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The Rainbow Report broadcasts live every Thursday 7-8pm AEST in Melbourne Australia on 94.9 FM, streaming via the web at joy.org.au. PODCASTS are available via the Joy website and now also on iTunes.

Australian politics - Rainbow Reporter

Tonight on the Rainbow Report 20/11

November 20th 2008 00:20
Fiona Patten
Fiona Patten, leader of the Australian Sex Party

We continue our roundup of candidates for the post of Mayor with Will Fowles, the non-Labour Labour-ish candidate, offering what he calls a “Fresh Vision” for the city.


Rodney Croome muses on Barack Obama and the wave of protest sweeping the US after gay marriage was stopped in California and started in Connecticut.

Closer to home John Wain, general manager of the Market, helps us understand the impact of the Brumby governments latest attempts to control violence and drunkenness in the city – will it be better or worse than the failed 2am lockout?

Plus we celebrate the launch of a new political party dedicated to countering the influence of the religious right and all other wowsers, fighting the proposed internet filter and supporting gay marriage. The Australian Sex Party is being launched at Sexpo, and we’ve an interview with it’s leader, Fiona Patten, who’s also CEO of Eros, the adult entertainment industry business association.

Meanwhile Kaye Sera looks Beneath the Bonnet at World AIDS Day and some of the AIDS movies from years gone by.

The Rainbow Report, Joy 94.9 Melbourne, streaming live www.joy.org.au, 7-8pm Thursday Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time, podcasts available from Joy or iTunes.

To join in call (03) 9699 2949 during the show, SMS 0427 JOY 949 or email onair@joy.org.au.

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Criminalising HIV/AIDS

November 18th 2008 20:24
Justice Michael Kirby
Justice Michael Kirby gave the 2008 Burnet Institute Oration Monday


Monday night I had the privilege of meeting Justice Michael Kirby, and hearing him speak at the Burnet Institute on the nexus between human rights and combating HIV/AIDS.

He’s worried about the rising tendency around the world for governments to use the criminal law to try to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, and indeed is working with the UN and WHO on the issue.

Justice Kirby argues that the unique nature of the HIV epidemic – the modes of transmission, the lack of a cure or vaccine – means it has to be handled like no other epidemic. It cannot be handled just by medical means. Human rights are also an essential part of an effective response.

The argument goes something like this - and I should say these are my words, not Justice Kirbys.

Those most at risk from HIV are sex workers, men who have sex with men, and injecting drug users. Where those activities are illegal, people are reluctant to seek treatment or information on how to protect themselves, because that could identify them as ‘criminals’ and they could end up in jail. That makes controlling the spread of HIV more difficult.

For example, in the US, the ‘war on drugs’ has made it politically impossible to legalise needle exchange programs and safe injecting rooms. Hopefully, with the election of the new president, the US will come to its senses on this. As a result injecting drug users are one of the main transmission routes for HIV.

Where needle exchanges are possible, as in Australia, the numbers are tiny. In short, respecting human rights is essential in an effective response to HIV.

It’s also pretty stupid to put HIV infected people into jails, especially if you’re not going to provide safe-sex information, condoms and clean needles in there. That just turns them into HIV transmission factories.

At first sight, prosecuting people who infect others with the virus might sound attractive, but using the criminal law is problematic, to say the least. In some African countries, where a large percentage of the population is infected, it’s clearly unworkable. You can’t lock up half a country. The economy couldn’t stand the cost. The temptation – especially for an autocratic regime – could be to make it a capital offence. Bullets are way cheaper than jail cells.

What makes it worse is that the police and judiciary may be corrupt. People who think they might be jailed or shot if the authorities knew they were HIV positive are not going to disclose their status readily – even (or perhaps especially) to government health agencies set up to provide treatment. Nor are people going to seek out prevention advice, if this might bring them under suspicion.

Then there’s the question of how you define the ‘crime’. Do you make it illegal to knowingly pass on the virus, or to intentionally pass on the virus?

If it’s knowingly, then potentially any HIV positive person could be arrested for having unprotected sex with an uninfected partner. It could be tricky to prove you didn’t know you were infected: it could be argued, for example, that given your mode of life, you ought to have known you could be infected.

If it’s intentionally, then it’s similar to assault, with the virus as your weapon, but then there are problems proving – or disproving – intent.

Not to mention the near-impossibility, even in well-run and sophisticated countries, of proving scientifically that a particular sex act led to sero-conversion. That means identifying the specific strain of HIV involved and then showing it could only have been passed on from x to y during sex-act z. It's so difficult, in fact, that charges here in Australia have been dropped because proof was impossible to obtain.

But – horror scenarios in autocratic countries aside - if you don’t have criminal sanctions available as a last resort, how do you deal with someone who is determined to spread the virus? As recent cases have shown, there are some people who ignore medical attempts at behaviour modification and control. At what point do you decide that their human rights are less important than those of the people being infected without their knowledge?

Under Victorian public health law, that decision is made by doctors. You can be quarantined indefinitely – effectively imprisoned – if you’re deemed to be a danger to others. But should we really be giving doctors, rather than the law, the power of indefinite detention?

Although I don’t doubt the integrity of Australian doctors, it seems to me that to have your fate decided in secret by a committee of health experts is not acceptable in a democratic society. Recent cases, where the doctors dithered for far too long before involving the police, indicate they they’re uncomfortable with the judge/jury/jailer role, too.

There are no easy answers. Wholesale criminalisation is counter-productive, yet we must retain criminal sanctions as a last resort. I wish Justice Kirby well in his discussions at the UN and the WHO - but I don't envy him.
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Sex Party launched

November 16th 2008 07:56
Internet porn
Avenue Q was RIGHT!


A new political party to “combat creeping censorship and counter the influence of religious minority groups” sprang into being this week. Really Long Link They’re hoping to grab a Senate seat – preferably Steve Fieldings.

The Australian Sex Party – motto: “We’re serious about sex” – is the offspring of the Eros Association, the ‘adult entertainment industry’ chamber of commerce. Members are worried by the potential damage to their businesses from the proposed internet filter. But they claim their move into politics isn’t just about protecting their bottom line.

“Sex is deeply rooted in the lives of all Australians,” said Party spokeswoman Fiona Patten, explaining that the party also has policies on censorship, health benefits for sex workers, gay marriage and paid maternity leave.

I can see some of our community advocates quaking in their boots at the linking of gay marriage and the ‘adult industry’. It’s been a cliché of rainbow campaigning for some time now to say, “It’s not about sex, it’s about equal rights / a fair go / discrimination / privacy / [anything to stop them thinking about the sex!].”

Now along comes a party of professional pornographers, sex-workers, lap dancers, dildo manufacturers and the like, with an upfront pro-sex message, firmly thrusting the sex back into ‘gay’, and inviting us to join their crusade.

We’ve been beavering away at relationship recognition, de facto status, artificial insemination, parenting, pensions & benefits, superannuation and taxation (all good stuff, of course), but we haven’t been especially vocal about protecting sex on the internet. Especially gay sex.

But we should, because the web is literally a life-saver for isolated same-sex attracted people – especially young people, and especially in the bush. It provides information, help, support, friendship and, yes, sexual contact to people who might otherwise never find these things. Without freely available sex information – including porn – some might, for example, end up unhappily married.

Which is probably what Steve Fielding and his backers would prefer, of course.

It’s time we came out of John Howards closet and put the sex back into the argument, stopped pretending that same-sex equality doesn’t involve the Commonwealth endorsing, supporting and celebrating gay sex. Of course it does. And so it should.

We should say thank you to the Australian Sex Party for their pro-sex message and welcome their support for gay marriage.

Put aside any qualms about hitching our wagon to ‘a party of smut-peddlers’, as they’ve been called. Many gay businesses are in the sex trade, and gay men are big consumers of online porn. It would be hypocritical to turn our noses up at the offer of help. Why not take their money? After all, a lot of it came from us in the first place. Let’s put the sex AND the money back.
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Rainbow Report Thursday on 94.9

November 12th 2008 05:05
Robert Doyle
My guest this week


We continue our series of interview with mayoral candidates


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Bring back the deficit, it's nothing to fear

November 9th 2008 22:18
Debt Monster
NOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF
It's time to rehabilitate public entreprises, government deficits and nationalisation and reverse the failed Americanisation of the Australian economy.

Cutting interest rates will not stave off recession. When banks are afraid to lend, businesses afraid to borrow, and consumers pay down debt and start saving because they fear losing their jobs, the answer is for the government to step in and create businesses and jobs


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How to make straight friends and influence people

November 9th 2008 01:31
ChillOut

Same-sex equality seems to be going backwards even in friendly locations.

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NO INTERNET CENSORSHIP

October 28th 2008 11:40
no internet censorship


The Australian government is about to introduce a two tier internet censorship regime


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Sham 'conscience vote' on Assisted Reproduction Bill

October 24th 2008 09:43
Hostage
How Stuff Works - A Liberal/National 'Conscience' Vote


Q: When is a conscience vote not a conscience vote


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Not so safe as (Australian) houses

October 12th 2008 22:47
Burning House Rough Rider Blog
Pic by Rough Rider Blog

Well, it’s finally here. The recession we really have to have. And it won’t be over for a while. There’s a lot of talk about how Australia will ‘probably’ have a ‘relatively soft’ landing – but there’s an elephant in the room.

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Mayors Nest or Dragons Lair

October 7th 2008 23:55
John So
I So ain't gonna be yo' bro' no mo' - pic thanks ABC

Now that John So’s decided he ain’t gonna be our bro’ no mo’, and Jeff Kennett’s decided to stay home with the grandkids, would-be Melbourne Mayors are popping up like weeds. And weeds is the operative term.

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New gay papers, Taxpayer fund Mardi Gras

October 2nd 2008 04:05
Rainbow Report

It’s been a dramatic week in gay and lesbian publishing, with the collapse of bnews and the sudden emergence of two new gay media – Canvas, an arts and entertainment magazine from Evolution Publishing, and Southern Star, from Sydney Star Observer.

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Heartless Archbishop threatens to close hospitals

September 23rd 2008 01:59
General hospital
The arrogance of the Catholic Church is quite breathtaking. Once again the Vatican is using blackmail to try to get its own way.

In the US, Catholic politicians who won’t vote as they are told have been threatened with excommunication


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Turnbull the Pink Liberal

September 16th 2008 04:56
Turnbull Nelson
Pink In - Blue Out

Nelsons gone, Turnbulls in, and knives are already out for the new leader. But is this good or bad for the gay community?

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Rainbow Report Tonight

August 28th 2008 05:31
Finally back from holidays and the usual mad scramble to put a show together - and so much to talk about with . . .
Rainbow Lorikeet

Senator Louise Pratt


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