The only way is to publicly fund hate - Abbott says plebiscite "only way"

Abbott has crawled out from his cesspool and backed his plebiscite captains call on marriage equality. He says it's the "only way" to get marriage equality, despite the much more easily and constantly suggested way of the pollies actually doing their job and having a free vote on the issue. You know, that thing the public employs them to do? Pass legislation according to the will of the people?

But alas Abbott is convinced that a publicly funded campaign of hate against the gay minority is the only way to achieve this. Or I'd say he uses code language to say he just want to put more shit on the gays that he feels so "threatened" by.

I would suggest this plebiscite will cost LGBT lives. It's that serious. But hey who cares eh? We're only a bunch of weird poofs anyway. Since when have the Lieberals, particularly Abbott, cared about the lives of a minority? Yes delay delay, send it off to a committee plebiscite, make the gays jump through more meaningless hoops. They don't deserve to have human rights?

Tony Abbott has warned that if the Senate blocks legislation enabling a same-sex marriage plebiscite he believes there should not be a parliamentary vote, at least not in the next term of parliament. 

In comments to Sky News on Wednesday, the conservative former prime minister framed a plebiscite as the only option to achieve marriage equality, in his last pre-election interview, warning proponents of same-sex marriage not to attempt to force a parliamentary vote. 

It comes as Labor and the Greens refuse to rule out blocking a plebiscite, and numerous Senate and lower-house crossbench MPs similarly refuse to commit to allowing a plebiscite. 

Malcolm Turnbull has not said what he would do if the Senate blocked a same-sex marriage plebiscite, setting up a battle with conservative MPs after the election if he proposes a parliamentary vote, or disappointment from marriage equality proponents if he drops the issue, as Abbott suggested. 

Abbott said the public would feel “ripped off” if legislation backing a plebiscite on same-sex marriage fails to pass the new parliament because “something like 80%” of the public back a popular vote. The Guardian   

.@TonyAbbottMHR says border security has been 'just an intermittent visitor' in this campaign #ausvotes #pmlive https://t.co/3AkcgfW8nO

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 29, 2016

 
That 80% "support" for a plebiscite is a bare faced lie. It's only 40% when people know all the details; cost, mental health issues with the LGBT, and the like.  

A plebiscite on any of these issues is no more than a very expensive opinion poll the results of which parliament is free to accept or reject. 

Given these flaws in this survey, the Prime Minister would be well advised not to rely on a "finding" that 70 per cent of Australians support having a plebiscite on marriage equality. 

A more reliable indication of the level of support for a plebiscite on whether same-sex couples should be allowed to marry is the one released on Monday, which shows that only 40 per cent of Australians support having a plebiscite. A very noteworthy, 30 per cent are undecided, while 30 per cent oppose asking the people to vote on this issue. According to this larger sample, considerably more people oppose having a plebiscite, or have yet to make their minds up, than support it. The survey, organised by the Centre for Applied Political Psychology and RealPoll, had almost 3000 participants and all questions related only to the issue of a plebiscite on marriage equality. The Age

Gays flee homes after signing condolence book Orlando - Ivory Coast, Africa

Their picture was put up on the US Embassy website. Unfortunately the Ivory Coast is extremely gay unfriendly and the picture outed them to people there that didn't know about their sexuality. They weren't told by the US embassy that the pictures would be published online.

Despicable hate from Africa. After signing a book of condolences for the victims of Pulse, the Ivory Coast community responds with more violence.

Gay men in Ivory Coast say they've been assaulted and forced to flee their homes after the U.S. Embassy published a photo of them signing a condolence book for victims of this month's killings at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. 

The photo, published on the embassy's website, shows the faces of six men with the caption "LGBTI community signing the condolence book." It was taken at the embassy on June 16, the same day Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan and other officials signed the book in honor of the 49 people killed in the Orlando attack. 

The photo has been widely shared on social media and two of the men said that in the days after it was published an angry mob punched and kicked them while shouting anti-gay slurs. The men spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for their safety. 

Four of the six men, including the two attacked, said they have fled their homes under pressure from family and friends who had been unaware of their sexual orientation. yakimaherald.com

Many doctors will end bulk billing in July

Typical Lieberals. They've been against Medicare all along.

So where is a pensioner supposed to get $36? How is this going to affect HIV infection rates? If my health clinic starts something like this I simply won't be going. Once in a while for prescriptions. 

Disgusting anti gay marriage add - Australian Christian Lobby

Marriage Alliance iceberg leaflets from ACL video

The comments below the video on YouTube say it all. Including mine BTW.

"Marriage is not for a certain chosen few" it said in the add itself. It contradicts itself saying my partner and I can't be married. What a disgraceful, disgusting and bigoted add.

I note the Australian Christian Lobby is now handing out leaflets produced by that revolting Marriage Alliance, responsible for that ridiculous iceberg add. Note the flyers are the same iceberg add.

There are multiple groups in Australia lobbying against legalising same-sex marriage, but just how connected are they? A video uploaded by the Australian Christian Lobby shows volunteers leafleting with pamphlets that are clearly distributed by the group Marriage Alliance. While the Australian Christian Lobby has existed for years and director Lyle Shelton is no stranger to the media, the Marriage Alliance group launched last year, with little information about who they are, who they represent and how they are funded. Crikey

Murdoch targets GetUp

GetUp has been targeted by Murdoch. They say it was lies. Typical. Those pesky lefties getting in the way of things! Damn democracy!

Our movement has been attacked in a malicious and misleading front page of the Courier Mail.

A group of scammers tested their stolen credit card numbers on our site, as they do on many sites across the web. We detected the fraud quickly and refunded the money within hours.

But in a ridiculous attempt to destroy GetUp's reputation just days out from the election, The Courier Mail splashed: "GETUP FRAUD SCAM!" across half their front page.

This is a blatant attempt to discredit and slander our movement, and threaten our ability to fundraise.

The best way to stop it, is to show them we won't be intimidated. Let's show them this will only power us to do more to take on the radical right-wing in this election, and on Day One of a new government.

Will you chip in to make the Murdoch Press swallow their lies? Contribute here.

 

Gay Vlogger Calum McSwiggan bashed? (updated)

 Instagram

I've been subscribed to his YouTube channel for some time. He's does some very enjoyable and entertaining videos. He's in London, but was visiting the US. 

I'll post a video from him about it when he's up to doing one. I'm not on Instagram so I've linked his Instagram page below the snip (above). 

Strangely, he's been arrested for vandalism with the cops saying he was lying about it all. His arrest pic below :s   His next video should be most interesting.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has an affirmative duty to fully investigate all assaults and reports of violence in our community. Deputies from West Hollywood Station responded to and investigated the report by Calum McSwiggan that he was assaulted by three males after leaving a local nightclub early Monday morning. Responding deputies were unable to substantiate the assault. Mr. McSwiggan, who had no visible injuries, was subsequently arrested after deputies observed him vandalizing a car in the 8900 block of Santa Monica Boulevard. After being booked and photographed, Mr. McSwiggan was placed into a cell by himself at West Hollywood Station. Mr. McSwiggan was then observed injuring himself with the handle and receiver to a payphone inside the cell. Medical personnel were summoned and Mr. McSwiggan was transported to a local hospital for treatment. Mr. McSwiggan’s booking photo was taken prior to deputies seeing Mr. McSwiggan injuring himself. That booking photo is attached Towleroad

Mugshot

 Update:

To reiterate, I did not fake this attack and am absolutely appalled that anyone would suggest or think that I did.

— Calum McSwiggan (@CalumMcSwiggan) June 29, 2016

Update 2: This from one of the three men who walked with him from the pub and saw the whole thing. If it is faked then it certainly does a huge disservice to all those gays who have actually suffered violence and spend years dealing with the consequences of it.

Update 3: He has been charged with filing a false police report. 

Found a perfect description of the Lieberals - consider this election day

We humans who refuse to accept we're simply serfs to Capitalism, that we can have an imput in shaping our society to curb the excesses of the system looking after the vulnerable and minorities, should consider what the core belief is of the Lieberal party. 

To care for our fellow humans has been a part of human evolution. We learned long ago that we did better as a group of people helping each other out for the good of all. Long before the system of Capitalism held us prisoner, humanity existed and evolved with such notions of community welfare and looking after each other. Elders were seen as wise people to go for to get advice and direction, and were well respected as such in said communities. The many and varied facets of humanity were seen as diverse strengths to be tapped and utilised for all. Even on a tribal level this would have been true.

However under Capitalism our humanity is rendered of less influence and we become simply cogs in a machine, the sole purpose of is to make a profit/more capital. 

Believe me I know exactly how that feels after factory work in printing for 30 years. Being just an extension of a machine. Indeed when our whole department was made redundant they referred to us as "units". Wages and entitlements were called "costs". More widely, this is how Capitalism views us; as simply units of production. 

Democratic Socialism sets to have the capitalist system but to put restraints on it. Curb it in such a way as to affect society in a much more human way. To treat people not as units but as human beings part of a community. Workers deserve to benefit from their toil and not be slaves to the system. Elderly and less fortunate aren't abandoned to the scrap heap after they've worn out their ability as a Capitalist unit. The sick, the poor, the weak and vulnerable, aren't seen as "costs" or a "burden" but as people with human relationships.

For those of us continually horrified at the next attack on these people by the Lieberals, we should remember their ideology. That Liberal Democracy is what they believe and the system they want. The Lieberals in 3 successive budgets attacking the poor and sick are simply obeying their beliefs. This gov honestly doesn't care about us. 

Hard to swallow in a country like Australia of which has mostly avoided the hard nosed ideological core of Liberal Democracy, until the Abbott/Turnbull gov came along. Indeed, this hard right style of gov is foreign to us. Those who don't follow politics in Australia (and who will vote on Sat) haven't realised this yet and are oblivious as to just how extreme this gov has been and will be. The Howard gov was leftist compared to this.

Set out plainly in a fascinating article from Gods And Radicals:

The State as the Protector of Capital: Liberal Democracy is ‘Liberal’ on account of its relationship to Capitalism. Though ‘Liberal’ has a very narrow definition in the United States, more broadly it is understood as a position towards the freedom of Markets. Even under ‘conservative’ governments, States privilege the economic activity of wealthy individuals and groups over the potential damage that activity may cause to the poor or less wealthy. Thus, Liberal Democracy guarantees the right to “Private Property” (land and its uses) so that Capitalists can make money and help fund the activities of the State (including wars) through taxes. Gods And Radicals

We should all consider this when we vote this Saturday. Is this the sort of gov we want in power? Do we want the Lieberal system? I consider the real power to lie in the senate BTW.

Lieberals plan to rip $2billion out of welfare after election - eleventy files

They have an eleventy graph

Oh good grief. Here we go again. Can't they at least try to think of something different than the same old script from their tired old playbook?

The Government predicts it will save just over $2 billion by intensifying its efforts to identify welfare fraud, and using technology more effectively to ensure people receiving Centrelink payments and pensions are not overpaid.

The Coalition said the savings would allow it to pay for its election promises, and lift its bottom line by just over $1 billion since the budget in May. ABC

Typical. Dunno where all this supposed money is going to come from. Do these fuckwits have the slightest notion of how hard it is to actually get any money at all out of Centrelink, let alone rip it off? If they're worried about rip offs then why did they can bazillions of Centrelink staff a while back?

In any case, you can't get blood out of a stone. Good luck with that Lieberals. More lies. This from the  #eleventy files, apparently they must have been up all night dreaming up these costings written on half a page:

#eleventy

 BTW, ACOSS is entirely unimpressed. Good luck getting this through the new senate.....

LNP to take from poor & give to rich!
To widen wealth gap & hope for votes from gullible voters! #auspol #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/tzdbog2TfC

— #PutLNPLast (@johndory49) June 28, 2016

 

Lieberal says he will go against his electorate - marriage equality plebiscite

ACT senator Zed Seselja, will not vote with his electorate

Lieberals have been secretly pushing to go against the national plebiscite vote when it comes in as yes, saying they will vote with their conservative electorates if their individual electorates have voted no. 

Well even that's not good enough for ACT Lieberal senator Zed Seselja, who now says that (even though his seat in the Australian Capital Territory will likely vote yes) he won't. Remember the ACT voted in marriage equality. Some gays got married, until the Abbott gov's action in the High Court overturned the ACT decision and those married had their marriages annulled.

Liberal senator for the ACT Zed Seselja confirmed he would probably abstain from voting if the plebiscite was carried, despite his electors being very likely to support same-sex marriage. 

"I would reserve the right to abstain. That would be a very likely scenario in those circumstances," he told ABC radio on Tuesday. Canberra Times

So much for the people deciding eh? 

Will rock & roll make a comeback? - "Another Point of View" (new music)

This century has so far been shit for Rock and Roll. That over produced wailing doof doof seems to have taken over. Hasn't caught my interest much at all.

However new independent musicians are taking new paths to get their music out, by passing traditional record companies. Playing what they want some are reintroducing that old rock and roll sound. I must say it's refreshing.

"In The Wind" has released three songs in anticipation of their soon to be album. You can find them here. 

Take another point of view:

 

BTW, this from 1977 when rock and roll ruled :)


 

"New England, we must vote for climate" - farmer video against mines

Barnaby Joyce has faced much critisism over his ineffectual stand against coal mining, particularly in his electorate of New England where the Shenhua coal mine is planned.

New South Wales farmer of the year has released a video challenging Barnaby on this and is raising money to get it online in New England and see by as many people in the electorate as possible before this Saturday's poll.

You can contribute here to help with this.

Building new coal mines is insanity, let alone in the middle of prime farmland.

In the argy bargy of election campaigns, it’s stories like Kirrily’s that can get people’s attention. Help us make sure action on climate change is front of mind this Saturday in New England. 

The Liverpool Plains is the food bowl of NSW. Kirrily, is the NSW Farmer of the Year and is passionate about protecting the land she loves from coal and gas mining that fuels dangerous global warming. 

We want to put this video on the Facebook news feeds of every New England voter to make sure they know that Barnaby Joyce has failed to protect the land they love. Please chip in to make this video go viral in New England. 

For every $24 we raise, we can get it in front of 1500 New England voters. Contribute here, AYCC

 

Vote for equality for David and I - AME website shows your candidates stance marriage

Australian Marriage Equality has a great website set up that show all the candidate's views on marriage equality or not in your electorate. All you have to do is put in your post code and both the lower house and the senate candidates are shown.

Please vote for David and I this election. AME email below.

Have you had a chance to find out where your local candidate stands on marriage equality? 

Since sending the below email, hundreds of candidates - a record number - have been in touch to let us know they support equality. And many more voters have visited the site to get informed before they vote on Saturday. 

Our website has now been updated with candidate responses, so please take a moment to review the positions of your candidates: www.vote4equality.org.au 

You can also sign up to our automated Vote4Equality email service which will send you an easy to use PDF reminder of candidate positions just prior to the election on Saturday. 

Make your vote count, and Vote4Equality this election! 

Jay Allen Director | Australian Marriage Equality  

Turbull's NBN nodes flooded - Bowral

Um..... Fibre can get wet and doesn't need electricity.

Turnbull's copper from the node to the home needs electricity to work.....

It's been raining a lot in Bowral. 

Most of the FTTP infrastructure being deployed by Labor is what is known as “passive” infrastructure. This infrastructure does not require electricity and can even survive being wet. 

However, most of the FTTN infrastructure being deployed under the Coalition, in particular, is “active” infrastructure. It requires an active electrical power connection. The 30,000 FTTN cabinets, or ‘nodes’ currently being deployed around Australia also come with battery backup capability within the cabinet. 

Such infrastructure is easily disabled by water ingress. Delimiter

Legislate for gay discrimination - Howard

In ex PM John Howard's world, bigots have a new name. He calls them "conscientious objectors", and to call them bigots is to "frighten" and "bully" them into silence. Oh the poor persecuted dears.....     ........the humanity!

Remarkably ironic after what said "conscientious objectors" in Canberra did to the LGBT Safe Schools program which was designed to protect LGBT kids from bullying.

In short, Howard wants to legislate to protect bigots. Cake-makers for example, who god forbid may actually be asked by a gay couple to make a wedding cake for them. Howard suggests that they should be spared this frightening horror bullying by said gay couple in daring to exist in their shop in front of them and asking such a thing, or worse yet actually having to make the cake!

So even when marriage equality gets passed, the bigots still want us separated from the rest of society by law, and treated differently than any other group. Disgusting.

Howard should just crawl back into the hole he peaked out of. He's only the 2nd Australian PM to lose his seat in parliament and I think that says it all. Bloody fossilised moron.

Howard said: “I do think one thing that has to be addressed is the question of proper protection of religious freedom, and freedom of conscience in relation to people who might in a tangential way be affected by this.” 

The reference to people “tangentially affected” by same-sex marriage suggests Howard was referring to people other than ministers of religion, who Labor and the Coalition both agree should not be forced to conduct gay weddings. 

Last week, the attorney general, George Brandis, refused to rule out exemptions to anti-discrimination law which would allow bakers, photographers, venue owners and others to refuse to provide services for gay weddings. 

Labor has already ruled out supporting such changes. 

Howard reiterated his opposition to marriage equality, and said opponents should not be “frightened or bullied into silence” by accusations of bigotry. The Guardian 

Are we living in a secular democracy or a bloody theocracy FFS?

My prediction for election victory June 2nd - The Senate

Turbull's whole reason for going to this election in the first place was to get a more friendly senate dominated by the major parties and get his fascist ABCC legislation through to clobber the building unions. Alas for him it appears he has well and truly shot himself in the foot in that regard. The senate looks very much like being even more of a house of review than it was before. 

That pesky thing called democracy will fuck up either party that gains office. Turnbull already knows this, and has gone on an extraordinary attack on the senate independents telling voters not to vote for them as it will be chaos.

Turnbull described a vote for independents as “a roll of the dice” and specifically urged people not to vote for senators Jacqui Lambie, Nick Xenophon, Glenn Lazarus and the Queensland Senate candidate Pauline Hanson.

The prime minister and the treasurer urged a vote for stability, particularly after the UK decision to leave the European Union.

But polling has showed Lambie could win two Senate spots in Tasmania at the expense of the Liberal tourism minister, Richard Colbeck. Lambie’s running mate is the Devonport mayor, Steve Martin.

Xenophon’s party, the Nick Xenophon Team, could pick up a swag of lower-house seats in South Australia, including Mayo, Grey, Boothby and Barker as well as a number of seats in the Senate in a double-dissolution election designed to clear out the Senate crossbenchers. The Guardian

It's hardly likely that voters are going to listen to him. I said at the very start of this campaign that Australians are loath to give a gov control of both houses of parliament. Last time that happened we got Howard's extreme WorkChoices that clobbered workers left, right and centre. Does Turnbull honestly think that we'll give his clown show the same power again? What delusional arrogance! 

Needless to say we will not. 

More insight into the likely outcome of the new senate form the AFR, with neither major party having a senate majority and having to rely on the Greens and independents to pass any legislation:

An analysis by The Australia Institute of the major published opinion polls and backed by ABC election expert Antony Green show that both a Labor and a Coalition government will struggle to get its legislation through the Senate. 

In essence, both major parties will have to take some unlikely bedfellows if they are to govern for the next three years. 

The current best estimates of the Senate make-up put the Coalition at 32 spots, Labor 26, and the Greens 9. If the eight Senate crossbenchers from the 2013 election was a chaotic experience, polling currently shows we're headed for nine crossbenchers including up to six from the Nick Xenophon team. 

With 39 votes needed to pass legislation, the Coalition will have to get the support of either Labor, the Greens or seven members of the crossbench including the Xenophon bloc. 

Labor faces an even more daunting task if it wins the election. On every occasion it is challenged by Coalition senators, it would need the help of the Greens and four of the crossbenchers. Australian Financial Review

With the most recent polls pointing to perhaps a narrow Lieberal win in the lower house this Saturday, we can rest assured their power will be severely limited. 

Best add of this election - Australian Sex Party on the Catholics :)

Utterly, utterly, just bloody brilliant! What a pleasure it is to see the Catholic church called out for what it is.

The song is really catchy too :)

 

So much at stake, make sure your voice matters - GetUp (video)

A GetUp volunteer tells of her years as an Australian and how the country has changed direction in the last 15 or so years. How our politicians have become mean and nasty, uncaring about the plight of the less fortunate and hard nosed ideologues. Love and compassion, particularly under the Lieberals, has almost become a dirty word.

I've said it many times here, the way the hard right christians in Canberra have firmly stood in the way of marriage equality, it seems they wouldn't know love if it came up and bit them on the ass. Standing in the way of David and I's love; a metaphor for the whole Lieberal party.

This isn't the Australia I found when I arrived here from New Zealand in 1985. Australia was a progressive country at the forefront of social reforms. Today in 2016 we don't even have marriage equality.

Make sure your vote counts this Sat. 

Vote for love, not hate.

 

Onfographic for the christians who still demonise the LGBT :)

This has evidently been going around Facebook for some time.

I hereby dedicate this to Scott Morrison and the hateful band of christians in the Lieberal party, the poor dears barely able to cope with the persecution they enduring as middle aged white heterosexual christian men in position of power.

My recomendation is just to skip to the last one in blue on the right :) 

Talk of a same-sex marriage plebiscite has prompted warnings of abusive language ... towards politicians #ausvotes https://t.co/zlVOD5Llmj

— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) June 25, 2016

 

Father wouldn't claim son's body of Orlando massacre - because he was gay

More love from the christians....

All the bodies have been returned to their families for burial after the Orlando shootings. However one had to be returned to relatives as the father wouldn't claim his son's body because his son was gay and the father was too ashamed.

I can't imagine how a person could so such a horrible thing. 

“We effectively and efficiently completed the identification, notification and autopsy process within a 72-hour period – a monumental task,” according to an earlier statement by OCME, which worked with the Florida Emergency Mortuary Operations Response System to complete the gruesome task. 

But it was touch and go for one particular shooting victim whose father didn’t want to claim the body. Because the son was gay. Because the father was ashamed. Finally and after much convincing, the body was released to Orlando-area relatives and he has been buried.

This young man shall remain anonymous so as not to further victimize the deceased, who was Puerto Rican. But Orlando Latino confirmed the information with several sources. The tale is part of the untold stories of the Latino victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre. 

............................................... 

In 2009, Puerto Rico’s Senate president alleged during a radio interview that a fellow senator was like “el petardo que no explota” or like a firecracker that doesn’t explode, insinuating he was gay. The statement was denounced by pro LGBT groups. 

Perhaps this why it took pop star Ricky Martin a while before declaring his sexual orientation. He is now the most famous gay Puerto Rican and no doubt his coming out in 2010 helped many others to do the same. In Puerto Rico, everybody loves Ricky Martin – he is famous, wealthy, good looking and more. 

But nobody knew the Orlando shooting victim. No coming out on Oprah for him. And the victim’s family – or at least his father –didn’t accept the son’s sexual orientation, adding further insult to the sad and sensational circumstances of his death. Orlando Latino

This is where religious intolerance leads; to a father so ashamed of his son that he won't even claim his body after death.

"Tony you brought to an end the chaos" - Turnbull's bare faced lie

Far out. What a fake!

Fake leader, fake compliments, fake party, and fake campaign launch. This bare faced lie is a metaphor for all things Lieberal. They actually think we're so stupid as to swallow such an enormous turd of a lie as this.

The prime minister noted the "distinguished" men who came before him - John Howard and Mr Abbott - as he launched the party's bid less than a week out to polling day. 

"Tony you brought to an end the chaos and dysfunction of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years and you remain a dedicated advocate for our cause," 

Mr Turnbull told the gathering in the marginal Liberal-held inner-western Sydney seat of Reid. "John and Tony we salute you." ninemsn

Stupendously fecal.

Yes folks, less than a week until we vote and their bullshit is increasing and further away from reality. Well I guess that's what we should expect. Remember election eve in 2013?

The sad fact is that the only reason Abbott said that was because Lieberal polling confirmed that the Labor attack claiming Lieberal cuts was having an effect. In essence Abbott just said whatever he had to to get over the line. 

He lied, just like Turnbull's bare face lie today.  Hoping like hell we'll believe it.

 

Hate pastor Anderson hissy fit! - PayPal etc shut down by activists :)

Death to gays hate pastor Anderson in the US has chucked a very strange hissy fit in his church over activists avenging his his hate by somehow having his PayPal account shut down, along with all the others they tried to open. He blames teh gayz, but who knows? Could be the work of Anonymous? Perhaps an LGBT Anonymous?

So Anderson does this total freak out. Jumps up on the pulpit and points in the air. Christian love at it's finest folks :s

 

"How did you get it?" - an invasion of privacy, intrusive

It's like people can't help themselves. When you disclose that you're HIV+ to them, often one of the first things is the question. "How did you get it?". As if that has some sort of bearing on how they'll look at your HIV. 

The inference is that if you got it through unsafe sex or drug injecting, then you deserved to get it? That you should feel terrible guilt about getting it? If you got it through a blood transfusion years back, or by some needle stick injury in healthcare somehow, then you didn't deserve to get it? That you shouldn't feel any guilt about getting it?

The simple fact is that nobody should feel guilty about having HIV. How you got it is irrelevant. To feel such guilt is to cement the stigma that comes with the question "How did you get it?"

Is that question asked for other serious illness? Cancer? Diabetes? MS? Stroke? Heart attack? 

Like anyone else, people with HIV grapple with many things in life. For some these things include judgement, stigma and discrimination. I recently heard that an ambulance officer attending a person who disclosed he was HIV positive, blurted out – “how did you get it?” This is not an uncommon question. How anyone becomes HIV positive is no one else’s business but the person with HIV. Nevertheless, this needless intrusive question comes from those we least expect to pry. 

An Aboriginal woman I recently spoke with lives in fear of her community knowing her very painful secret. She is fearful of being stigmatised because of how she caught HIV. As she said, “it’s embarrassing but people want to know.” I wondered to myself about the burden she was obviously carrying and how unfair that was. If she had cancer there would be a completely different response. Her level of vigilance and caution has severe impacts on her health, like many other HIV positive people living in rural and regional areas in small communities. 

Most HIV transmissions are passed on during sexual intimacy that doesn’t always fit within what others see as the ‘norm’. Heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual, we lock people into stereotyped boxes of sex and gender. The more we define, the tighter the box gets and the greater the likelihood of treating people as different or ‘other’. Along the continuum of sexual orientation, the reality is we are all at risk of being marginalised by another group of people. 

Sometimes people will choose to live a lie for fear of being thought of in a stigmatising way. This isn’t just HIV causing this. It is misinformed and ignorant people judging other people and discrimination, pure and simple. The worst of this is what I call ‘homogeneous discrimination’, or ‘like discriminating against like’. For example, gay people against gay people or straight people against other straight people. If you’re bisexual or transgender, this experience is a very isolating experience. The truth is there is always someone living with HIV not very far from you. You just won’t know. Positive Life  

Online HIV stigma survey - Australia

If you're HIV+ and living in Australia, the University of New South Wales is doing an important survey of HIV stigma in Australia. Getting HIV+ people to give answers to survey's such as this help the gov to develope policies to address the issues involved.

The survey is here. Take about 15 minutes to complete. 

 

Big marriage equality rally in Sydney now - live tweeted Same Same

*click to enlarge

Apparently this is the biggest one is years. Happening now. Live tweets here at Same Same. https://twitter.com/samesame

I thought about going but get a bit burnt o0ut protesting over and over again for zero result in Canberra. *sigh* 

Off we go! Sydney's biggest #marriageequality rally in years. Our message is loud and clear. #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/iP810UY87p

— SameSame.com.au (@samesame) June 25, 2016

 

Lieberals secret move to torpedo plebiscite on gay marriage

More love from the Canberra christians...

So I guess the cristian extremists in the Lieberal gov are aghast that there is much support for marriage equality in Australia. Can't have that you know, poofs getting married, just not on what. 

There is reportedly a secret move within the Lieberals to try and torpedo the whole plebiscite by sort of making it into a bit like a referendum type thing; that is by saying if a particular state had an overall vote of no then all ministers in that state would be OK to vote no if they so desired. 

A secret push is under way within the Coalition party room to hobble any positive public vote in favour of same-sex marriage equality by giving conservative MPs and senators express permission to vote in Parliament against reform if their individual electorates had voted in a majority for "no".

Senators would be able to claim the exemption from a national "yes" vote if their home states had voted "no".

The ploy, which was to be kept under wraps until after the election, has been crafted to allow conservative anti-marriage equality campaigners to concentrate their resources in conservative-leaning regional and outer-suburban electorates where there is the greatest chance of winning enough individual contests to frustrate an expected popular vote, in Parliament.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is coming under increasing pressure to outline the precise details of the same-sex marriage equality plebiscite, which he says he fully expects will succeed when it is held sometime before the end of 2016 – assuming he is re-elected. Sydney Morning Herald

So WTF is it then? A plebiscite they want or a referendum? And what other hoops do we Australians have to jump through for David and I to marry? 

It's increasingly becoming clear that the only way to get marriage equality in Australia is to get rid of this gov. Whether that will happen next Saturday remains to be seen.

And for the ultimate stupidity, the current parliament already has enough votes to pass marriage equality, if the Lieberals were allowed a free vote. Yet for the Lieberals to have a free vote they want to spend $500million on a plebiscite that they don't even have to be bound to, which will tell us what we all know anyway. That around 70% of Australians are fine with David and I getting married. 

Marriage equality proponents have long been keeping an eye on the numbers in parliament, and announced some months ago that in a free vote in the current parliament that marriage equality would pass. Turnbull is lying when he says there wasn't enough support in this parliament, there was. The only thing standing in the way was the free vote and the christians in the party who didn't want it.

Malcolm Turnbull has offered a bizarre explanation for why he will now allow Coalition MPs to have a free vote on same-sex marriage after the plebiscite, a move that will let them ignore its result.

He says there was “probably not support” for same-sex marriage in the last parliament, on a free vote basis – implying he thinks support for same-sex marriage will increase among parliamentarians after the election.

But he then admitted he does not know what the next parliament will look like.

He encouraged voters not to worry, saying he “knows parliamentarians well enough” to know that they will respect the will of the people – a view that contradicts his original point about MPs in the former parliament.

Turnbull announced on Friday that Coalition MPs would be allowed a free vote after the plebiscite. The decision provoked outrage from opponents of the poll, who said a free vote exposed the pointlessness of the $160m exercise.

Australian Marriage Equality national spokeswoman, Shirleene Robinson, said her organisation had “always supported a free vote in parliament on marriage equality”. “If the next parliament holds a costly and unnecessary plebiscite on marriage equality and it’s passed, then the Australian people will expect their wishes to be respected,” she said.

The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, questioned the point of the “divisive, wasteful plebiscite” following the free vote announcement. The Guardian 

So WTF is the point of wasting time, money, and the mental health of the LGBT on a plebiscite? 

pic.twitter.com/4aQYS2Iatg

— Shelley Argent OAM (@Shelley_Argent) June 25, 2016

Findings from @PFLAG POLL on overrated #Plebiscite and drop in support @AMEQUALITY #LGBT #FreeVote please#Libs pic.twitter.com/SVWIJnDjXX

— Shelley Argent OAM (@Shelley_Argent) June 25, 2016