Australian politics - discrimination - equal marriage - religion - same-sex

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Australian politics discrimination equal marriage religion same-sex - Rainbow Reporter

Go Straight to Marriage, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect Civil Unions

November 29th 2009 02:05

Ex-SAS Brigadier Jim Wallace, leader of the Australian Christian Lobby

So the Senate enquiry has said no, the ACT ceremonies have been castrated, the Equal Love rallies are over for the time being. But that doesn’t mean equal marriage is off the agenda.

In fact, thanks to the wreck of the Liberals, Labor has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to move straight to same-sex marriage, at minimal risk.

The party line used to be that they couldn’t support marriage equality because that would send so many voters rushing to the Coalition, they would lose power and we would get nothing.

That excuse is gone up in smoke with Malcolm Turnbull. Gay marriage won’t spook anyone but diehards into voting for whatever remains of the Liberals for quite a while.

The other reason for opposing equal marriage is that Labor hasn’t the guts for a fight with its own homophobes. The party would rather take the lazy way out and find a comfortable compromise with them.

That means national civil unions (no one in their right minds seriously believes in the ‘nationally consistent system of state-based registers’ any more).

Civil unions, it is argued, are a ‘stepping stone’ to marriage that won’t spook the opposition. But events in the ACT have now destroyed that argument.

Civil partnerships in the ACT satisfy no-one. ACL Brigadier Jim Wallace Lobby says they mimic marriage, and the Rudd Government has betrayed Christians who voted for it. GLBTI campaigners are rejecting them as $2 ‘marriage-lite’ from the Not Quite Right relationship store.

Clearly it’s pointless trying to mollify the anti-marriage brigade with civil unions, they will never be satisfied – and now, thanks to Nick Minchin and friends, no-one need not bother. Their moment is over. Even if they all vote Coalition next time, and the time after that, so many others will be rushing the other way it won’t matter.

The time now is ours. It would be the height of folly at this juncture to settle for civil unions, when we have the best chance in a generation of achieving marriage. Everyone on all sides now sees clearly that civil unions are only an unnecessary temporary fix, so why waste time and energy on them?

They are just a delaying tactic. First we have an almighty fight over what rights a civil union confers. Then every few years, another fight over each additional right. Eventually everyone wakes up and says, “This is just a stupid waste of time and effort – let’s have equal marriage.”

Labor now has a golden opportunity to face down the fundamentalists in its own ranks. Kevin has more than enough political capital in the bank to spend on what is for him a relatively minor issue. And there is no longer any reason not to, if he really wants to.

He needs to find the guts, vision and principle of his Spanish counterparts – who had even more Catholics to contend with than he does – and go straight to marriage. If you’ll pardon the pun.

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: Australian politics, discrimination, elections, gay lesbian politics, equal marriage, equal rights, religion, same-sex

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Where's MY apology?

November 18th 2009 02:05

Kevin Rudd, Cardinal Pell, Jim Wallace - please copy

While it’s very proper and appropriate that native Australians and now the forgotten Australians have received an apology, it’s time the gay community had a few, too.

Especially from the Catholic Church, which has been flooding the public arena with disinformation and propaganda on the issue.

For months the Pope and his minions have been insisting that the church doesn’t have an issue with paedophile priests, it’s all the fault of those goddamned homosexuals.

Well now they are hoist with their own petard, as their own research proves it just isn’t true, as reported by AAP and numerous papers yesterday Really Long Link. Apology, please.

At the recent Senate hearing into Marriage Equality, representatives of the church stated that children must have a mum and dad and same-sex parents are worse. Wrong, as a recent senior British government advisor has said Really Long Link lesbians (and gay men) make BETTER parents. As every previous credible peer-reviewed study has found. Apology please.

There is a fair amount of junk science – mostly emanating from one Dr Paul Cameron in the US – that purports to show that we die sooner, make lousy parents, and are more likely to be crooks.

All of that has been comprehensively shown to be twisted propaganda cobbled together without a skerrick of truth Really Long Link and Really Long Link for the US ‘pro-family’ right wing extremist pseudo-Christian movement, yet the church and the Australian Christian Lobby quote this as if it were gospel. Apology please.

Within living memory - my memory - gays and lesbians have been imprisoned, subjected to medical tortures, separated from their loved ones, denied families and children, simply for being gay. Apology please.

Mr Rudd is due to address the Australian Christian Lobby on Saturday – perhaps he would be so kind as to ask for their apologies on our behalf – and add his own. Please.

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: Australian politics, discrimination, gay lesbian politics, equal marriage, equal rights, religion, same-sex, social commentary

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Catholic tastes

November 15th 2009 07:48

It never ceases to amaze me that while individual Catholics are decent, humane and tolerant people (as numerous opinion surveys have shown), their leaders are a bunch of fuckwits.

In Washington DC the Catholic Diocese is trying to blackmail the city council into weakening its pending same sex marriage bill.

The hierarchy says it mustn’t be forced to provide employee benefits to same-sex couples, or to help gay and lesbian adoptions.

So unless they’re exempted from the anti-discrimination provisions of the bill, Catholic Services will close their Food for the Poor program, homeless shelters and adoption services.

They are currently funded by the city to care for 68,000 poor and disadvantaged, including housing one third of Washington DC’s homeless.

Raymond Panas, of gay Catholic organisation Dignity said, “While this may be the decision of the hierarchy, it certainly does not reflect the views of all of us who were baptized as Catholics and make up part of the Catholic Church.”

The arrogance of the church is not confined to the US. In the UK a new prayer book suggests praying before sex. In effect, married Catholics in Britain are urged to have a threesome with God.

Before making love couples should pray for the Holy Spirit to "place within us love that truly gives, tenderness that truly unites . . . loving physical union that welcomes.”

Personally, I think the usual mid-shag “Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, yes, Yes, YES,” or “Oh my God, my God, do that again! Deeper!” should be more than enough for any reasonable Deity, don’t you?

Clearly, professional Catholics – as distinct from the normal everyday domestic variety – live in a world of their own . This was starkly displayed at the Senate hearings into Marriage Equality.

Christopher Meney, Director of the Life, Marriage and Family Centre, Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, said marriage can only be between a man and a woman because that is the only “inherently procreative” sexual union, even if, due to age or infertility, it “cannot give life at a particular point in time, or ever. Marriage between a man and a woman always has an inherent capacity for and orientation towards the generation of children, whether that capacity is actualised or not.”

The speaker clearly has no fertility problems of his own: his inherent capacity for and orientation towards the generation of bovine manure appears abundantly actualised.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young’s repeated demands for a clear explanation finally exasperated Peter Elliott, Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic Archdioceses of Melbourne and Sydney.

In an uncharacteristically honest moment this lifelong celibate summed up his objection to same-sex couples equality.

“You steal the word ‘marriage’,” he said.

Your Grace, you don’t own marriage. It is not some theoretical concept. It is the reality of men and women, gay and straight, living out their commitment to one another in the real world. Something, sadly, you and your kind will never know or understand.

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: Australian politics, Melbourne, discrimination, equal marriage, equal rights, religion, same-sex

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A Gay Marriage

July 7th 2008 03:10

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tended to ignore my own birthday, but this year I decided I would have a little celebration. Nothing fancy, just a buffet lunch on Sunday afternoon with a few of the people who matter to me. I could have invited at least a dozen more, but it’s a while since we’ve entertained and I didn’t want to take too much on.

My partner was initially angry because I sent out the invites without telling him my plans, but he came round. It saved a lot of arguments! As I’ve learned from dealing with editors and program managers, it’s better to do it first and apologise after, if necessary, than to spend hours in fruitless argument

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: Australian politics, discrimination, equality, gay lesbian politics, equal marriage, equal rights, religion, same-sex

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Gays & Muslims Marriage Alliance?

June 26th 2008 02:55

Polygamy is suddenly all over the Australian media. Where did that suddenly come from?

Keysar Trad, president of the Islamic Friendship Association, backed calls by Sheik Khalil Chami of the Islamic Welfare Centre, for polygamous relationships to be recognized in Australia

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: Australian politics, discrimination, equality, gay lesbian politics, equal marriage, equal rights, religion, same-sex

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