training of staff and volunteers to deal with the needs of senior GLBT people by the bodies which provide services for the elderly. Religious institutions in particular were singled out because they are exempted from complying with anti-discrimination legislation in their nursing homes and hostels for the aged when dealing with lesbians, gays, and transgender people.

At the conclusion we were told that written submissions would be accepted from us as the deadline had been extended from September 30 to October 7. We made a fairly substantial submission and met the new deadline.

The official government Report on the Project was released in December 2005. In the list of Public Forums held, the GLBT one we attended was not included. As well there were additional ones for service providers. One in May and another in October 2005 got mentioned in the Report but not listed. Also mentioned were over 25 consultations with stakeholders and peak body organisations. Where did we feature? Not in the submissions, none were listed in the 46-page Report. On page 32, quote: “Education strategies need to recognise cultural diversity, Indigenous groups and the needs of older gay and lesbian people. These and other groups need to be consulted and be involved in education and awareness campaigns.”

What was achieved? Well, lesbians and gays rated a mention but recognition that homophobia is an active form of abuse did not!  

 

8) “NOBODY KNOWS I’M A LESBIAN” INCIDENT: Earlier this year, the Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun reported that a 17-year-old student at a Melbourne secondary college was told to change out of the t-shirt she was wearing for a school photo because certain parents would complain. The t-shirt had the slogan quoted on it. She did as she was told. However, that was not the end of the affair The incident triggered a protest by other Year 12 students, who turned up at school wearing t-shirts with similar slogans. They included “Nobody knows I’m bulimic,” “Nobody knows I’m pregnant,” and “Nobody knows I’m on steroids.” The students said they found the request to their classmate discriminatory and an attack on free speech. The school declined to comment, according to Mary Papadakis of the newspaper.

 

9) HOMOPHOBIA RIFE IN POLAND: “For gays and lesbians, today’s Poland is like 1930s Germany,” according to Szymon Niemiec who has been attacked by skinheads and threatened by police. He sees life in Poland getting even tougher. “We are ruled by a fascist party, which uses the same language and ideas as Hitler.” As a prominent gay rights campaigner, Niemiec, 25, has long been a target for extremist groups, but since the election of the Law and Justice party in November 2005 he has felt a new wave of prejudice coursing through deeply Catholic, conservative Poland, he told Daniel McLaughlin in Warsaw for The Observer newspaper.

 

10) GAY PRIDE UNACCEPTABLE IN MOSCOW:  Violent homophobic protesters in May attacked pro-gay demonstrators in the Russian capital when they tried to place flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to mark the 13^th anniversary of decriminalisation of homosexuality in Russia. The Gay Pride demonstration drew a group of international gay activists including German Greens MP Volker Beck who was detained briefly but about 120 other demonstrators were arrested. The violent anti-gay element apparently were left alone by police. The mayor of Moscow had refused the gay organisers a permit and told Russian radio: “Gay pride may be acceptable, in some sense, to countries in the West but it is absolutely not for Moscow, for Russia.” The violence at Pride followed homophobic attacked at a Moscow gay bar and anti-gay comments by religious leaders. (Various sources.)

 

11) HOMOPHOBIA ALIVE AND WELL IN ESTONIA: Homosexuality was legalised in Estonia in 1999 as part of its obligations for entry into EU. It now has laws banning discrimination because of sexual orientation in the workplace. Yet despite more forward thinking policies in the country, homophobia still seems widespread and institutionalised. In June, according to Pink News U.K., the Dutch Ambassador to Estonia resigned from his post because of the homophobic abuse he and his gay partner have had to suffer. Hans Glaubitz has represented his country with his Cuban partner, Raul Garcia Lao, without problems in South Africa and Brazil. The abuse escalated when, after they had been in Estonia’s city of Tallinn less than seven  months, a local magazine wrote that the appointment of a gay ambassador with a black partner had to be seen as a Dutch provocation. According to the Dutch government the Estonian authorities treated them well but there was racist and homophobic abuse on the street. Glaubitz is to be transferred to Montreal.

 

12) TACKLING BIGOTRY: The effects of racism experienced by Arab-Australian students have been underestimated, according to Deakin University researchers. The Melbourne Age reviewed a study, released in May 2006, on attitudes at three Melbourne secondary schools since 2003 which found that schools and teachers needed better training and resources to manage cultural diversity. The Arab-Australian students, many of whom were Muslims, were very concerned about how they were perceived and treated by the community. Female students were particularly concerned about negative attitudes towards girls and women who could be identified  immediately with Islam, for example, by wearing a hijab. Parents, many speaking little English, were unsure about their ability to support their children’s education. Boys expressed a high level of distrust of police, often as a result of having found themselves under close surveillance as potential criminals. The Deacon Centre for Citizenship and Human Rights project has another two years to run and will focus on a multi-tiered approach to improve communication between parents, teachers and students.

Unfortunately, the Howard Government’s desire to promote private schools will have the opposite effect to the Deacon Centre’s project. Sending children to exclusive Christian, Jewish and Islamic schools will hardly improve their ability to communicate across difference. Religious schools are a recipe for social division.

·        AUSTRALIAN TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ!      STOP ASSAULT ON LEBANON!

 

13) NEW CLASS OF HIV DRUGS SHOWS PROMISE: PlanetOut reported on 10 February 2006 that a new class of AIDS drugs called integrase inhibitors were showing promising results from early studies. There was anticipation that Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) approval would follow in 2007. The report stated: “While most successful drugs inhibit the protease transcriptase enzymes HIV uses to make copies of itself, no drug on the market has targeted the third HIV enzyme, integrase.” Merck & Co have stated that the new anti-viral drug reduced HIV viral loads to undetectable levels 72% of the time in a four-month trial. It was also reported that Tibotec, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, had also developed a new generation of protease and reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The promise of these new drug developments is that they may provide alternative therapies for those people who have had adverse results from their current drugs regimens.

14) PACKER MEMORIAL PROTEST IN SYDNEY – 17 February 2006:

Following the Kerry Packer Dis-memorial protest, the organisers issued the following media release:

 

Kerry Packer DIS-memorial - ‘Appalling’ police behaviour mars peaceful protest

A successful protest was held in front of the Kerry Packer memorial service at the

Opera House today, despite heavy handed police action. “We gathered to raise our objections to John Howard’s use of taxpayers’ funds to celebrate the life of a tax-cheat,” said protest co-organiser

Duroyan Fertl. “John Howard’s promotion of a billionaire as a great Australian is a poke

in the eye to the hard working people on whose backs Packer’s riches were built,” said Fertl.

“We disagree with Howard’s actions and we deserve the right to put our

point of view peacefully,” said Fertl. “Police acted in an appalling manner by arresting protesters who did nothing more than voice their outrage at Howard, Packer and the system of exploitation they represent,” said Fertl.

“The heavy handed police reaction is a harbinger of things to come if Howard pursues his blatant attacks on civil liberties and workers’ rights,” said Fertl.

 

 

15) GAY BASHING OUTSIDE MIDSUMMA CARNIVAL PARTY – 12 February 2006: From MCV on 17 February 2006: Homophobia is alive and well and living in Melbourne as well as everywhere else around the world!

Two men were attacked and bashed by a group of up to ten teenagers while waiting for a tram home, immediately following Carnival’s T-Dance on Sunday night.
The men were kissing while waiting at a tram stop in Spring St when the attack occurred. According to one of the victims, he and his boyfriend were kissing when a gang of youths noticed them from across the street. The youths, led by a ringleader of about 16 years of age, immediately approached the men and began to verbally abuse them for engaging in a kiss. “I tried to reason with them and told them just to leave us alone, but there were ten of them and two of us and they were extremely aggressive,” he said.
The gang attacked the men, both of whom were of solid build. The men tried to defend themselves, eventually escaping and running from their attackers who gave chase. The men then hid and dialled 000 for police assistance. By the time the police arrived, approximately 20 minutes later, both men were severely shaken and had sustained blood noses along with several cuts and bruises after the attack.
“What made matters worse, was there were several people who also attended Carnival who witnessed the attack and did absolutely nothing to assist us. Someone could have called the police or at least yelled out that the police were on their way in an attempt to deter the people who attacked us,” he said. “Instead they did nothing. Considering the day of unity we’d all just experienced as a community, you’d think someone watching would’ve helped us. We need to look after each other.”

According to Senior Constable Danielle Cameron of the Victorian Gay Lesbian Liaison Officers, (GLLO) there were six reports of assaults on members of the GLBTI community predominantly after major events throughout the Midsumma Festival. Currently the Victorian GLLO program has been reduced from four full-time to two full-time officers.

16) JAMAICA - STATE-SANCTIONED MURDERS:  This report from Jamaica is from Human Rights Watch from 2004, but the hate crimes in Jamaica continue and crimes such as the Williamson murder, and recent (2006) Iraqi, Iranian and Nigerian homophobic murders continue to be headline news around the world. Only by reporting the crimes and publicly denouncing international state-sponsored homophobia will we ultimately be able to ensure a reduction in incidents such as this one: “On June 9, 2004, Brian Williamson, Jamaica’s leading gay rights activist, was murdered in his home, his body mutilated by multiple knife wounds.  Within an hour after his body was discovered, a Human Rights Watch researcher witnessed a crowd gathered outside the crime scene.  A smiling man called out, “Battyman [homosexual] he get killed!”  Many others celebrated Williamson’s murder, laughing and calling out, “let’s get them one at a time,” “that’s what you get for sin,” “let’s kill all of them.”  Some sang “boom bye bye,” a line from a popular Jamaican song about killing and burning gay men. 

Jamaica’s growing HIV/AIDS epidemic is unfolding in the context of widespread violence and discrimination against people living with and at high risk of HIV/AIDS, especially men who have sex with men.  Myths about HIV/AIDS persist.  Many Jamaicans believe that HIV/AIDS is a disease of homosexuals and sex workers whose “moral impurity” makes them vulnerable to it, or that HIV is transmitted by casual contact.  Pervasive and virulent homophobia, coupled with fear of the disease, impedes access to HIV prevention information, condoms, and health care.

Violent acts against men who have sex with men are commonplace in Jamaica.  Verbal and physical violence, ranging from beatings to brutal armed attacks to murder, are widespread.  For many, there is no sanctuary from such abuse.  Men who have sex with men and women who have sex with women reported being driven from their homes and their towns by neighbors who threatened to kill them if they remained, forcing them to abandon their possessions and leaving many homeless.  The testimony of Vincent G., twenty-two, is typical of the accounts documented by Human Rights Watch: “I don’t live anywhere now. . . . Some guys in the area threatened me.  ‘Battyman, you have to leave.  If you don’t leave, we’ll kill you.’”¹  [1] Human Rights Watch interview with Vincent G., Kingston, June 14, 2004.

17) MARRICKVILLE PLAY SCHOOL - FUSS ABOUT SAME-SEX PARENT BOOK BY VICKI HARDING: The Murdoch-owned homophobic Daily Telegraph in Sydney carried one of its more bizarre headlines on 29 May 2006: “More nightmare than mayor”. The “report” told readers that the Tillman Park Children’s Centre in the Marrickville council area was involved in “----children aged six weeks to six years must be taught about gay, lesbian, transgender and ‘intersex’ parenting is way out of step with mainstream values.”

The actual story is so different that it is difficult to recognize what Tillman Park is doing as against what it is alleged to be doing. Marrickville’s mayor Sam Byrne spoke out against the “hysteria” caused by using storybooks featuring same-sex parents in council child-care centres. The debate erupted in response to a media release sent out by the council about staff from the Centre taking part in an anti-homophobia conference. They use books from the State Government-endorsed “Learn to Include” series which feature families with two mothers or two fathers. These books have been in all of the Council’s child-care centres as part of their policy of opposing discrimination for the past four years. Cr Byrne described some of the allegations made in relation to the Centre as “misinformation” and “disgraceful”.Federal Family and Community Services minister Mal Brough bought into the argument, calling the curriculum “ridiculous”. He said it was time to “let kids be kids”. Read them fairytales and don’t make their life more complicated.”

The Daily Telegraph said on 29 May 2006 that “Readers have been angered by our report about a Sydney nursery “teaching toddlers about gay, lesbian and transgender parenting”.So they published some responses and here is one of them: “As an early childhood educator it’s my experience that children want to talk about family life – their’s and others. Gay and lesbian families exist in Australian culture. Mr Brough, children like to do more than fingerpaint! It’s also about a council actively trying to confront homophobia in society. I’m sure all parents want their children to be educated not to fear or discriminate against others. Tabloids and politicians need to be careful about what they incite in the public.”

 We wrote to the Premier of NSW after his homophobic entry to the debate, and this is a portion of the response LGS received from NSW Premier Morris Iemma’s office: “The NSW Government addresses issues of family, anti discrimination and inclusiveness through school welfare programs and through curriculum. In addition, the NSW Government supports individual schools, pre-schools and childcare centres working with parents, teachers and principals to determine the type of literature suitable for use based on curriculum priorities and local student needs.”

18) DONATIONS: Thank you to our donors – we trust the wait for the current edition will not have been in vain!