NZ on Air have set up NZ on Screen where you can catch and watch a lot of New Zealand content.
Russell Brown last week discussed a recent Listener article entitled Gay Wrongs?
Section 150 of the Human Rights Act 1993 states clearly that the unlawful discrimination provisions of the act do not apply to charitable benefits.
This crappy little story speaks of everything that's wrong with the Listener now. The next thing Mary Jane Boland writes should be an apology.
The article strongly implied that the trustees of a philanthropic trust, and someone holding public office, have behaved inconsistently with the Human Rights Act. On this false basis, the article then gave Rodney Hide and Anne Tolley the chance to attack Carter and, by extension, the Government.
Lawrence is correct. None of the experts interviewed – including those at the Human Rights Commission – explained charitable trusts are exempt from the act. However, two questions remain: should charities remain exempt and should a minister of the Crown from any party - especially an Education Minister - support a scholarship that benefits some pupils over others?So Mary shows what a useless journalist she is. If she had actually done some simple research she would have found out the answer to the question before wasting any one's time with this pathetic piece of journalism.
This week the Employment Relations Authority report released in which it said the following about Sean Mitchell, Action Media Publisher and Owner:
Mr Mitchell then contacted Gaynz.com where he is quoted as follows:
"[his] conduct was "infantile", and the resulting situation was his own fault"
"I've got no problem with people reading the story, that's fine, but the whole embarrassing thing is that I'm actually not a homophobe and they make it sound like I'm being nasty."While there is always two sides to the story I get the feeling that Mitchell is as "infantile" as the report suggests as he doesn't get it that making offensive gay jokes is not appropriate behaviour for a manager. His claim he is not homophobic also has the feeling of some of my best friends are gay but then continues to make anti gay jokes after he has been asked to stop making them.
"I am happy to talk to anyone to show that I am not homophobic in the slightest. That's the only part of the story that I find personally upsetting,"
Pharmac this week announced that condom subsidies would now include strawberry, vanilla, chocolate and banana condoms, as well as large, extra large, ribbed and supersensitive varieties.
In defending the move Pharmac announced that the overall cost of funding the 9million presubscribed condoms would drop by 10%.
Of course the conservative Family First group was mortified by this move and demanded public executions and spouted their usual nonsense about Pharmac funding pleasure, etc.
It is a typical anti sex nonsense from Family First where sex must be confined to a marriage. Bob of course lives a dream world if he thinks this ever will occur. So the reality is people have sex and will continue to have sex with different people. The more of those people who have sex with condoms the lower the risk of transmission of STDs and HIV transmission amongst the sexually active population.
"It is tragic and a national disgrace that at a time when Pharmac can't find funding for sufferers of breast cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and other serious problems, that they can find funding to subsidise flavoured condoms," says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First."This is not a health and safety issue. It's not about preventing unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases. This is simply about funding sexual behaviour that shouldn't be at the cost of the taxpayer or other more life-threatening medication."
Today a judge gave a suspended sentence to Lam Kuoth after he had earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of recklessly endangering another person.
Various media have picked it up with the Geelong Advertiser headline reading "Reckless HIV lover walks free"
What I find interesting about this case is that the women he had unprotected sex with was 24 and appears to have freely consented to sex.
I find it worrying that a 24 year old women wouldn't insist on him wearing a condom and wonder why this is the case and why she appears to be willing to have unprotected sex. She should be will aware of the risks of sexually transmitted diseases and I find it disturbing that she didn't take some responsibility and insist on protection.
Two recent and unrelated outbursts connecting been gay with been a pedophile shows prejudice and ignorance is alive and well in both New Zealand and Australia.
The outburst in New Zealand was not that surprising coming from Garth Taylor - a member of a conservative Christian group in small town New Zealand.
"They are offering a gay service as well. Most paedophiles are homosexuals, and you know we don't want to bring that here. " - Residents revolt at the idea of a brothelMr Taylor clearly shows his ignorance and prejudices.
As a former Liberal premier of Victoria one wouldn't expect this sort of nonsense been spouted from his mouth equating been gay with been a pedophile.Mr Kennett said it was as if the club had a pedophile trainer.
"It's the same if you have a pedophile there as a masseur, right?"
"And you might say the pedophile would do no damage, but once it was pointed out to you, you have a duty of care to those underage children not to put them in a situation of risk."
Sadly Kennett's comments shows homophobia is alive and well in Australia."I am not a pedophile. Does that mean every straight male doctor cannot treat any female patient?" he said.
On the Queers United blog the Word of the Gay recently was "Buggery".
Of course in New Zealand and Australia the word Bugger is used more as a profanity rather than reference to sodomy.
Great to see a documentary on Tuesday night on SBS at 7:30pm about the Sydney Convict's and Bingham Cup.
Walk Like A Man is a real life drama about real men grunting it out on the sports field; blood, sweat and queers!
Great to see this documentary on at peak time on SBS.
World Youth Day has arrived in Sydney and as an event it is a real misnomer.
Firstly is a week long event so not sure why it is called a day.
Secondly the concept of "World" is very narrow - effectively it is a Roman Catholic event - so don't bother coming if you are Muslim, Greek Orthodox, gay, feminist, believe in abortion rights, condoms and lots more.
Thirdly the church is still dealing badly with the issues of illegal activities by some of the "celibate" male clergy. It is time the church actually stopped listening to it's legal advisers and actually took some action against the priests and acted with compassion to the victims rather than trying to protect the church finances.
To make matters worse the despised NSW State government passed regulations which make it an offence to be "annoying" to a WYD Participate.
That has generated a lot of discussion and helped the various groups who will protest the Pope's visit - see the No to Pope Coalition website.
I stumbled on this new blog - Simply Queer - I have really enjoyed reading it - it speaks of a positive attitude to life which touched me and reminded me of the joy of living.
It is easy at times to get worn down with day to day life but it is the little things that touch you. It was like when I was back in New Zealand for my father's funeral that the warmth of family friends who I hadn't seen for 20 plus years reminded me of the importance of community.
It is sometimes easy when you live in a large city like Sydney to feel isolated from the rest of the world. Oh you have work and friends but your social circle is tight and limited. When you go back to a small town you find people generally warm and welcoming.
I think that is why New Zealand has moved ahead of Australia in recognition of gay rights in that New Zealand is one small community - it isn't six degrees of separation but two - so everyone knows someone who knows someone who is gay. It might be their aunt or uncle, brother or sister or a close friend. That is why you can drive through small towns and find a rainbow flag and a small cafe operated by two gay guys, etc.
I just feels so reaffirming of humanity that the acceptance is there. It also means those who try to decry gays as evil have less of a hearing.
Yes small towns can be someone hard to grow up and can at times feel stiffling they do offer some opportunities if you are willing to be open about who you are.
Chris Brickell was interviewed by Kim Hill this Saturday about his book - New Zealand gay male history: Mates & Lovers.
The audio will be online for a few weeks so take a listen to the interview while it is online.
It is a fascinating interview into his new book which explores gay male history.
Chris Brickell is a senior lecturer in Gender Studies at the University of Otago.
Nothing like a wet day to find some interesting blogs. Two which caught my attention were:
Simply Queer - "Living Simply, Living Queer"
An interesting new blog which explores issues from a queer perspective. Some great posts on forgiveness, money, showing gratitude and more.. It is a new blog but on my must read list.
Queers United - The activist blog Uniting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersexual, Asexual community & Allies in the fight for equality.
While a USA Queer perspective it has some interesting blogs and does cover international issues.
Do you have a favourite blog then just add a comment.
We’re here, We’re queer, and
We’re not going Shopping without Coupons
As I speculated when they seized Bill Henson's photos police have decided not proceed with prosecution.
Interesting the police finally have acknowledged they received only 3 complaints and that the case was likely to be fraught with difficulty. Basically instead of going to the censor for advice they seemed to be driven by talk back radio hysteria. Of course Hetty Johnston wasn't satisfied and the politicians didn't act much better.
In further news this week the arrest of a number of men who accessed child pornography and were been arrested in the past week. The men charged include a police man. Worse still was the disgusting outburst from the Queensland National MP, Vaughan Johnson. This MP seems to pandering to the talk back lynch mob mentality.
I have to agree with Terry O'Gorman, vice-president of the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties who said:
"Politicians are supposed to provide some leadership. He is happy to lead from the gutter and he should be seen in that light."In addition a senior police official was arrested this week for conspiring to import drugs.
Been an interesting few days in Sydney with photos been seized by the police from the walls of an art gallery on the grounds that the art work is pornographic.
While I won't comment on the case what is disturbing is how the politicians are jumping on the bandwagon of condemning the art works - which clearly shows how morally conservative the government is in Australia.
We have the following comments from various politicians:
"Kids deserve to have the innocence of their childhood protected. Whatever the artistic view of the merits of this sort of stuff - frankly I don't thing there are any - just allow kids to be kids." - Prime Minister Kevin RuddThe only politicians to support he artist against the police action has been the Greens and the general art community has been supportive.
"These images were simply not appropriate. This exhibition not only crossed the line but jumped right over it. This is not a debate about censorship - it's about human decency and the moral codes by which we live and raise our kids" - NSW Premier Morris Iemma.
The Australian Anglican church finally has consecrated a women Bishop bringing it as some commentators have said into the 20th century.
Of course Sydney’s Archbishop Peter Jensen did not attend the consecration.
Of course the usual conservative elements have warned of doom and gloom with one Bishop Harry Entwistle saying:
An Anglican splinter group has warned that the consecration of Perth Archdeacon Kay Goldsworthy as Australia’s first woman bishop tonight will pave the way for the appointment of openly gay priests and further deepen the rift between Church factions.What is so funny about his comments is that he uses the the words "openly gay" (or was that just a misquote.)
He said openly gay clergy would follow female bishops “as night follows day”, as had been the case in some parts of the US and Canada.
Today is International Day Against Homophobia and it is still sad that we still need to have a day to try to combat homophobia.
While things are a lot better in a lot of countries and California now recognises gay marriage there is still a long way to go.
In the last couple of weeks I have been travelling and was interested in a comment someone made about Fiji and homophobia. It made me stop and think should I be travelling to a country as a gay man where that country has either laws discriminating against gays or there is an undertone of homophobia.
On reflection I think it doesn't matter where you travel you will always find things which you wouldn't necessary agree with at home but by meeting with people you actually make a difference.
I think it is also true if you actually make the effort to talk to your enemy you might find at least an understanding.
Some issues that I would hope take a step forward in the World this year are:
The Australian government is drafting new legislation to allow employers to read an employee's emails without consent.
The government is saying the legislation is required to protect the internet from cyber attack.
Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, said the legislation was needed because:
I have to wonder what planet Mr McClelland lives on. Any good IT department needs no legislation of this sort as they will already have in place good security protocols to isolate suspect emails and any emails with viruses. A good IT department will also have a means to identify suspicious activity on their network without reading everyone's emails."It's unquestionable that it's necessary from time to time for network supervisors to open emails addressed to people to identify viruses and the like …
"There needs to be protocols and guidelines developed so companies can protect their own networks.
Dale Clapperton, the chairman of Electronic Frontiers Australia, a non-profit group concerned with the rights of individual internet users, was unimpressed.This proposed legislation follows hot on the heels of the proposed filtering of the internet.
"These new powers will facilitate fishing expeditions into employees' emails and computer use rather than being used to protect critical infrastructure," Mr Clapperton said.
"I'm talking about corporate eavesdropping and witch-hunts … If an employer wanted to bone [sack] someone, they could use these powers."
