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gay rights elections - Rainbow Reporter

Rainbow Report Thursday on 94.9

November 12th 2008 05:05

My guest this week

We continue our series of interview with mayoral candidates.

Robert Doyle, former Victorian Liberal leader and candidate for Lord Mayor of Melbourne, will join us to talk about his plans for the city.

Centrelink are keen to explain to us what the changes to the legal treamment of same-sex couples will mean in realtion to pensions and benefits, so they've agreed to provide a spokesperson - so let me know what you'd like me to ask on your behalf.

And Dale Smedley of DTs Hotel will be talking about his bid for a seat on his local council.

You can send your questions ahead of time to journobear@gmail.com

Plus the latest look Beneath the Bonnet with Kaye Sera.

That's Thursday noght 7-8pm Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time, on Joy 94.9FM, streaming live at www.joy.org.au.

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: gay rights, Melbourne, Victoria, Australian politics, elections

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How to make straight friends and influence people

November 9th 2008 01:31

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

Bans on gay marriage, fostering and adoption have passed in several US states, including California. Barack Obama needed to mobilise black and hispanic voters, but most of them are religious and anti-gay. He downplayed his support for gay rights, so they voted against us while voting for him.

A large-scale survey in UK newspaper The Observer found 56% think we shouldn’t be allowed to adopt, 40% want a higher age of consent for us, and 25% think we should be recriminalized. The British Labor government has enacted a lot of pro-gay and anti-discrimination laws in recent years but that hasn’t made people like us.

And at the time of writing, the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Bill is on the brink of defeat. Upper house members say their constituents don’t want gays and lesbians to have parenting rights.

These failures are our own fault. Our small number of committed activists do a great job on politicians and big city elites, but we’ve yet to win over Joe The Plumber and his missus out in Cranbourne or Wodonga.

Californian gay rights campaigners didn’t involve themselves in black and hispanic communities, and we don’t engage with our neighbours in the outer suburbs and the bush. Yet doing so brings multiple benefits.

We need a majority of all voters on our side, and strange as it may seem, that starts with making friends with them. Especially outside major cities, where levels of violence and self-harm are high, and support services for our community are virtually non-existent.

But you don’t turn neighbours to friends by painting yourself as a victim. You do it by helping to solve their problems. As a boss of mine once told me, “If you want promotion, don’t bring me problems. Bring me solutions.”

Country towns, already struggling with drought, now face the strong possibility of a recession. People fear for their jobs, their businesses, their homes. What solutions can we offer?

One proven way is through local rainbow festivals, bringing in publicity and business - and local authorities know it. ChillOut’s economic importance has been acknowledged with a two-year grant of $45k from Rural Development Victoria, in addition to money from Tourism Victoria and Hepburn Shire Council to secure its future. The possibility that Yackandandah Spring Migration might fold has local authorities actually competing to secure the Migration for their town.

Now the gay community becomes a solution, not a problem. Working and socialising alongside gays and lesbians, people learn that we’re ordinary people just like them, trying to keep our heads above water and caring for the ones we love. Prejudice against local gay and lesbian residents is lessened. Young same-sex attracted people learn they are not alone, and can find role models to look up to. And we earn the right to ask people to support us when we seek to be treated equally.

We won’t win them all. But we will win enough to turn mainstream politics in our favour, erode the dam that blocks gay marriage and adoption, and head off any backlash like the one threatening in the UK. On top of which, we get to have a lot of fun.

Who said politics had to be boring?

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: gay rights, gay marriage, equality, gay politics, Australian politics, US politics, elections

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No We Can't

November 6th 2008 02:37

Yes, he can, but no, we can't, as anti-gay measures pass in several states.

Barack Obama’s win, which symbolises a great victory over race prejudice, has inadvertently strengthened prejudice and discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Obama brought unprecedented numbers of black voters to the polls, many of them from the black churches, which are notably conservative on gay issues. He brought out the Hispanic vote, with its strong Catholic bias, too.

But he failed to support gay marriage, and his support for gay rights during the campaign can best be described as lukewarm.

As a result, the California same-sex marriage ban won 52 percent of the vote. A ban also passed in Florida and Arizona.

Arkansas passed a ban on unmarried couples from adopting or fostering, which was targeted at gay men and lesbians.

There was one ray of light, as voters in Connecticut, the third state, after Massachusetts and California, to allow marriage between people of the same sex, rejected a plan to hold a constitutional convention.

Opponents of same-sex marriage had expressed hope that a convention could lead to a ballot initiative to ban the practice, which the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled legal last month.

Obama did at least mention the word gay in his victory speech, as he claimed the Presidency on behalf of all Americans, not just those who voted for him.

But a gesture is not enough. H will have his work cut out to remove this discrimination and prejudice that three more states have now enshrined in their constitutions. We will be watching closely.

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: religion, gay rights, gay marriage, US politics, elections, discrimination

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Mayors Nest or Dragons Lair

October 7th 2008 23:55

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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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: gay rights, Melbourne, Victoria, Australian politics, elections

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Ernestine Palin

August 30th 2008 21:17

John McCain is 72 – so whoever he picks for his Veep is important. S/he could be called on to step into the top job at any time. So he picks an almost totally unknown woman, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: gay rights, gay marriage, US politics, elections

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Splits ahoy in Canberra as Libs try to wedge religious Senators (LINK)

August 21st 2008 01:17

Senator George Brandis, Opposition legal affairs spokesperson

The Coalition continues to play games with the legislation to equalise the treatment of same-sex couples in Commonwealth superannuation schemes, as it flags its intention to change the wording of the bill so as to 'protect marriage

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: religion, gay rights, gay marriage, equality, Australian politics, elections

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Kennett now equates bisexual footy trainers with pedophile priests (LINK)

August 2nd 2008 21:00

Dark Night Priest

Well, I was going to lay off Jeff Kennett, but the man just keeps chewing on that foot in his mouth. In the Herald Sun today he continues to make a link between bisexuality and pedophilia. Such a link does not exist, and such a slur is incredibly damaging

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