Gay Rights

The Queensland Government absolutely abhors any attack on a person based on their sexual preference and, to be absolutely clear, does not believe that anyone should be able to plead a non-violent homosexual advance as a partial defence for murder.

Don't mess with her!

On this, we agree with Father Paul Kelly, who wrote the piece on The Punch on Wednesday, “An archaic defence that belongs in the dark ages”. However, it is important that we take expert advice. The legal reality is that the Criminal Code has to be drafted carefully.

It must be drafted on what will work to the letter of the law or else other people will seek to exploit it in unforseen circumstances where society would not support it.

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  • Greg says:

    05:55pm | 16/01/12

    Didn’t Lady Justice used to wear a blindfold? I suppose that affirmative action preferences can’t be applied to the politically preferred minority groups if she can’t identify them. Read more »

  • paul says:

    08:56am | 14/01/12

    B, the gay panic provision is a reality in the law of QUeensland.  It is not a fiction. it is not helpful to just say ‘its not a legislative reality’ because that is ignoring that the law is legislation+common law and in the combination there is the problem. if this… Read more »

 

John Howard said it helped MPs “reflect upon their experiences, values”. Kim Beazley said it was “a wonderful thing” to do. The late John Button said, “Let the winds of principle blow through the House.”

Ain't equality beautiful

They were talking about exercising a parliamentary conscience vote and were so enthusiastic for it you would imagine conscience votes happen all the time.

But they don’t, for reasons shared by leaders of all major parties. In fact they are rare. By my calculation there were 30 conscience votes in Federal Parliament between 1955 and now. (The always-splendid Parliamentary Library has this research paper.) Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants to make that tally 31 by tomorrow, asking the ALP national conference in Sydney for a conscience vote on gay marriage.

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  • RyaN says:

    04:23pm | 05/12/11

    @ATM: Yoh! Thats horrific! Read more »

  • Christian Real says:

    07:44am | 04/12/11

    acotrel The LNP has made lying into an art form, they have perfected in such a way that their supporters and followers are blinded by their party’s lies and deceit,and continue to spread their party’s scare-mongering and fear campaign. Read more »

 

The Age reported this morning that former Tasmanian premier David Bartlett has called on the Labor Party to overturn marriage laws that prevent gay marriage, even by Australians in countries where same-sex marriages are legal. The call came after Bartlett’s half-sister, Angela Borella, was prevented from marrying her partner in Portugal. Here, Angela tells her story.

I met her earlier this year in Indonesia. She is Portuguese. I am Australian. We knew after ten days that we never wanted to be apart, so when my medical volunteer contract ended in Indonesia six weeks later, I flew to Portugal to be with her and we now live in Lisbon.

Imagine how the world could be… so happy together

She is the most kind, caring and beautiful person I have ever met. It is like we’ve always known each other. She knows me better than I know myself.

I’ve never felt so loved in my entire years. I would give everything I have for her happiness. She makes me feel complete and whole.

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  • Peter says:

    10:11am | 01/12/11

    Typical government bullsh!t. She has asked for a certificate of no incumbent, which should simply state if she is married or not in Australia. It is relating to her and SHOULD HAVE NOT BEARING OR RELATION to whom she wishes to marry.. Why should a certificate outlining if you are… Read more »

  • GC_Girl says:

    12:19pm | 30/11/11

    This article is very upsetting. The Government has no right to refuse to issue a document, based on a wish to be married in another country (pro-marriage equality) where that person is currently domiciled.  If reversed and another country contacted our Government requesting that a penalty be issued to an… Read more »

 

If we ever needed proof that politicians should respectfully butt out of moral issues like gay marriage, we got it this week in South Australia.

Better late than never. Pic: AFP

On Monday – the same day we learnt that the number of Australian households with mum, dad and kids is set to plummet to just 22 per cent within 15 years – outgoing Premier Mike Rann said the time for same-sex marriage had arrived.

So, after effectively putting the issue in the too-hard basket for almost a decade as premier and also during a stint as Labor’s national president, Mr Rann has a rainbow epiphany on the eve of his departure.

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  • ADam says:

    12:39pm | 26/10/11

    Where did you get the 5% figure from? The latest ESTIMATE for people who openly declaired their homosexual orientation is 10 or 11%. And your narrow-minded, uneducated comments referring to homosexual intercourse only make you sound like a fool and does nothing to support your argument. Read more »

  • adam says:

    12:34pm | 26/10/11

    I’d also like to point out that non Christian nations who do not practice Christianity also have marriage. Once again this is religion picking and choosing parts of a book that they want to follow. The church’s whole opposition to homosexuality comes from it’s reference to being an ‘abomination’. in… Read more »

 

Dear Jim,

Re: Welcome to the ‘Homosexual Lobby’ and today’s vote on same-sex marriage in Tasmania

Now here's something you SHOULD be frightened of. Pic: Paul Toohey

UPDATE: The historic motion backing same-sex marriage has been passed by the Tasmanian House of Assembly, the Mercury reports.

Over the past few months you have either said, tweeted or endorsed the following: “Anzacs didn’t die for gay marriage”, “the global gay Gestapo…is brainwashing people”, “gay marriage will disrupt the natural order”, “gay marriage will lead to paedophiles marrying children”, and of course you came to Miranda Devine’s defence when she linked the London riots to Senator Penny Wong and her partner expecting a child.

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  • sam says:

    12:31pm | 09/01/12

    phone number lookup Read more »

  • Feerselayetty says:

    02:40pm | 23/12/11

    gHgmQruBs philadelphia eagles jerseys yQzvThgHj http://www.makskere.lv/blogs/entry/detroit-lions-jersey-81bb Read more »

 

There are some very odd bedfellows in the anti-gay-marriage camp. Like, for example, conservative Christians and gay libertarians. The former think that gays will wreck marriage, the latter that marriage will wreck gays.

It is soooo time to partay. Pic: AP

The first argument goes like this: marriage was made by God to unite men and women. Gay marriage will debase that institution, stripping it of its sacred meaning.

The same argument, couched in more secular terms, is offered just as often by people who say they are against discrimination, except when it comes to marriage because… and then insert whatever spurious, depressingly legalistic, horribly thin argument you choose…

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  • Not putting my name here on this one occasion to a says:

    06:40pm | 07/07/11

    Nick, I’m adopted. Met my natural parents, and discovered, as many adopted children do, that I didn’t miss out on much. Thank heavens for my adoptive parents. Yes, gay people might have access to the same assistive technology as straight people. You’d have lesbian couples accepting sperm from donors…just like… Read more »

  • GlendaSings says:

    06:12pm | 07/07/11

    @Sheldon…it’s simple. Legalise same sex marriage, and we’ll stop talking about it. It can become business as usual, as unremarkable as heterosexual marriage. Sounds good to me. Read more »

 

“I am a concerned Ugandan citizen because I…am worried that my children will be recruited to be homosexuals …I am worried that the future of Ugandan children is at stake.”

WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC. The Punch, not the author, chose it to illustrate the disgraceful stance of some Ugandans on this issue.

In October 2009, an Anti-Homosexuality Bill, or what has been internationally dubbed as the “Kill the gays” Bill, was introduced by David Bahati MP in Ugandan Parliament. The Bill strengthened the existing criminal penalties while increasing the sentences for certain kinds of consensual sexual “offences” between people of the same-sex.

Much of the social and political obsession with the idea of “homosexuality” in Uganda disparately emerged as a product of British colonialism. “Sodomy” offences or “acts against the order of nature”, as they are commonly referred to, were introduced through colonialism as a way of policing all non-heterosexual or non-reproductive relationships.

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  • Lloyd says:

    04:57pm | 30/05/11

    @Snake.The evidence is thousands upon thousands of gay people telling the rest of the population that they were born that way.The evidence is thousands of people getting killed for something they cannot change.Why would we choose to make things harder for ourselves? Your comment is the ultimate in heterosexual arrogance.How… Read more »

  • Derek Williams says:

    06:06pm | 22/05/11

    The total population of Uganda exceeds 32 million, meaning that based on a conservative 4% of the population being homosexual, there are at least 1.2 million homosexuals whose lives are being wrecked. Uganda’s prisons are already massively overcrowded with an occupancy rate of 223%, and a prison population at 91/100,000… Read more »

 

ANZAC Day is a day for commemoration and celebration of Australian identity, so long as we remember the gays and the Muslims were never a part of this.

Bitter twitter

Anzac Day has become much more than a day of commemorating a military campaign; it has become a national focal point through which we locate what it means to be “Australian.” While the notion of “Australian values” raises disparate and often romantic ideas of mateship, courage and loyalty, it is sometimes insidiously mobilised to express prejudices.

Jim Wallace, Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, made this point painfully clear when he lamented over Twitter  “that as we remember servicemen and women we remember [the] Australia they fought for - wasn’t gay marriage & Islamic!”

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  • Aziz says:

    07:41am | 02/05/11

    Amen. Amen to that. Remember we shell. Remember in Silence. Not in vilification and hate speech. Thank you Eric and Raj. Peace. Read more »

  • j says:

    12:26pm | 28/04/11

    oh gosh buckyboy whats wrong with you, how can one person be filled with so much hate…. maybe if you really let god into your heart you would stop being so angry and unhappy and just learn that just cause somethings arent what you are dosent make them wrong and… Read more »

 

Christian Democrat MLC Fred Nile addressed NSW Parliament yesterday, condemning the Adoption Amendment (Same-Sex Couples) Bill on the grounds it would threaten the fundamental rights of children.

A young girl in front of a gay rights banner in Rome. Photo: AFP
“Is this really an ideological issue or homosexuals demanding yet another human right?” For Mr. Nile, the debate is easily reduced to either ideological issues or gay rights. But where do children fit into the equation?

We can talk about ‘the best interests of children’ and many in this debate claim to, but why are these claims often made in polemical rather than empirical terms. That is, maybe we should look to actual families rather than our ‘common sense’ fantasy of the ideal family.

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  • Lily says:

    08:28am | 07/09/10

    There has been a wealth of material around for decades that proves adotption harmful to both mother and child and yet it is wilfully ignored by those who demand a child http://gift-not-choice.tripod.com/index.html http://www.orignsnsw.com Read more »

  • bec says:

    08:26am | 07/09/10

    Kids need parents who can punctuate correctly. I think idiot people who don’t know the rules of the one language they speak and write in have no place being role models to young people. Read more »

 

Legitimating gay marriage is like legalising child abuse’. Family First Senate candidate Wendy Francis’ comments on Twitter reiterate the homophobic anxieties towards same-sex parenting and marriage that continue to plague the political imagination in Australia.

Ms Francis’ archaic commentaries reflect a traumatic history in which same-sex couples were not simply discriminated or alienated, but were produced as criminal deviants. Much of the rhetoric that connected pedophilia and homosexuality emerged in the early 20th century where psychological, legal and religious institutions claimed that being ‘gay’ was a perversion or a disorder. Francis’ comments recuperate this history in an extremely unpalatable way.

While the comments may not have the same currency today, the homophobic rhetoric of ‘difference’ continues to be recycled today in different ways. Today, homosexuality is not a crime. However, the law uses sexuality to limit involvement in other social relationships.

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  • Mitchell says:

    08:17pm | 02/09/10

    I wonder if Wendy approves of being branded with Ms? I’m sure she’d much prefer to known as Mrs Francis. Read more »

  • the apologist says:

    02:20pm | 12/08/10

    Ella, Yes, I’m familiar with Rawls. He recognised the necessity for an appeal to authority to legitimise enforceable moral norms. He just replaced God with the social contract as the authority. The problem with the social contract is that it doesn’t deal with the issue I’ve raised, it just takes… Read more »

 

Reverend Canon Gene Robinson of New Hampshire became the first gay bishop to be consecrated into the American Anglican Church today in 2003.

Picture: AP.

It was a decision that angered religious leaders around the world but Robinson was elated: “I think I can do more for gay and lesbian folk in the Church by being a good bishop than by being the gay bishop,” he told reporters. Got something to say about this event or anything else? Share it here.

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  • Peter says:

    03:05pm | 04/08/10

    @ astrid. I disagree. I reckon if you believe in God (or Jesus) and you continue to live a wretched life of crime and do harm onto others, your in for a worst fate than someone who is kind but an athiest. I don’t think God will punish people for… Read more »

  • acotrel says:

    12:07am | 04/08/10

    There is risk in harassment of others in the workplace.  A consequence could be a $37M payout.  What is the likelihood? -  As Tony Abbott says ’ NO MEANS NO’! Read more »

 

I have a challenge for Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott – when my Marriage Equality Bill comes before Parliament today, I dare you to resist the urge to control … sorry, kill debate by insisting Senators toe the party line.

Kevin Rudd is dumped as gay icon. Cartoon: Mark Knight.

Show some leadership instead, and let the members of your parties have the courage of their convictions by giving them a conscience vote.

Until the Australian people can see their representatives talk freely and vote honestly on the issue, they have no idea how far away they are from living in a nation where equality is truly valued.

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  • Pharme232 says:

    09:56am | 08/04/11

    Hello! ffeedde interesting ffeedde site! Read more »

  • Jodi says:

    02:03pm | 04/03/10

    Martin I agree with everything you said - marriage is defined as the union between a man and a woman - therefore marriage as such does not apply to same sex couples. I believe they should have a similar institution to celebrate their love but it should be known by… Read more »

 

Fifty-eight years ago, as a conscript in the Australian Navy, I was on parade with ship’s company on the wharf at Williamstown, I believe it was.

Since this 1978 rally, which was a pre-curser to the Mardi Gras, we have come a long way

A police identity check was taking place. Two rather hefty men, wearing dark fedoras, so favoured by celebrated criminals and successful detectives of the day, and bearing police standard issue suspicious scowls, moved between our ranks.

A third, slighter and very nervous, man was in tow. The offence being investigated was the bashing and robbery by sailors of a homosexual man in a park, the third person with the two detectives.

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  • Sabina Nowak says:

    08:04pm | 07/10/09

    Thanks Bill for saying what needs to be said and The Punch for publishing it.  It is about time more public figures debunk the myths about the ‘homosexual menace’.  There is absolutely no rational need for the double standard. Read more »

  • Michele says:

    06:49pm | 07/10/09

    Margaret Gray maybe you should make friends with some gay/lesbian people and then you might be a nicer person. You might then see them as real human beings with thoughts & feelings, hopes & dreams that are shared by many of us. Just because they have a preference for same… Read more »

 

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code 1860, although drafted by Lord Macaulay, speaks with the coyness of Queen Victoria.

It states: “Unnatural Offences – Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life …”

A law directed against homosexual acts dared not use words like “buggery” or “sodomy”.

Indian gay activists celebrate High Court decision

The euphemism of “carnal intercourse against the law of nature” was necessary and the Courts were required to fill in the missing spaces.

Over the years, the Courts of India confirmed that any form of sexual penetration other than vaginal intercourse between a man and a woman was “against the order of nature”.

On the second of this month, two judges of the High Court of Delhi declared that s.377 was unconstitutional.

The Chief Justice, Ajit Prakesh Shah, and Justice Muralidhar held that the law would now only apply to non-consensual acts and acts where a party to the act was younger than 18 years of age.

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  • Cardinal Pole says:

    04:55am | 08/07/09

    “Only now is it legal to be gay in India” An inadequate headline because, as the article goes on to note, ‘gayness’ wasn’t illegal; rather, buggery was illegal, regardless of whether the sodomite was homosexual or heterosexual and regardless of whether the catamite was male or female. For this reason,… Read more »

  • me says:

    02:50pm | 07/07/09

    Some good news once in a while is a refreshing thing Read more »

 

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