To Australia's LGBT in the new year

To all LGBT who have struggled through the year of shit handed to this by the far right assholes, may we all find better in 2018 :)

Happy New Year folks 💋 pic.twitter.com/G7kZtY6oSo

— Pauline Pantsdown (@PPantsdown) December 31, 2017

 

Intense back pain muscle spasms causing panic attacks

Far out, what a couple of terrible days I've had. It started after I typed that longish last post of my submission to the religious freedoms review. I don't usually type that long on the PC and I'm not a very fast typer either. So doing that involved a couple of hours of leaning forward over the keyboard. Silly me should have taken a break. After those decades of work my back is rather fragile these days.

A few hours later the pain started in my upper and middle back, which quickly got worse turning into severe muscle spasms. The pain was so bad it caused panic attacks when I tried getting up to do anything; shortness of breath and fast breathing, very hot and sweating, numbness in my hands and feet, tightness in the chest, feeling sick and wanting to throw up, and feeling weak and having to lie down. Good grief :s

Spent nearly all of yesterday laid up in bed, inhaling panadol and rubbing heat cream onto me. About half a box of Panamax later, and half a large tub of Metsel cream I've managed to get myself out of the bed today with the pain somewhat reduced. Didn't get a wink of sleep last night until I finally conked out from the Panamax at about 7am. It was worst in the middle right of my back just below the shoulder blade, which is of course where I couldn't reach.

Certainly in the future I'll be more aware about taking breaks from typing at the computer. Looks like I did a good job on the submission though as consolation. Surprised it's gotten a lot of views. Don't forget you can make a submission yourself to the religious freedoms review here. The more of us raise our voices on this the better. Remember what they tried on in parliament too, trying to make it legal for a commercial business to deny service to David and I for no other reason than our sexuality. We can't have our anti-discrimination laws that protect us rolled back like that! 

My submission to the inquiry into "religious freedom"

This is my submission to the inquiry they are embarking on into religions freedom. I would like to mention it's very personal, but for very good reason. The religious freedom inquiry is a reaction from the far right of the gov after marriage equality passed the parliament; it would never have happened otherwise. Therefore it's an attack on LGBT Australians across the country, including David and I. We don't want Australian states to have their anti-discrimination laws protecting David and I overruled by federal law that says we can be refused service by commercial businesses on the grounds of their religious beliefs to our sexuality.  

 Hello panel of the religious freedoms review,

I and my partner are a gay couple in eastern Sydney who both have HIV. We have been together for over 5 years now, fell in love straight away and been wanting to get married for some years now. I personally have paid close attention to the marriage equality process where our existence and lives were discussed almost casually in public national forums. Although marriage equality eventually passed the parliament it came at a very high price for the LGBT community. For some of us the pain generated by the postal survey will be with us for years to come. Some LGBT have called it the worst time of their lives. I'm sure some thought of suicide during it; likely young LGBT as it turns out in western Sydney where a block of 12 electorates voted no. That issue alone needs to be addressed with ongoing support for young LGBT in western Sydney and educational programs among the cultural diversity about the demonisation of us during the postal survey. Tony Abbott himself even spoke at the western Sydney Maronite christian church at a mass meeting of theirs, some of the congregantes being the ones that vandalised gay Sydney murals in eastern Sydney's Newtown after the Yes vote won.

In short the LGBT are on their ass at the moment still trying to pick ourselves up after the venom that was released by the postal survey. Both my partner David and I have been affected by the idea of even the haters of us "having their say" about our lives and our love. I wouldn't wish such a thing on my worst enemy. I was particularly affected out of the two of us as at 55 I have a very thick skin and would often enter discussion online. However even I was surprised at the level of shear hate against us. The worst of it was a reply to me under an Australian Christian Lobby video of Lyle Shelton opposing marriage equality because of his christian views. In another ACL video someone that agreed with me got a reply of a death threat. After that the ACL didn't allow comments anymore on it's YouTube videos.

This is what we've gone through just to get equal rights with the rest of society. We have suffered discrimination for decades and had to fight against it every step of the way. Only to have that hatred and discrimination thrown at us all over again at the marriage equality hurdle put in front of us by this gov. Scott Morison says he's had enough of religion being disrespected and mocked, and he even calls that "discrimination" putting it on the same par as LGBT discrimination. What an insult to all LGBT people who have had loved ones lose their lives over the years because of discrimination with much of their local community against them! David's first partner was murdered in a horrific gay hate crime, Wayne Tonks. How dare religion talks to us about their so called "discrimination"; they don't know the meaning of the word. Religion is an idea created by man; a belief system if you will. Being gay is simply who we are; it's not our belief system but the core of our being.

David and I have personally suffered discrimination and had to take legal action to address the issues. David suffered discrimination in the health profession (he's a nurse by trade) in an Healthscope private hospital in Sydney when nurses became aware he was HIV positive. Believe it or not most of the discrimination against HIV Australians happen in the health profession. He took legal action through the ACON legal centre and ended up in the NSW anti-discrimination board in a conciliation process facing off against the directer of the hospital. With NSW anti-discrimination laws on his side the director had no choice but to capitulate. He won some lost wages but not much. The point being he won against a multinational corporation and it was a miracle he did so. All because of Australian law that protected him. BTW the discrimination event was so damaging to David that he hasn't worked since. He became my carer as I'm on the Disability Support Pension for too many reasons for me to go in to here. David being discriminated against affected him that deeply, despite the psychological treatment and medication he gets. That's what real discrimination does to people. It doesn't simply offend them, it destroys them.

I also had an episode of discrimination. In fact it was in the heart of gay Sydney at the Oxford Hotel at Taylor Square, you know, across the road from the big gay flag flying and the big corner of the Sydney gay and lesbian Mardi Gras. David and I thought we'd have a drink there before getting a taxi home. I lost interest after the bouncer became negative (neither of us had had too much to drink and we could have stayed where we were and got more drinks) and I started walking away calling David. Long story short the bouncer told David when I was out of earshot "You can come in but I'm not letting that fag in" referring to me. We again ended up communicating with the NSW anti-discrimination board over this. It took some months but we finally got a groveling apology from management over the incident after much denial, with the bouncer being fired from both the pub and the security company he worked for. I communicated with gay Sydney state MP Alex Greenwich about the whole thing along the way who was surprised that such a thing could happen in this day and age on Oxford St in the heart of gay Sydney, but the fact of the matter is simply that it did, in 2016.

I say this because the simple facts are that LGBT still suffer discrimination in Australia, even though it's against the law. The burden appears to always fall on us to take action when such discrimination happens, even now in 2017. Any unwinding of Australia's state anti-discrimination laws would bring untold grief and despair to LGBT across the nation. To give commercial businesses the right to not serve us because the bible would be both unthinkable and a tragedy for our human rights.

I ask that you consider that our society is a secular one and not one ruled by theocracy. That secularism is what provides religion with freedom of religion. I ask you consider that the rights of any minority are equal to the rights of any religious institution. I ask that you consider David and I in your deliberations. I ask that you consider humanity, and not just that of churches.

We're tired and wounded. We're not dangerous. To religion or anyone. We're no threat to society's foundations. We're just people like you are. We just want to live our lives and be with who we love. Religious folk can still have their religion, that's not any of our concern.

Australia's worlds biggest battery already exceeding expectations

Elon Musk's world's biggest battery built in South Australia is already  responding to outages in electricity production from fossil fuel sources in record time. It appears to be much more reliable, cheaper, and quicker than coal fired power stations can compete with. So stick that in your coal fired pipe RWNJ's and smoke it :)

Less than a month after Tesla unveiled a new backup power system in South Australia, the world's largest lithium-ion battery is already being put to the test. And it appears to be far exceeding expectations: In the past three weeks alone, the Hornsdale Power Reserve has smoothed out at least two major energy outages, responding even more quickly than the coal-fired backups that were supposed to provide emergency power. 

Tesla's battery last week kicked in just 0.14 seconds after one of Australia's biggest plants, the Loy Yang facility in the neighboring state of Victoria, suffered a sudden, unexplained drop in output, according to the International Business Times. And the week before that, another failure at Loy Yang prompted the Hornsdale battery to respond in as little as four seconds — or less, according to some estimates — beating other plants to the punch. State officials have called the response time “a record,” according to local media. The Washington Post  

Hilarious pic of Abbott eating with the poor :)

 This would have to be a contender for the best Australian political photo of the year (if there is such a competition) the look on the persons s face next to Abbott is absolutely priceless!

Abbott's book "Battleines" ignominious demise :)

I think this pretty well sum's up the level of support Australian's have for the far right policies of this gov :)

Bizarre Star Wars christmas lights display (video)

WTF? Good grief :s  And when you thought you'd seen everything.....

 

Sydney born man faces homophobic abuse at petrol station (video)

How far have we really come? Oh but of course religion needs "protection" from us :s

*Note, either my PC or Turnbull's internet appears to have a problem playing this video on my blog. If it doesn't play for you then just click the Twitter icon to go to the original Twitter post*

Anyone know this guy? I want to send his Mum an invite to my next art exhibition, which will feature THIS HIDEOUS CREATURE. Number plate DDC 45L. @Channel7 @QandA @ABCTV @9NewsAUS @DailyMailAU @SkyNewsAust @nswpolice pic.twitter.com/axE4FaTkAA

— BRENDAN de la HAY (@brendandelahay) December 20, 2017

Morrison vows to defend christianity in 2018, post marriage equality

In an end of year interview treasurer Scott Morrison has vowed to defend christianity in the wake of marriage equality becoming law, and to push for so called "religious freedoms" in the review into religious protections to be conducted by the gov. You can make a submission to that inquiry here.

To LGBT it's entirely bizarre that just because we gain equal rights then religion wants to be protected from us. Protected from what? David and I loving each other and having that recognised by law? Big whoop. Grow a fuckin spine. Criticism against religion isn't discrimination. Religious belief isn't about who you are, it's about a belief system open to discussion in the competition of ideas. It's an insult to us LGBT to have that compared to discrimination that we've suffered going right to the core of our being.

Morrison claims that christians are being discriminated against when people mock it and make jokes about it. What a bloody snowflake! Cry me a fuckin river! As far as I'm concerned, after the findings of the royal commission into child sex abuse, and the damage done to the LGBT community (particularly in the last couple of years in Australia) in the name of their religion, it beggars belief that religion now would claim they need protection from us and to be respected for what they've done to us.

Such "protections" would simply enforce their discrimination against us putting it in to law. They want their discrimination against us to be enforced by secular law. What a disgusting group of people. FFS why can't they just leave us alone.

Scott Morrison says he will fight back against discrimination and mockery of Christians and other religious groups in 2018, in comments that position him as one of the leading religious conservatives in the Turnbull government. 

Mr Morrison also promised to play a leading role next year in the debate about enshrining further "protections" for religious freedom in law, which will be informed by a review currently being led by former Attorney-General Philip Ruddock. \

The Treasurer said he had made a conscious decision to "call out" discrimination and to stand up for people of faith.

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

"And I'm just gonna call that out. With what I've seen happen in the last year, I've just taken the decision more recently, I'm just not going to put up with that any more, I don't think my colleagues are either." 

"Where I think people are being offensive to religion in this country – whichever religion that might be, but particularly the one I and many other Christians subscribe to – well, we will just call it out and we will demand the same respect that people should provide to all religions." 

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

The Sydney MP also opened up about what it meant to receive the thanks of Christian groups, such as at a recent meeting with Maronite Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay, "who were pleased someone stood up for them, and spoke with them, and understood their point, and didn't forsake them". Sydney Morning Herald   

Note in the last paragraph is mentioned he was thanked by the Maronite christian church, it's members being the one's responsible for the vandalism of gay murals in the eastern suburbs recently. 

I think I need a new computer :s

I got a bit of money out of my super in October under financial hardship and there's still some left. We've not bothered going out to Oxford St as it's so fucked up these days it ends up an unpleasant experience too many times. The plus side is that the bit I got out still hasn't been spent.

So my PC appears to be on it's last legs. There's nothing really wrong with it but it doesn't seem to be able to handle the rigors that Windows 10 is continually chucking at it. Recently there was a major update that took bloody hours and ever since then the PC has been shitting itself and doing weird and strange things. For example freezing and coming up with cryptic windows messages. *sheesh* 


It's bad enough that I'm dealing still with an ADSL connection in 2017 in the middle of Sydney's eastern suburbs, but to have a PC contributing to that is just unacceptable.


The thing is nearly 5yrs old so I'm very attached to it. I don't want to get another PC and go through the meticulous task of setting it up with all my programs and hardware installed. It's a bloody great hassle which I can do without. But what choice do I have? The software has gone beyond it's capacity. I need to stay connected without spending half the time battling with my PC.


Alas, I must send this one to retirement. Luckily Boxing Day sales are imminent. My new PC will be an HP as they're the most reliable I've experienced. It certainly won't be a dead shit Dell!

To LGBT who don't feel welcome with family this xmas (video)

It's been a very tough year for LGBT Australians. We were thrown to the wolves by a a dysfunctional homophobic gov and told to fend for ourselves/"grow a spine". Many of us would have known that our own families had voted against our lives. Yet now at christmas we're expected to forgive and move on. 

Likely for many of us that's just impossible. Our pain is real and should be recognised.

For those of us feeling alienated and unwelcome going "home" this christmas, this song is for you. You have a new family now; us :)

"It wasn't easy telling my parents that I'm gay..." pic.twitter.com/UhPBAF3wXc

— 🏳️‍🌈LGBTPlusProud🏳️‍🌈 - Be You (@LGBTPlusProud) December 20, 2017

 
 

Relationship quality higher with gay couples than hetro - Australia (study)

I've been in both and in love with both, this time David. David and I get on marvelously, not to say we don't have the odd argument. I mean we are men both with strong wills. But at least we think the same way in sorting things out. It's likely a bit of a stereotype but it's generally considered that men are problem solvers whilst woman think more emotionally? 

Whatever the reasons, a new study has found that Australian same sex relationships have a higher quality than straight ones. Personally I think that has a lot to do with Aussie culture; the pressure on men to behave tough, not cry, not not show emotion, don't be weak, etc. It invariably leads to conflict with a woman partner who wants emotional closeness with Aussie men trained not to show emotion.

As much as I loved my late wife staying and caring for her to the end of her life, we did have this conflict ourselves. "You don't share your feelings" she would often say, whilst I was up to my eyeballs in full time physical work and caring for both her and my daughter. We loved each other deeply, at the same time there were occasions we seemed to be on different plains.

The study included subjects from both Australia and the UK. In the UK there was no difference in relationship quality between straight and gay couples, but in Australia there was.  Both the UK and Australia didn't have marriage equality during the study period.

Fourth, some of the patterns in the data differed between Australia and the United Kingdom. For example, the relationship quality of gay or lesbian individuals is comparable to that of heterosexual individuals in the United Kingdom, but much higher than that of heterosexual individuals in Australia. Also, the negative effect of bisexuality on relationship quality is stronger in Australia than the United Kingdom. These and other observed differences highlight how institutional contexts can play a part in influencing how individuals' sexual identities determine their relationship outcomes. We theorized that normative attitudes toward gay and lesbian people and the availability of equal rights concerning family processes (particularly marriage) would be important contextual factors moderating the relationship between sexual identity and relationship quality. Neither country had legalized same-sex marriage before the data we used were collected, but individuals in Australia held more favorable attitudes toward gay and lesbian people than did individuals in the United Kingdom (PEW Research Center, 2013). This might explain why the relationship quality outcomes observed for gay and lesbian individuals relative to heterosexual individuals were better in Australia than in the United Kingdom. 

Fifth, in addition to the findings on sexual identity and consistent with previous literature (Bradbury et al., 2000), we find that women report lower levels of relationship quality than men in Australia and the United Kingdom. Although this is not a new finding, it is based on recent nationally representative data and adds confidence to our measures. Interestingly, in the United Kingdom this gender difference reverses for gay and lesbian individuals, with lesbian women reporting better relationship quality than gay men. This suggests that the relatively poor relationship quality reported by heterosexual women may be driven by being partnered to a man rather than by being women. Wiley Online Library  

20 countries sign to phase out coal by 2020 - Australian emissions rise 3rd yr in a row

 As Australia's federal gov continues to cling to coal for dear life whilst trying to smother renewable energy, all the while pushing and pushing to build the largest coal mine in the southern hemisphere, a group of 20 countries have signed up to an agreement called the Powering Past Coal Alliance, promising to phase out all coal by 2030. Countries included in this are New Zealand, just across the Tasman from us. 

Twenty countries including Britain, Canada and New Zealand have joined an international alliance to phase out coal from power generation before 2030.

The Powering Past Coal Alliance was unveiled at the COP23 climate talks in Bonn, Germany, which were working out the technical details of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

 "I think we can safely say that the response has been overwhelming," Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said. "There is so much momentum, there is so much ambition in this room."

The alliance, which isn't legally binding, was launched days after a pro-coal presentation by the Trump administration jarred with many ministers who wanted the talks to focus on cleaner energy sources.

Australia isn't part of the alliance, which also doesn't include some of the world's biggest coal users China, India, the United States, Germany and Russia.

 Coal is responsible for more than 40 per cent of global emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. ABC

Predictably green house emissions under this gov have continued to rise. It's like they don't care and still don't believe in climate change. They've done everything they can to torpedo renewable energy at a federal level, beginning with the repeal of the carbon tax not long after the Abbott gov came to power. Now, for the third consecutive year, Australia's greenhouse emission have risen again. An obvious consequence of this gov's blind obsession with coal.

What’s happening with Australia’s carbon pollution? 

 A key way to track how Australia is going in terms of reducing pollution is to look at the Department of the Environment and Energy’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventor (to see if carbon pollution is increasing or decreasing). Unfortunately, the government has been hanging onto this data and has partially released a backlog of emissions data today. Turns out Australia’s emissions are still going up. 

• Emissions update: Australia’s carbon pollution continues to rise. Australia’s carbon pollution levels have increased for a third consecutive year, as confirmed by the the Department of the Environment and Energy today. The Quarterly Update for June 2017, released today shows a 0.7% rise in greenhouse gas pollution between July 2016 and June 2017. The update of the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory data again highlights Australia’s failure to cut greenhouse gas pollution. 

• Emissions projections: Projected emissions to 2030 have been revised down, taking into account a range of new assumptions such as lower electricity demand, falling technology costs, and lower demand for resources. Climate Council

 

Natasha and Cloe pics :)

*click to enlarge

Just a couple of pictures. The above is Cloe in the box seat (cat viewing platform at the back door). Last few days she's been sleeping there for hours. Maybe the heat as it's been rather warm in Sydney lately. She's not grown much and remains a real cutie. Even satisfied noises purrs sound like a Star Trek tribble.

Below is Natasha on her favourite cushion on the old lounge the other night when I was watching telly in the next chair. She just loves anything fluffy like that :) 

 

Byelection Liberal winner says disabled have no pride (video)

Federal Liberal John Alexander has held on to his seat of Bennelong despite a 7.5% swing to Labor's Kristina Keneally. Hardly an endorsement of the Turnbull gov but of course Turnbull is screaming from the rooftops that it is.

The victory speech was marred by an Alexander lead balloon however, where he insulted disabled people. He said he wouldn't get a disabled parking sticker for his car when he was sick, because he "still had some pride". That's obviously how he views us disabled, as sick people with no pride. What an asshole. 

Disabled people often face discrimination because of their disability. Particularly someone with HIV, that discrimination very evident online during the postal survey. The last thing we need is a gov minister reinforcing stereotypes whilst the prime minister smiles along with him.

Where the Prime Minister of Australia chortles at the odious suggestion people with disabilities have no pride #auspol

PM🎩 is unfit for the office he holds. If the Liberals won't or can't remove him, then we all know what we have to do... pic.twitter.com/sSOG3BV7g1

— Kimberley Kitching🌈 (@kimbakit) December 17, 2017

 

How much "religous freedoms" do they want? - paedophilia priests protected by Catholic church

*click to enlarge

Update: Catholic Church dismisses child abuse reforms

At a time when the far right bitter middle aged white Catholic men in Canberra are pushing for religious freedom protection in response to the passing of marriage equality, the 5 year royal commission into institutional child sex abuse in Australia concluded it's long task. Despite investigating many institutions, the inquiry became an investigation into the Catholic church; why had it produced so many paedophiles, and why had the church protected them? The commission revealed that 7% of Catholic priests were paedophiles, the Catholic church numbering 60% of all complaints against religious bodies, and the church was designed to keep it out of the hands of the police/secular authorities.

The push for "religious freedoms" post marriage equality is a challenge to current anti-discrimination law. It is against the law for a commercial business to deny service to gay people because they're gay, period. Yet the far right wants to overthrow those laws in the name of religion, giving people a legal right to refuse service to David and I because we're gay. Such religious privilege would be a huge blow to our civil rights and put us back decades. It would again make us unequal under the law. 

The church wants to be a law to themselves operating outside the secular state. The Catholic church considers itself above the law, the law of Rome having the final say.

So how's that worked out then?

But when I began reporting the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse I could see evidence everywhere in the squalid history of the Catholic church’s part in the abuse of children – evidence from around the world – that the only law that really counted here was the law of Rome.

Across the world the church hid paedophile priests and snubbed their victims. Whether in Buenos Aires or Berlin or Ballarat, the story was absolutely the same. There were no whistleblowers. It was a faultless, international operation to defy criminal laws in the interests of the church.

 Asking questions is the business of a royal commission. Masters of the art were at work before this commission. God knows how many they asked over the last five years. Tens of thousands in all shapes and sizes: brusque and discursive, technical and folksy, kind and absolutely lethal. Two great questions mattered. To victims: what happened? And to institutions: why didn’t you pick up the phone and call the cops?

Shame, embarrassment and cowardice are, in a sense, the easy answers. Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, one of the big men of the Catholic church in this country, pointed to a deeper truth: “It was that sense of the church doing its own thing, being a law and a world unto itself.”

 This was brave. “In many ways, the Catholic church in Australia has been profoundly embedded, but paradoxically, on the other hand, the Catholic church in Australia has at times looked the other way, been a law unto itself, and seen that it does things its own way: ‘We’ll look after the problem ourselves.’

“Well, we didn’t … ” David Marr, The Guardian

It gave us an institution that produced paedophiles, and protected them for it's own self interest. Church law was to not allow secular authorities deal with these crimes, leaving it to internal processes within the Catholic church itself. We now have the legacy of that uncovered in this damning royal commission. It has been the most thorough and long investigation into the Catholic church in the world. It's findings are horrifying, which I won't go into here.

One of the recommendations of the royal commission was that if child sex abuse was revealed in confession then the church be obligated by law to report such crimes to the police, as is presently the the case with other professions such as doctors, psychologists, counselors and the like. The Archbishop of Melbourne has recently defied this saying he would rather go to jail than report sexual abuse against children to the police. His reasoning is that "confession should be above the law".

The archbishop of the archdiocese of Melbourne, Denis Hart, said he would risk going to jail rather than report allegations of child sexual abuse raised during confession, and that the sacredness of communication with God during confession should be above the law. 

He was responding to a report from the child sex abuse royal commission calling for reforms that, if adopted by governments, would see failure to report child sex abuse in institutions become a criminal offence, extending to information given in religious confessions. 

Speaking to ABC radio 774 in Melbourne, Hart said he stood by comments he made in 2011 that priests would rather be jailed than violate the sacramental seal. 

“I believe [confession] is an absolute sacrosanct communication of a higher order that priests by nature respect,” Hart said on Tuesday morning. 

 “We are admitting a communication with God is of a higher order,” he said. “It is a sacred trust. It’s something those who are not Catholics find hard to understand but we believe it is most, most sacred and it’s very much part of us.” The Guardian

In other words, because of their deeply-held-religious-beliefs, protecting paedophiles from the law is more important than the law itself.

 This all happened at a time well before we belatedly won marriage equality. Now that we have, the push is on for religious institutions, particularly the Catholic Church represented far too much in our federal gov, to have religious exemptions already in the Dean Smith compromise marriage equality bill, expanded on. They want people  operating in the secular commercial world outside the church to be able to refuse service to David and I because we're gay. They want their church law to be above our secular law.

Such a push to unravel Australia's anti-discrimination laws comes at a time of deep shame and embarrassment for the Catholic church. By operating in their own world above our law they have shown what they're capable of, that being the very worst of humanity at leadership levels in the church. The Catholic church became a paedophile machine interested only in it's self preservation. 

Even the suggestion of expanding their religious privilege after failing so damningly morally, beggars belief. It should be going the other way with the state stepping in to protect children from these monsters. To give them more freedom to be their own law, especially in the environment in Australia after the royal commission, would be deeply wrong. Both morally and ethically. It would be a slap in the face to the royal commission and it's five long years of investigation, and a slap in the face to the thousands of paedophile victims in Australia uncovered by the commission.

BTW the review into religious freedom has been set up and you can make a submission here if you like. I've been thinking about making one myself, after all David and I found ourselves dealing with the NSW anti-discrimination board a while back after I was refused entry to a pub, being called a "fag" by the bouncer. Who's to say a religious owner of the premises could decide to refuse us service because we're gay under religious exemption laws bought about by the church? 

  

LGBT youth organisation attacked by conservative with "revenge porn"

A conservative has attacked the LGBT group Minus18 on her Facebook page, posting what Minus18 has called "revenge porn". It appears the feathers are still flying over marriage equality and the conservatives have been enraged. I guess that's to be expected, but attacking a group who are helping LGBT youth? Why attack a group that's looking after the most vulnerable?

In a post attacking and shaming the organisation’s events producer Delsi Moleta, Rancie shared and criticised photos from her Facebook page. 

“Sorry for the nudity,” wrote Rancie, of a now-removed selfie where Moleta’s nipples were visible through a mesh shirt. 

“This was her Facebook profile picture. She’s obviously comfortable with it. I’m not.” 

Rancie criticised the mild state of undress—including someone wearing a leotard and tights, and a single visible male nipple—visible in some event photos on Moleta’s page. 

 “Gone are the days of the police supervised blue light discos. Welcome to 2017! This is how we roll now. Like soooo progressive,” she wrote. 

“Hold on to your hats this is the start of a rabbit hole that is pretty sick and twisted to your average Australian family.” 

Minus18 issued a response on their own page, comparing the attack to “revenge porn”. 

“Today a right-wing anti-LGBTIQ page posted a personal, nude photo that a member of our team took,” they wrote. 

 “The narrative is too often the same—anti-LGBTIQ groups attempt to paint queer people as sinister or corrupt—and that you can somehow be taught how to be queer. 

 “The real issue here is the violation of privacy and consent—not someone taking a photo of themselves. 

 “We’re stronger than ever before and work to tirelessly support the LGBTIQ youth of Australia.” 

In Rancie’s “furious” response she denied being anti-LGBTIQ. 

“Speaking against this disgusting program is not hate speech,” she wrote. 

 “As for the threat of revenge porn, they called it that, not me. 

 “This person has access to our minors.” 

Moleta told Star Observer the attack from the conservative Facebooker has been upsetting. 

 “I don’t really know how to feel about it,” she said. “Initially I cried, then I laughed—this is ridiculous. But the more it gains traction and the more people say hurtful things about me, the more I feel concerned about the world. 

“If these are parents of young people, there’s a 10 per cent chance that their kid might be queer. What’s that going to be like for them?” 

Moleta said she will be reporting Rancie’s non-consensual sharing of her photos to the police. Star Observer 

Pastor charged with child sex crime over 10 years, US (video)

Another one bites the dust folks, and he wasn't even a Catholic priest.

This one is from a famous pastor in the US who, as well as pastor of his congregation was also one of the main organiser of the biggest christian music festival in the US. Now in his 70's he's to sick for jail and is in a medical facility under guard. One wonders if he is that sick how was he managing his pastor duties?

Yet his ilk point as us like we're the paedophiles. The vast majority of paedophiles identify as straight.

The man who launched America’s largest and longest-running Christian music festival has been “indefinitely suspended” from the ministry and his church following his arrest Wednesday on charges of child molestation.

Harry L. Thomas, founder of the Creation Festival and senior pastor of Come Alive New Testament Church in Medford, New Jersey, has been accused of sexually assaulting four children over a 16-year period between 1999 and 2015. The church stated that the alleged misconduct was “unrelated” to his leadership.

Thomas, 74, has been charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault, three counts of sexual assault, and four counts of endangering the welfare of children, according to the prosecutor’s office in Burlington County, New Jersey, where Thomas lives and where his church is located. Joe My God

 BTW, how the fuck is kiddie fiddling "not related" to his leadership role? 


 
Also, regarding churches and paedophilia, the five year long Australian royal commission into child sex abuse (set up by the Gillard gov) has concluded. The evidence is damning for religious institutions, but particularly the Catholic church. 60% of the thousands of cases investigated involved Catholic priests, with the commission finding that 7% of Catholic priests are paedophiles. If it was any other organisation on those numbers they wouldn't be allowed in the country.

*click to enlarge

Masturbation will make you gay - leaked Mormon manual of homosexuality

 

In an hilariously idiotic manual from the Mormon church in 1981 on the subject of homosexuality, There's a whole section dedicated to masturbation and how to deal with the "dangers" of it; one of those dangers being the potential to make you gay. I kid you not. I have snipped the whole hilarious section below.

It's very funny reading today, but you do have to wonder about the poor young men and women who seriously believed this drivel back then. The guilt and lack of self esteem it must have created. Guilt about a normal bodily function and sexual expression, and self esteem when the inevitable happened as they jerked off.

Imagine being gay in such an environment. They'd think that it was there fault becausd they'd jerked off to much, further affecting their self esteem. Along with the church elders who they might have gone to for their evil gay making masturbation problem. But we all know how churches just love to make people feel guilty.  

 
 

"Freedom of speech" my ass - christian "Life Site" banned me

Ever notice how the far right christians banging on about freedom of speech are the ones that want to silence us? This is yet another example of that.

Yesterday I responded to this ridiculous article at Life Site in North America. It claimed that a meningococcal outbreak in Australia's northern territory was a disease spread by gays. I posted about it in the last post before this one, but also made a statement in the comments under the article. I pointed the obvious that meningicoccal wasn't a gay disease but a human one, relating the experience of gays being blamed for HIV in the early days, and that to label another disease a gay disease is as ridiculous now as it was back then.

So I got another notification of a couple of replies so I went back to the comments to look. My whole post had been deleted and I'd been banned from the site. These are the people saying gays are a threat to freedom of speech. The only threat to said freedom of speech is them trying to conform everything to their religious world view and shutting out any diverse views.

Oh well, I've never been banned from a site before after many years online. It's a rather unique experience. I must have really set the cat among the pigeons! What a bunch of snowflakes :) 

BTW, this is there Twitter account. https://twitter.com/LifeSite
I see I'm not blocked.....hmmmmmm..... 
Far out, 50k followers and only 38 likes? WTF? 

@LifeSite You deleted my comments on this post of yours https://t.co/VLn0Fgh6NC
You also banned me from the site.
You're the ones banging on about freedom of speech but you're only interested in silencing us. Bunch of snowflakes. pic.twitter.com/WHk6cBrK4t

— Peter Hiv (@HivPeter) December 14, 2017

 

Meningococcal bacteria in Australia a "possibly gay" disease - christians (US)

Australian newspaper cartoon from the 80's, blaming gays for HIV/AIDS

The backlash against Australian marriage equality it appears is already starting amongst the far right christians, even in the US. Unbelievably they are now asserting that and Australian Meningococcal outbreak is a "possibly gay transmitted disease". 

This is the same accusation leveled at gays over HIV transmission 30 years or so ago. It's not a new perception, but a continuation of the notion that we are diseased vermin spreading disease through society and are therefore a danger to it. Of course we know now that HIV isn't a gay disease, it's simply a disease that can be caught by anyone. One only has to look at Africa to see how true that is. HIV doesn't discriminate, people do.

The same is true in this case, Meningococcal can be caught by anyone, it's doesn't discriminate. To blame gays for it's spread in 2017 is appalling and factually wrong. Yet it appears the US RWNJ's are drumming up prejudice and lies against us in retaliation for gaining (somewhat) marriage equality here. Once again American christians are exporting hateful lies about us across the Pacific.

Firstly, this is how Meningococcal is spread, directly from the US National Meningitis Association:

Meningococcal disease is contagious. It is spread through the exchange of respiratory secretions during close contact such as kissing or coughing on someone. Although meningococcal bacteria are very dangerous, they cannot live outside the body for very long. This means the infection is not as easily spread as a cold virus.

 About one in ten people carry meningococcal bacteria in their nose or throat without showing any signs or symptoms of the disease. These people can unknowingly transmit the bacteria to others. National Meningitis Association (US)

It has nothing to do with being gay. But don't let the facts get in the way of anti-gay hysteria. This is BTW at the end of a post raving the usual bla about the evil gays getting marriage equality in Australia. Pity it's a US article as if it was from an Australian site it would likely run afoul of our anti-discrimination/vilification laws. Remember a lot of funding for the No vote re the survey came from the US. The Yes campaign was outspent 5 to 1.

Meanwhile, a possibly gay-transmitted disease has spread to the point that the a public health warning was posted. 

The government issued an alert about an outbreak of a strain of meningococcal, a life-threatening bacteria infecting a growing number of men in the Northern Territory. The territory Department of Health advised all citizens to be careful, as the disease is spread only by “close and prolonged contact” with saliva, such as in deep kissing. 

 “Meningococcal can be fatal or leave people with severe disabilities,” a government website warned. In the last year, rates of the dangerous “W” strain of meningococcal tripled in Tasmania. 

As a result of the outbreak, the NT Department of Health initiated a vaccination program for indigenous Aboriginal people up to age 19. “This age group targets those most at risk of serious illness and those who are most likely to be carrying the meningococcal bacteria,” the government explained. Lifesite  

Milo Yiannopoulos's Australian troll tour (video)

Milo is like an online troll which shouldn't be fed, only he's come to real life and trolling in real life. So it was sickening to see the right wing media fawning all over this guy, giving him all the attention he wanted. This comedy piece is probably way more truthful about Milo than much of that media coverage.