Conservative MP's making their own marriage equality bill

*Watch video here

*Update: Surprise! Conservatives Are Already Trying To Ignore The Postal Survey - Junkee.   

Up to 12 far right members of the gov are working on their own marriage "equality" bill which they want to bring to the party room and have adopted instead of the Dean Smith consensus bill. The bill would have an enormous amount of exemptions for "religious freedoms" and write new laws that discriminate against the LGBT across the community, such as being refused service by a business for being gay.

This is yet another delay tactic from the right. Labor opposes it as such. If the alternative bill is adopted by the gov once again marriage equality will be stuck in the lower house of parliament, even though the postal survey said yes. Once again the Liberal party plays games with our lives to suit the needs of their own party. Once again Australia would be held captive to a few bitter middle aged white Catholic men in Canberra because Turnbull has no balls.

Some of the GetUp email:

The dust is still settling after our extraordinary effort in the marriage equality postal survey, but those who seek to delay equality are already on the march.


Fervent opponents of marriage equality in the Liberal party are writing their own marriage equality bill.


Yep, you read that right.


 The very men who demanded an unnecessary public vote on marriage equality are already preparing to decimate the proposed legislation, making it impossible to pass parliament.


 Liberal MP Michael Sukkar has bragged he'll bring up to 100 amendments to the Smith bill, hoping to grant new license to discriminate against LGBTIQ people in the workplace, in the health system, and at the shop counter. His colleague Ian Goodenough smugly told the ABC "'[i]t'll take several weeks to get even a dozen amendments through".


This is yet another manipulative tactic from far-right conservatives who will do everything possible to stop marriage equality.


Next week, we'll know if we have a Yes victory in the postal survey, which will give an undeniable, urgent mandate for parliament to change the law to let LGBTIQ couples get married.


Right now, while we wait to hear the results, we need to swiftly smack-down the far-right's attempts to scuttle the passage of marriage equality with their dirty delay tactics.

The Stirrer has more. 

Meanwhile back at the ranch in Canberra, the government continues to try to navigate between its DelCons (Delusional Conservatives) – who want to kill or at least severely maim any marriage bill – and more moderate members, who support the Smith “compromise”. Holding the ring between the two are the so-called Praetorian Guard – ‘realistic’ conservatives like Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton and Matthias Corman, who don’t care for marriage equality but want the issue out of the way before year end.  The RealistiCons are attempting to herd the DelCons into line, while at the same time trying to steady nervous equality supporters.  The Stirrer

Yet another example of wild, unsubstantiated claims made by the 'no' side. @IanGoodenoughMP prepared to legislate on what he 'thinks' might have happened! https://t.co/yEl5cbTqSc

— Magda Szubanski (@MagdaSzubanski) November 9, 2017

The bird

*click to enlarge

There's been a Magpie hanging around the backyard in the evening the last couple of days and little Cloe appears to be honing her hunting skills. She sits there completely motionless without moving a muscle or even a slight tail wag. The bird doesn't seem to realise she's there, although at times it's looking straight at her. It got too close to the door a couple of days ago and Cloe did the pounce, ending up in mid pounce on the screen with her claws holding her there. Pretty funny.

This picture is yesterday evening. Zac has joined tor a bit of team bird stalking. 

What gun control has done for Australia - Angry Aussie (video)

This is the best I've seen from Angry recently. He tackles how the RWNJ's always point to Australia as the anathema of gun freedoms, and responds to the question by someone who asked him "What has gun control done for Australia?".

I agree with everything he says, everything. We've often seen Australia used within the US media as the evil gun control place where gun laws haven't worked - WTF? This usually comes after the latest US shooting massacre. The truth is since the gun controls were bought in by conservative PM John Howard in the '90's more than 20 years ago, Australia hasn't had one gun massacre since. But that means nothing to the religiously rusted on gun supporters in the US who remain wanting to keep the right to blow each other away.

I particularly agree with not getting upset anymore about US shootings. How can we? The US authorities won't do anything except "thoughts and prayers" and keep letting it happen. How can we be even remotely sympathetic to that? If they had of done something then a nutter wouldn't have blown away people in the Orlando gay nightclub Pulse. Somebody so twisted and mentally unstable should never have been able to get his hands on a slingshot let alone the sort of weapons he had. 

Orlando did upset me though as it involved the twisting of someone by the closet into self hatred and projection to others of that hatred. Now though every time there's the latest US shooting on the news I just think "meh". Surprise surprise there's another one..... It's not going to stop until somebody over there actually takes action to address the problem.

Honestly, if you were a terrorist in the US all you'd need to do is open a gun shop and watch them all kill each other. Over time you'd kill far more people than from a single act. 

 

Trying to pray to be straight - "It was the church that betrayed me, not god" (video).

This is the story of a young Christian man who tried to get rid of his being gay by prayer and gay conversion therapy. Him and his parents eventually came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with him, and that he was gay and Christian.

Shockingly, gay conversion therapy has gone underground in Australia and actually been increasing not decreasing. It doesn't work and is nothing more than mental torture.

 

Rednecks go to a gay nudist resort (video)

Southern leftie comedian Trae Crowder goes along for a gig at a gay "naturalist" venue in the country, without realising that it's a gay nudist place. After getting over the shock of everyone naked, and talking to people about the place, they end up feeling very comfortable there.

 

Final polling as postal survey ends (video)

Shelton's worst nightmare

 The LGBT nightmare of the postal survey is officially over, as of 4:30 this afternoon. The deadline has now passed for any more votes to be received by the ABS. Now counting will continue with the results announced Nov 15th.

Latest polling points to a strong win for Yes, with support for the No vote falling away.

All of the polls point to a big, fat Yes victory when the results are announced next week. A Guardian Essential poll released today indicates that 64 percent of people who voted in the survey did the right thing and voted for equality, compared to 31 percent who say they voted No. 


 That’s pretty similar to a Newspoll last week, which showed the Yes vote winning with 62 percent of the vote, compared to the No side’s 35 percent. Both polls show the No side losing around 3 percent in the final weeks of the campaign. Junkee   

In other words the $122million survey will tell us what we already  have known for some years now, that Australian's support David and I getting married.

In essence it will put us right back to square one again with the federal gov, except that this time Turnbull has promised to finally have a conscience vote on the issue. That means parliament will still debate the whole thing for the umpteenth time with the No side having a last ditch effort to oppose it. Or they'll introduce their own marriage equality bill that hasn't gone through the senate process of discussion and consensus, such as the Hastie bill that is full of discriminatory "religious protections". It's not over yet.  

.@AnnaHRLC: if a 'yes' vote prevails next week, hopefully parliament will quickly enact legislation. #auspol MORE: https://t.co/WOdRdKCmVL pic.twitter.com/MJJ0hxo7Xw

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) November 7, 2017

 

Overseas Christian report on anti-gay No voters in Australia (video)

CBN is an international Christian news outlet that reports on things relevant to international Christians. The organisation is part of Pat Robertson's Christian broadcasting Network. In this case they focus on No voters in Australia's marriage equality survey being very sympathetic to them, claiming "persecution" for example of Christians who object to marriage equality and giving most of the report over to what the No side's views are.

Mentioned in the video is the political Australia Party For Freedom, which has a track record of far right extremism. They oppose multiculturalism, don't like anyone different immigrating here, reject Muslims as being "incompatible", and are paranoid about people coming here who they don't like. Their Mission Statement:

“The Party for Freedom is committed to traditional Australian family values, the protection of Australia’s independence including property rights, true democracy and the rule of law. The Party for Freedom acknowledges and respects people who hold these values, who identify with the Australian way of life, and who identify as Australian.


The Party for Freedom rejects multiculturalism, advocates an immigration policy based on cultural compatibility, rejects Islam as fundamentally incompatible with these values, and is committed to regaining control of Australia’s borders. We promote and support Australian manufacturing industries, reject unnecessary taxes, and value true free speech in all areas of political and public debate. We acknowledge the Australian Constitution and reject any treaty, document or organisational instrument which undermines it or its authority.” Party for Freedom

The Party is also into "straight pride" but evidently are unable to find a mailbox to promote this. Not the sharpest tools in the shed folks.

 On Saturday night, Party for Freedom activists travelled to the privileged harbourside ghetto of Point Piper to deliver a very important Vote ‘NO’ flyer to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. We couldn’t find a letterbox so we slipped the Vote ‘NO’ flyer under his front gate and put up ‘Straight Pride’ and other posters opposing same sex marriage on telegraph poles outside his residence. Party For Freedom

The posters mentioned are the ones on the pic on the right. These are infamous from early on the the campaign and certainly not an example of "respectful" debate.

Also mentioned is the Catch The Fire church which is also discredited. In January of this year the church lost it's charity status as it was deemed a political body. Or in other words another group of far right political extremists. They also don't like multiculturalism or Muslims.

Controversial Melbourne evangelical church Catch the Fire, which solicits donations for the Rise Up Australia Party, has had its charitable status revoked by authorities.


The ministries, based in the south-eastern suburbs, have been run by Sri Lankan-born pastor Daniel Nalliah since the late 1990s. Mr Nalliah launched the Rise up Australia party in 2013 on an anti-Islam, anti-multiculturalism platform and fielded candidates at last year's federal election.

Pastor Daniel Nalliah from Catch The Fire

He openly preaches his political message from the pulpit and collects donations for the party at church services. As a registered charity, Catch the Fire had access to Commonwealth tax concessions including GST waivers, income tax exemptions and fringe benefit tax rebates.


But the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission (ACNC) has now revoked its charitable status. Charities are not allowed to promote or fund political candidates. ABC

  

Kenya authority wants gay lions separated - says gays showed them how

From the most anti-gay continent on earth, more complete ignorance.

A photographer has taken rare pictures of two mail lions in a close sexual encounter in Kenya.

'This however was astonishing. I normally loathe any sort of humanising with animals and our documentary channels are full of it, but this was not only surprising but it was impossible not to smile.


'When lions mate it normally last a few seconds, these two were at it for over a minute and the obvious affection afterwards was very evident, as opposed to the violent withdrawal when male and female mate.


'Even as he dismounted he did not back off as is normal after mating, he crept round to the other male's muzzle, for a nuzzle and threw a conspiratorial wink his way.' Daily Mail UK

However Kenya's so called moral authority is outraged by the lion's behaviour. He says they should be separated and studied, and conjectured that they may have learned their gayness from men going into the jungle and having sex in front of them.

Nairobi News

The voice of children in the marriage equality survey (video)

Country person's reaction to gay marriage

The innocence of children seeing life for what it is is fully on display here. 

There's only one child from the No campaign as the adults claimed they would get bullied by the LGBT if they went on camera. So most of the children interviewed are from the Yes side. 

The No campaign often uses children as the reason to stop marriage equality. Well think of these children then who completely disagree. 

 

Brilliant takedown of Kevin Spacey's coming out tweet (video)

Gay Late Night show writer Jenny Hagel has done a blistering critique of Kevin Spacey using being gay as an excuse why he tried to have sex with then 14yr old Anthony Rapp.

“The gay community has been made up of brave, brilliant people like Alan Turing and Audre Lorde and Billie Jean King. You’re not in the gay community, you’re in the creep community. Go celebrate creep pride, and throw a little creep parade, and leave us out of it.”  

Andrew Hastie drafts new marriage "equality" bill - wants it adopted if Yes wins

Gov MP Andrew Hastie

Well the writing has been on the wall for weeks now. We've had Lyle Shelton and a conga line of the far right in the gov (including former PM John Howard) complaining that if the Yes vote wins then there needs to be wide and far reaching religious exemptions.

The Bill that has gone through all the processes via a senate committee and reached consensus among most is the bill drawn up by Liberal senator Dean Smith, which offers religious protections for churches and religious institutions. Whether you agree with that or not, this is the bill that is most favoured as the one for a clear run through parliament.

However, far right religious extremist and gov minister Andrew Hastie has drafted a new marriage equality bill and wants it to be adopted by the gov and put in to law if the Yes vote wins in the postal survey. By all accounts it sounds hideously discriminatory against us LGBT and sounds like anyone anywhere would be able to use their religion to discriminate against us.

Once again, instead of marriage equality having a clear run through parliament, even after a postal survey, won't come about. Once again it'll be not about us LGBT but about internal gov infighting and solving their own problems at the expense of us.

One of the most vocal critics of the lack of “religious protections” in any of the possible Marriage Equality Bills so far put forward has been the vociferously religious ex-army officer, Andrew “Hands Off” Hastie, MP for Canning. 


 Now Hastie, along with Senator David Fawcett and MP Ian Goodenough (chair of the joint parliamentary Human Rights Committee), with the rumoured support of IPA drone, Senator James Patterson, is drafting a Marriage “Equality” Bill of his own. Paterson is also a member of the HRC. 


The Hastie Bill is stuffed with all manner of religious and even non-religious “conscience” clauses, granting virtually anyone immunity from anti-discrimination law if they object to equal marriage. It is, in effect, a bill to legalise LGBTI segregation: a Marriage Apartheid Bill. 


 The trio of drafters are now quietly canvassing support among fellow MPs and senators, including Tony Abbott, who can confidently be expected to seize yet another chance to cause division in the party room, and further destabilise Malcolm Turnbull. 


 In these circumstances, a YES vote cannot be expected to lead swiftly and smoothly to equal marriage: the result of the survey will only be the start of another round of bitter fighting, especially inside the coalition. 


Strap in and hang on! It’s going to be a bumpy Christmas. The Stirrer  

15% of Australians think gays should be charged as criminals - global survey

Although it's lower than other countries at 15% I find that number quite high for Australia. This is from a global attitude survey done this year.

What's galling is that those people, who have no idea who David and I are, just got to vote on our personal relationship.

More than one in four people across the world think people engaging in same-sex relationships should be charged as criminals, according to a new survey of 77 countries and territories. 


However, there were major divisions in attitudes towards the criminalisation of those engaging in same-sex relationships when broken down across regions, the 2017 Ilga-Riwi global attitudes survey to sexual and gender minorities found. 


Almost half of respondents (45%) in the 15 African countries surveyed said those who have same-sex relationships should be charged as criminals, a sentiment shared by 36% of respondents in the Middle East. 


At the other end of the spectrum, 15% of respondents from Australia and New Zealand said they agreed with this sentiment, along with 19% of participants in North America (the US and Canada combined), South America and western Europe. The Guardian  

Gay "The Voice" winner releases single "Love is love" for marriage equality (video)

I don't generally watch The Voice here in Australia unless David downloads it. However he hasn't been watching much of it this year and so I've never heard of this guy. David recognises him from earlier in the show though.

Alfie Arcuri is the winner of The Voice Australia and is openly gay. He's released a song "Love is love" for marriage equality. He writes at Joe My God:

My name is Alfie Arcuri and I’m the first openly gay winner of The Voice Australia. I am big fan of your blog and it would be awesome if you had the time to share my video Love is Love. I am a strong advocate for the gay and lesbian community and I perform and dedicate my time wherever and however I can. With the marriage equality debate currently underway in Australia, I wanted to write an uplifting anthem, as the campaign so far has been quite emotionally taxing on the community. I believe love has no boundaries – it transcends gender, age, sexuality, class, ethnicity and race and everyone should have the right to love whoever they want. Joe My God  

 

Citizenship audit "could see the govt fall" (video)

The real reason Turnbull doesn't want a citizenship audit is because the gov could fall causing a snap election. Sky News is reporting this as coming from "gov sources".

In the video dopey Dutton adds more intrigue to the situation, claiming that in the last couple of decades there'd been even a prime minister who was a dual citizen. Who might he be talking about? Tony Abbott?

The Greens are pushing for a comprehensive citizenship audit of all sitting politicians in Canberra to clear it up once and for all. The latest to fall foul of the constitution was the Liberal senate leader.

Given the long running questions about Tony Abbott's citizenship, such an exercise would be very interesting....  

The Greens predict it would only take about a month to conduct the independent investigation and sift through the backgrounds of every member of Parliament. 


Greens leader Richard Di Natale says a handful of lawyers and a senior public servant could easily conduct the audit. 


 He's suggested the task be taken on by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA), the body that was set up to monitor the misuse of work expenses by politicians. 


 "There is a huge shadow right now hanging over the Federal Parliament," Senator Di Natale said. 


"People are losing faith in our democracy." 


He's suggested politicians put forward documentation to prove where their parents and grandparents were born. 


Those with an international link would need to show paperwork to prove they have checked their citizenship history and renounced any foreign links. 


Those that don't provide sufficient proof would be investigated further. ABC

.@samanthamaiden: Govt sources have told Sky News an audit could see the govt fall and cause a snap election. MORE https://t.co/IpuIwEI30w pic.twitter.com/Yf4TV70EGY

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) November 1, 2017

First grand kid pic

*click to enlarge

 Well now I really feel old.

Behold the very first picture of my grandchild. Albeit a largely unintelligible unltrasound picture, but never the less it's there in the middle (I think). Top left it says seven weeks and 4 days.