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The Rainbow Reporters new show, Freshly Doug, broadcasts live every Thursday 9-noon AEST in Melbourne Australia on 94.9 FM, streaming via the web at joy.org.au.
But he says he loves me!

If you're gay and you're not happy with your present political partner, have you thought you might be in an abusive relationship? It may be time to end what has become a toxic situation and move to Greener pastures. A simple questionnaire will soon uncover the truth.


Does your political party keep track of what you are doing all the time, and with whom?

Obsessively. Monitors every word. Can’t say anything anywhere without a Labor spin doctor jumping out of a dark alley and mugging us

Are they jealous and possessive?

Yes. They think they own our votes as of right.

Does Labor accuse you of being unfaithful?

All the time. Keeps saying we’re flirting with the Greens and telling us, ‘they’ll never amount to anything’ and ‘they can’t give you what we can’ etc

Controlling behaviour?

You kidding? Always telling us who we should speak to, what we should and shouldn’t say, what we should believe, telling us off for putting forward our own ideas, complaining about us behind our back . . .

Controls your money?

We're kept very short, and we always have to beg for every cent. And it's never enough. And even when we they give us some money, it soon runs out and we have to beg for more.

Humiliates you in front of others.


You need ask? Patronising putdowns whenever we ask for equality, reminders of how good they are to us, how much we owe them, get upset if we don’t fawn and grovel, accuse us of ingratitude etc

Treats you differently when others are around. Is nice to you when you are alone but distant and nasty when others are in your company.

When we’re alone, says, we love you, we’d love to help you, it’s not our fault, you have to understand, we’re on your side, really. But when there are Christians about, puts us down, says we want to ‘mimic marriage’ and ‘pretend’ we’re as good as straights.

Forces you to have sex against your will.

Yes. We want to have decent, moral, married relations, but they force us to play these grubby 'dog registration' games instead.

Blames you for their violent outbursts.

Yes. It’s always our fault we don’t have equality. Says we don’t fight hard enough, we’re weak, and anyway, nobody cares but them.

Looks like you are in a toxic, controlling relationship. It's time to reclaim your life and vote Green on Saturday!
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The HomoMenu Saturday 26 June

June 25th 2010 22:08

An occasional collation of GLBTI themed stories from around the world.

Red Turns Greens to Labor
julia gillard prime minister australia

Gillard puts Labor back in front Really Long Link - and the Greens vote collapses back to normal levels.

Hard to see why, since she said in her acceptance speech only that she would seek to build community consensus on establishing a price on carbon if she was elected PM, as economic conditions improve, blah, blah, delay, delay – which is no change from the Rudd position.

Bulgarian Pride Wins US Endorsement
Aziz

It’s Pride season in the northern hemisphere, and unlike Australia, where we regularly debate if there’s really any point to Pride Marches any more, Eastern Europeans battle to hold these marches at all, often in the face of considerable personal danger, sometimes from their own governments. But not without support from some other countries (sadly, not including Australia), as the US and other foreign ambassadors offer public support to the GLBTI community of Bulgaria. Really Long Link

Everything Old is New Again

Gay Liberation was our watchword in the 1970’s – not Gay Marriage or Gay Military Service (except in the porn mags). Most of us have moved from there into the mainstream – but not all. Radicalism still lives – in San Francisco. Maybe they could run coach tours? Really Long Link

Don’t Panic! Gay Adoption Arrives in NSW
gay babies

Some people get a fit of the vapours when the subject of gay adoption comes up. If you’re one such, take a deep breath and read this fine piece by Lisa Prior in the National Times. Really Long Link

Doug Pollard - The Rainbow Reporter
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Leatherman


My previous column, about the tired, tawdry and largely out-of-date nature of what passes for gay ‘culture’, drew a predictably venomous response from defenders of the status quo.

I dared to suggest that drag was no longer particularly daring or radical, that ‘professional’ drag was seldom entertaining and frequently insulting and misogynist , and that the best drag performers had no need of a frock.

Drag performers are often described as ‘courageous’ but isn’t it more like cowardice? The minimally-talented performer who dresses as a woman in order to spew filth and hatred, and then evades the consequences by doffing his disguise offstage, can hardly be called ‘courageous’. It is akin to the trick played on us by mild-mannered ventriloquists and their foul-mouthed dolls.

Despite what some chose to read into my remarks, I said nothing about transvestites and transsexuals. Nothing about people who reject the usual binary division and choose to adopt a persona which can be read as either masculine or feminine or both.

I also said nothing about leather queens. I could have, but there wasn’t room in my 400 word limit. And besides, leather queens are not the first port of call for a mainstream media looking for an image and a quote. Drag queens are.

Leather queens are another largely outmoded and tiresome stereotype playing at the other end of the spectrum. Generalising, one could say that drag queens ape stereotypical (and old-fashioned and misogynist) images of femininity, while leather queens trot out equally absurd and outmoded stereotypical images of masculinity.

It was interesting that many of those who violently disagreed with me, characterised the wearing of drag as a form of play. I agree (and the same is true of leather). My question is why we obstinately cling to this infantile need to play dressups.

Like it or not, it presents an image of the (ugh, I hate the phrase) ‘Gay Lifestyle’ which is frankly repellent, not only to the majority of heterosexuals but also to the majority of men who have sex with men.

It may come as a shock to some people, but the vast majority of men who have sex with men never set foot in the gay scene, and refuse the label ‘gay’, and who can blame them?

When I first ventured through the doors of a gay bar, I was assailed by two conflicting emotions. One – hooray, I am not the only one. Two – if this is what being gay is, I don’t think I like it. I developed my gay pride elsewhere, working in community organisations and gay media.

An older queen took me under her wing during my early forays into ‘the scene’ and tutored me in the ways of this new world. When I protested that I didn’t much care for it, he shrugged and replied, ‘Most of us don’t honey, but it’s all there is for the likes of us - so get used to it.’ I can’t say I didn’t try.

Some years later I was being chatted up by an older man. He ascertained that I didn't care for the bar scene much, didn't go to saunas, didn't do beats, and wouldn't have sex on the first date. "You're not really gay, are you?", he said. "Not if that's the definition," I replied.

Small wonder that most people can only tolerate the scenes vacuity and emptiness with the help of copious quantities of drink and/or drugs. It allows you to overlook its essential emptiness. Small wonder many find it meaningless, and seek healthier climates.

One would have thought that by now we would have learned to grow and develop, that there would have been a blossoming into something we could be genuinely proud to call a culture. Instead we are still telling ourselves that this is all there is for people like us, only now we dress it up with glitter and feathers and pretend it’s wonderful.

Why aren’t we working to build something we can be truly proud of? Why is our 'culture' still mired in this immature adolescent phase? Why has nothing changed, in essence, inside the gay scene, in forty years, while the world outside has moved on in leaps and bounds? Why are we scared to step outside?

I have been accused of being a bitter old man. To the last two I plead guilty, quite happily. However, I am happy and contented with my life, not bitter.

Of course I have every sympathy with 20-somethings who allow their hormones and their drug and alcohol intake to overwhelm their good sense. I wish they wouldn’t, but having been one myself I understand. That's how I coped, too.

But when a rich handsome famous and wealthy man, an icon of our community, continues to behave the same way as he approaches 50, then I think the call to ‘grow up’ , to him and the community as a whole, is not only appropriate, but long overdue.

I am not bitter, but angry, firstly, at mainstream society, that continues to see us as little more than drag, arseless chaps and toilet sex. And secondly, at my own community, for living up to that gutter image, and even glorifying it, when we could be so much better.

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Would you like drag with that?

February 28th 2010 04:32
Dame Hilda Bracket
Dame Hilda Bracket aka Patrick Fyffe


To paraphrase a famous saying, whenever I hear the words ‘gay culture’, I reach for my (metaphorical) revolver


[ Click here to read more ]
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Dolly Diamond
Dolly Diamond

DAYLESFORD’S ChillOut – the largest queer event in rural and regional Australia – kicks off for its thirteenth festival on the Labour Day Weekend (March 5-8, 2010).

[ Click here to read more ]
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Jim Wallace
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


[ Click here to read more ]
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Where's MY apology?

November 18th 2009 02:05
sorry
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.

[ Click here to read more ]
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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.

[ Click here to read more ]
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SHAMESHAME TOP 25 Part II

November 1st 2009 09:05
Portia & Ellen
Ellen & Portia

It’s that time of year again, time to nominate the 25 allegedly most influential fags and dykes in Australia.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Freeloaders


Every Thursday I now present Freshly Doug on Joy 94.9 from Nine till Noon. And this week we got some lively responses from listeners when I posed the following question


[ Click here to read more ]
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Congratulations to Will and PJ for putting together such a great line-up - and all proceeds will go to keeping Joy 94.9, Australia's only full-time GLBTI radio station, on the air.

Call (03) 9699 2949 for tix

[ Click here to read more ]
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UK Gay Lord Slams Victoria

October 4th 2009 19:52
Rob Hulls
Rob Hulls


I wouldn't ordinarily post something here I didn't write myself, but I could not possibly put this Really Long Link any better


[ Click here to read more ]
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Sooo over that rainbow

September 6th 2009 05:46
Rainbow


Would you take me to one of your bars? I just want to see what they’re like. You got a guide book


[ Click here to read more ]
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A Whole of Government Initiative

August 23rd 2009 07:32
Social Inclusion Board
The Social Inclusion Board

The Rudd government is big on ‘Social Inclusion’. There’s a Minister (Julia Gillard), a Parliamentary Secretary (Ursula Stephens), a Board, a Task Force, and a Social Inclusion Unit in almost every ministry. It’s a ‘whole of government’ priority.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Doug Pollard's Blogs

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