Gay Street Parade for Canberra?

thankyou Unbeliever
I may just need said luck 🙂

Ari, you get the gold medallion.

Can you and your hetro love chum share Meciare, PBX and superannuation benefits? Taxation and social security benefits? How’s about benefits from when you were serving in the Defence force – could your hetro slampiece share in Defence force benefits? If you were injured, could she have got veterans’ benefits?

I really don’t know, actually.

But since this is Australia and I can leave my public house to whomsoever I want it to go to once I’m dead, I’m sure my will can accomodate it.

Sure I have to take my wife, whom I got pregnant, to the hospital when we are going to sire a child, and there is a blood relationship via that junction forever. It may be with my wife whom I’ve been married to for 6 years, or it could be to some bird I knocked up over a 1 night stand at the back of Woden Tradies one night 9 months ago. That is a societal issue, but the linkage is via the child.

There are things that need to be set in place for the provision of protection, support etc for that child that do not need to be put in place for people who want to play with their trainsets in beds.

If you stopped thinking about yourselves for a few moments you might recognise that these things haven’t been put in place for the opposing partner, but the result of their partnership. (Regardless if they have offspring or not).

Obviously there are hideous applications of the rules here, such as 2 lesbians having children in order to live together as seperated mothers, licking themselves stupid every chance they get.

Whilst I’m sure they are relishing the good wicket they are on, I’m positive the shoe would be on the other foot when Centrelink asked for one partners PPS for the last 10 years back.

Since you members of gay intent feel so strongly about the issue, answer me this question:

Have you bothered getting your partner into your will, or are you content just whinging and harping about the inequality of it all ?

My guess is, the latter. (although given the generic IQ level of RA readers I’m prepared to be surprised).

Thanks Jey (re. the here here). Good luck with the UC stuff.

I don’t like the idea of a parade as they always poke fun at conservative dorky wowsers. And that’s not fair on Sammy.

and we could all be ‘poo pushing cyclists’ or whatever it was that other charmer called us that time.

pmsl!

I reckon a parade would be good, if only for the chance for a Riot-act float named in honour of Patt Carr.

i think simto sums it up nicely. it is about lingering areas of discrimination to people who break no law.

i dont particularly like the way many homosexuals parade their sexuality, however i have very good friends who are homosexual and you wouldnt know as they dont mince or display any overt gaydar signals.

persecuting someone because of their lifestyle choice is not on. homosexuals are not responsible for their perversions as its a part of their makeup, we may not approve but we dont have to persecute.

im not sure what benefit a mardi gras parade would bring. in my opinion it just reinforces negative stereotypes of homosexuals.

Apologies to Ms. Thumper.

On the other side of the coin, I gotta say I’m not big whoop on the parade stuff either – although that’s probably something to do with me being over thirty, and having seen them as a lot of sound and fury, signifying not particularly much.

Having a chance to gather, scream and shout is fun for the teenagers and twenty-somethings, though, and it does keep them away from the places where the real political pressure is applied until they’ve calmed down a bit. So they do serve SOME kind of purpose.

barking toad and maelinar, while you may not care that ppl are gay, other ppl do and these ppl go out of their way to be homophobic and discriminatory.

Maelinar, I’m assuming for the purpose of the following that you’re straight and married. My apologies if you’re not (you and Thumper do seem VERY friendly, by the by…)

Can you and your hetro love chum share Meciare, PBX and superannuation benefits? Taxation and social security benefits? How’s about benefits from when you were serving in the Defence force – could your hetro slampiece share in Defence force benefits? If you were injured, could she have got veterans’ benefits?

I’m guessing she could. And, if she’d been a man, she couldn’t. Which means there’s a difference. An unfair difference. And all the partnered gays and lesbians (and all the gays and lesbians who want to be partnered someday) are pefectly entitled to scream the place down about how this is deeply discriminatory law, for no other reason than you and your wife happen to have different genitals.

Marches are useful to the extent that it’s a public statement to those who seem to always be talking about ‘the Australian people’ or ‘everyday Australians’ that here’s is a significant group who disagree.

But protests are all too easily dismissed as mobs, as seen of Howard’s reaction to the anti Iraq war rallies.

There are other ways to demand human rights equality from elected representatives. Since the UK govt, the NZ govt, the Canadian govt all care enough to remove this discrimination – I also care enough to do what I can.

To quote the Simpson’s Milhouse : ‘My mum thinks I’m special!’

Can’t your gayness write in your will that you want your estate to go to your gay love chum ?

Or is it the process of it going automatically to the wife if there isn’t a will that you are getting all het up about ?

(when in reality this is open to all kinds of litigation especially in the case of open relationships, lovers, mistresses, ex lovers, unfriendly parents, children etcetera etcetera)

Honestly, nobody fucking cares, and you’re not ‘special’. Go root your boyfriend and cry yourself to sleep in your pillow.

Unbeliever/Jey, I’m not against gay people shouting about what they consider discrimination or rights to things denied them. I may not necessarily agree with all claims but that’s not my point.

What I am tired of is people making an issue of their gayness for the sake of it. I don’t care if you’re gay, I don’t need to be told. I’m just as likely to say “So, I fuck sheep, your point is?” (Warning : sheep fucking is illegal).

Whether you like it or not, any rally or Carnivale will end up being hijacked by those who want to dress up in cowboy chaps and bare their arse to proclaim their gayness rather than rally to protest the issues you raise.

Racial discrimination and sexuality discrimination, from where I’m sitting, has a lot of similarities. While superannuation may be one aspect of inequality in law, it’s symptomatic of the broader discrimination in federal law against the GLBTI community.

It is relative, you’re right JB, but there is a lot of historical and comtemporary similarities between the two struggles. Being marginalised for an innate quality, having laws passed to justify discrimination, having religion used to reason away bigotry – point in place interacial marriages was illegal in some states in the US in the 50s – validated in law.

The hypocrisy of the situation in federal law in Australia is that the Australian Parliament is happy to recognise same-sex couples in anti-terror laws – while refusing to recognise these same couples in relationship laws.

I am mindful, in all this, that there are inequalities abound in many other areas. For examples indigenous rights have all by fallen off the national agenda – and they were here way before I ever was. But I’ve got to start somewhere in speaking up and sometimes ‘f@#$$%# shout’ against discrimination.

oh, my ‘here here’ was to Unbeliever

here here!

Sounds like you’ve got a protest issue to parade about UB.

barking toad,

it’s a fact that I’m not discriminated against in federal law in marriage & relationships laws; in parenting & family Law; in Medicare & PBS and superannuation laws; in taxation and social security laws (not to mention the discimination faced by others under veterans’ benefits and Defence Force benefits) because I’m a bloke. Nor am I discriminated against because I’m from a racial minority (thank god). But I am discriminated against, in all the areas above, because I’m gay.

That single reason for these discriminatory laws/policies has by virtue of their existence politicised my sexuality and my relationship!

So despite the fact that this is but only one of the many aspects of who I am, I feel like I have to raise hell about it and not keep ‘f*&^%&* shouting’ about it, because it’s not a choice to accept discrimination.

Like Nina Simone said – ‘you don’t have to live next to me, just give me my equality’ … and that’s all I want (not being able to speak for anyone else here) – equality, no more, no less. Then I’ll shut up!

More’s the pity – nobody told the crackhead “financial consultant” in Sydney last year.

Really, my point is, why the need for the constant parades?

Ubeliever, I did express my views to the organisers, I think I did. I’ve been terribly busy over the last couple of months with my own UC based queer activism.

While not wanting to diminish the importance of allowing same sex couples to access each others super…

Not quite the same thing as the struggle against apartheid is it?

May be that’s the intent of giving your views to the organisers – what the point of a parade would be. Celebration/protest?

There is still a lot of discrimination, significantly though not only, in federal law in Australia. For example, the Australian Parliament insists on denying the fundamental human right of equality in relationship recognition to ALL
citizens, at Howard’s bidding.

Aside from the UK, New Zealand, Canada, Belgium (among many others), South Africa is the latest nation to acknowledge the human rights of equal and formal relationship recognition for ALL of its citizens. And to think Australia once had sanctions against South Africa for its prejudice and narrow-minded policies towards a section of the South African population.

Well bestiality is illegal and homosxuality isn’t.

So that’s a good start no?

If it’s just for gays and lesbians it’s discrimatory. What about those into bestiality? Why exclude those who like to strap on guineau pigs or cuddle up to a nice sheep?

Seriously, I’m so over this gayness. If you’re gay so be it. Do it, don’t be ashamed but ffs, just because you’ve decided to come out, why the need to keep fucking shouting about it in my face!

I wandered past Cube on my way to APK last Friday, and they were advertising Lesbian Speed Dating.

Bearing in mind the old joke “what do lesbians do on a second date – buy a house – what do gay men do on a second date – what second date?”, I’m wondering whether lesbian speed dating means signing a twelve month rental agreeement?

1. I don’t think the Queer Community has too much to celebrate- while things are kinda ok for us in the ACT, around Aus it’s not the case, not to mention around the world.
2. Mardi Gras begin as a protest, not a celebration. If it was organised and set up as a protest that would be awesome, sure they’re may be protest type banners or whatever but to organise and market it as a celebration is bs. I think we have a long, long way to go before we can celebrate for the hell of it and there’s much more important things we could be doing with our time, effort, money and resources.
3. Pink Dollar! The idea of this parade is kinda to funnel ppl into Cube, it ends in the ‘square’ where Cube is located. Cube isn’t preferred by many members of the Canberra Queer Community, it’s targeted at a very specific market.
4. I heard this would be something like the ‘Gay and Lesbian’ parade. Hello! What about the rest of us? I’m a big fan of the inclusivity of ‘queer’.

Oooo what an great idea – slavishly copy what they do in Sydney – lets build a harbour bridge across the lake as well. Terrubo has the right idea.

Come to think of it, two floats and the Territory Police Band would look rather forlorn. Maybe better to have an ACT float as part of Sydney’s Mardi Gras.

See you in the BMP bushes, JB. Don’t run, don’t hide.