Canberra's cultural groups left 'without options'

“Jack D”. Good Lord. What are you on about? Sounds racist, seriously. You should be ashamed of yourself. I drew attention to the appalling roundabout design, which highlights finely divided categories in sexual orientations (all the different alphabet letters) which dominate the design, with two slivers, one black and one brown, which are supposed to, ridiculously, represent the majority of the world’s people: and then, only based on skin colour and not on the vast diversity of languages and cultures those hopeless racial categories fail to see. You need to get past your ideological framing buddy. If only you could see. But you just want to go off your head in a tantrum and fling insults. I sometimes see your comments, you consider yourself to be a doyen of elite progressivism. But what you wrote here brings your worldview into disrepute — particularly your unsophisticated and reactionary views on race.

Well Rustygear I did unfortunately reread your comment and previous comments in case I had misinterpreted anything you have said. But no, it is all there, the hate, bigotry and anger at a rainbow roundabout. A harmless old roundabout installed in 2017 in the heart of the city promoting love, harmony and inclusiveness. Just a small act of recognition but with wide-ranging and special meaning to so many people.

The rainbow roundabout was Installed and painted from the contributions of many willing volunteers and is a tribute to our LGBTQ+ community, the successful same-sex marriage plebiscite and the ACT’s thumping Yes vote. Now it has been upgraded to be even more inclusive. An enduring symbol of Canberra’s commitment to inclusion and diversity which we should all be rejoicing.

There will always be those moaning in the media, blaming the government and rainbow roundabout for any perceived injustices. We see that anger, bitterness and bigotry in conservative politics, even in the ACT. It is there for all to see.

That is why the government and its citizens need to be forever vigilant against those wreckers of progressive and inclusive politics to ensure that these hard fought rights are never again removed!!

Jack D: you didn’t address your offensive racist stereotypes about Pacific Islanders. You seem quite happy to slander over a hundred different cultural and linguistic communities to make your point about diversity and inclusiveness. All that was your own doing: my point, once again, is that the roundabout attempts to “include” the bulk of the world’s cultural by painting a black stripe and a brown stripe then proudly proclaiming that’s inclusive. You really can’t see what’s wrong with that, can you?

Look dude, if lbgtqii++ want to paint a roundabout to glorify themselves, it’s a free country. But to then say they’ve now “included” other minority communities by painting brown and black stripes — because you know, ethnics have darker skin tones, and you can divide them up into darker ones and not so dark ones, job done! — is astoundingly racist. But you can’t see it. The lbgtqii++ crowd would have been better to keep their old roundabout, not expose just how appallingly

Jack D, your identity politics is regressive, sorry.

The roundabout in its current state it is not a representation of progress or of equality when the denial of sex is the political and legal strategy of TQ. Sex is a meaningful category for women and for same sex attracted people. Replacing sex with gender identity and/or nebulous ‘inclusion’ changes the meaning and understanding of sex (and gender) and replaces girls and women with gender (as an identity). Denying the category of sex means we could stand to lose its legal protection entirely. Not progressive.

If we cannot name female as distinct from male, if we cannot identify girls and women as people who require sex-based language and law, if we cannot describe the sexist beliefs and attitudes that affect women and girls; how can we fight to keep laws to protect them let alone fight to create new ones in countries that lack specific women’s rights?
To deny sex in any situation, is to deny the global struggle for women’s liberation and demonstrates an extreme lack of solidarity and class consciousness i.e. identity politics.

You are very thin skinned when responding to commentary Rustygear.

The unsavoury, hateful and bigoted commentary we see from you directed at others in these columns over the past number of months.

And not only that, you keep doing it in your responses to me!!