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Rainbow Report tonight 11/12

December 10th 2008 22:57

Another hour of news and current affairs for the Rainbow Crew.

Jayne Crawley - team leader for Arts & Culture with the City of Melbourne – talking about OutCities, a program of Melbourne queer arts and events being staged at Copenhagen OutGames next summer.

After some initial confusion, it seems Australia became a co-sponsor of the French motion for a declaration by the UN General Assembly on same-sex rights. Simon Margan of Community Action Against Homophobia has that story for us.

Our new Lord Mayor Robert Doyle has already started making waves as he settles in at Town Hall – the Age joked that his first move had been to ditch the word Mayor from his title – so we’ve asked him back for a chat.

Corey Irlam has been, as always, busy leaning on the politicians on our behalf, and specifically on behalf of those members of our community who are being forced to pay the price of equality.

Cathy Anderson makes a welcome return tonight after a sojourn in the Western Desert of suburban Sydney.

And finally, Miss Kaye Sera looks beneath a festive bonnet tonight as she morphs into Madame Santa contemplating what the government should have done to get the economy moving this festive season.

That's The Rainbow Report, Joy 94.9FM Melbourne, streaming ,live at www.joy.org.au: podcasts at the same address and also via iTunes store.

Join me 7-8pm AEDST: call 61 (0)3 9699 2949 / onair@joy.org.au / Txt: 0427 JOY 949

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: gay rights, equality, same-sex, Melbourne, Victoria, Australian politics, discrimination, sport

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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 . . .

Senator Louise Pratt
Pippa Grange of the AFL Players Association
Corey Irlam of the Australian Coalition for Equality
Tim Wilson from the Institute of Public Affairs

Richard Watts of MCV

We can’t go past Matthew Mitchams gold medal in the Olympics, so as he’s a Queensland boy, naturally, we’ll be talking to Ian Clachair of Pride Queensland about that, and about the renegade Catholic parish that’s in hot water with the Vatican for blessing same-sex couples – among other things.

Of course even confirmed Olympicphobes like Kaye Sera have noted Matthew Mitchams epic triumph in the diving, and his even greater triumph is acknowledging, hugging and kissing his partner Lachlan on Seven’s evening News – an event Nine news referred to in passing as ‘getting a hug from a friend’.

In the US, the NBC network didn’t even mention he was gay, but they’ve now apologized for that ‘unintentional’ omission.

Prompted by this touching display, today the Herald Sun ran another piece by Rob Mitchell, who listeners will know as a regular guest on the Rainbow Report, in which Rob urged the AFL to get with the program and start tackling homophobia in their sport.

It’s the latest in a series the paper has run on the issue, with comment from Nathan Burke, Kevin Sheedy, and most recently Jason Akermanis. There’s speculation the AFL is doing a John the Baptist, paving the way for an AFL player to come out – and the last couple of days the internet has been buzzing with rumours that the Footy Show has negotiated a big payout to an AFL player to come out on the show tonight.

The Rainbow Report has already interviewed representatives of the VCFL, the VFL and the AFL: we wanted to talk to a coach or a player, but so far no luck. However tonight we will be speaking with Pippa Grange, General Manager of People, Psychology and culture at the AFL Players Association, for her take on the issue.

Leaving football aside, Corey Irlam from the Australian Coalition for Equality joins us to report on the progress of the Family Law Amendment Bill: the report of the Senate Inquiry forced by the Opposition was tabled in parlaiemtn today, and he unamended bill passed the lower house.

Staying with politics, the newly elected Senator from WA, Lousie Pratt made her maiden speech in parliament yesterday, and in it she called for the legalization of gay marriage. She joins us on the line tonight.
And rounding out the panel tonight, Tim Wilson of the Institute of Public Affairs – bit of a comedown from needling Penny Wong on live television but hey, I hear he enjoys slumming – and the one and only Richard Watts, Editor of MCV – who coincidentally had their own AFL scoop this week, too.

That’s tonight on the Rainbow Report, Joy 94.9, streaming live www.joy.org.au - call 03 9699 2949, email onair@joy.org.au or text on 0427 JOY 949.
And join in the show by emailing onair@joy.org.au between 7-8pm AEST tonight!

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: gay rights, gay marriage, equality, Melbourne, gay politics, Australian politics, discrimination, sport

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The Tsunami of Sport

August 12th 2008 01:34

Get your kit on!

If anyone wonders why I bother to involve myself with the RJM Trust, the tsunami of Olympics coverage provides the perfect answer.

Australia is a country where everything else takes a back seat to sport. Politics, health, war, education, business, finance – all get swept off the front pages and relegated to the ‘also’ bits of news bulletins the minute some footballer pees on a restaurant window.

If you want to get the publics attention, get involved in sport. If you want to change the publics mind, get into sport. If you want to find the last bastions of all kinds of prejudice – the ones that dare not speak their name in public – look in the club rooms of any sporting organization.

There, it’s still OK for a coach wanting to fire up his team to accuse them of being a bunch of poofs, of playing like fairies. OK to tell them to stick it up the opposition. It’s still OK for cricketers and footballers of all codes to ‘sledge’ their opponents on the field with homosexual innuendoes.

They used to do it with race. They used to call one another ‘half-breeds’ and worse if they wanted to put someone off their game. That’s not acceptable any more – but calling them a ‘pansy’ still is. That’s got to end.

That’s where the RJM Trust comes in. Football/netball clubs are the heart of most small Victorian towns – and small town Australia is still a very unsafe place to be gay.

Literally hundreds of same-sex attracted kids try to kill themselves in rural Australia every year, and many succeed, because there is nowhere – not at home, at school, not at church, not on the street – where they feel safe and accepted, as in depth research by La Trobe University (“Writing themselves in again”) makes plain. And the place where they feel the least safe is sporting events and venues.

I’m working with founder Rob Mitchell to turn local footy and netball clubs from centres of ignorance and prejudice into safe havens for people of all sexualities and genders. That’s why we’ve been working with bisexual Ken Campagnolo in his fight with the Bonnie Doon Football Club, and transsexual Tess Emery with her problems at Northern Saints.

And it’s why we’re working with the Victorian Country Football League and the Victorian AFL to launch diversity procedures, policies and training into every VCFL club. And why Rob has taken a seat on the Victorian Sports ministry committee working on the sporting clubs governance manual.

The Olympics may have swamped everything else for now, but the work has to go on, even if it’s temporarily invisible. The Olympics have allowed Jeff Kennett to slide out of responsibility for his remarks that appeared to say that a bisexual trainer among junior footballers presents the same risk profile as a paedophile priest among choirboys.

He still hasn’t given any satisfactory response on that one, but state politicians have shown interest in taking up the issue.

Sue Pennicuik of the Greens is more than happy to raise the matter in State Parliament, and there are some in the Liberal and Labor parties who are equally as unhappy with Mr Kennett.

It’s not all downside: the Olympics also allows me to have some time out here in Queensland. But don’t think I’ve gone away for long. I will be back!

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: gay rights, equality, gay politics, Australian politics, sport, popular culture, TV, radio, film

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On The Rainbow Report Thursday Night

August 6th 2008 06:45

Every Thursday evening 7-8pm AEST broadcasting live from Melbourne on Joy 94.9FM, streaming live at www.joy.org.au. Podcasts available on the Joy site by the weekend.

Last week we had a few things to say about Jeff Kennett, but he’s rather gone to ground since then. But the issue of gays in sport, the entrenched homophobia in sport, hasn’t gone away. In fact, if anything Jeffs intervention made it worse

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Posted By: Doug Pollard - Category: gay rights, equality, same-sex, Melbourne, Victoria, gay politics, Australian politics, sport, radio

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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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