We did it! Marriage equality passes the House of Representatives! (video)

I caught this snip from the live feed as the video was playing :)

We won. We did it. Despite the huge adversity and years of angst and frustration, the floodgates finally opened and the House of Representatives have just passed marriage equality federally. Yes, in our long fight we finally gained equality before the law. The final parliamentary vote had only five people voting against it.

It passed without amendments. Over a long drawn out day the religious exemption amendments were all solidly voted down one after the other. Not one single one survived. Abbott had his last plead at the last amendment but again for nought. The parliament would not accept superfluous, unnecessary and discriminatory legislation being included in a bill that was simply about marriage. The tenacity and gall of the RWNJ's to spend the day trying to keep putting these amendments up when they were being defeated so strongly was appalling and pathetic to watch.

The full gallery erupted singing the "We are Australian" song. 

This victory however comes at a very big cost to us. The pain of the postal survey on our existence and love will be with many of us for years to come. The victory hasn't been cheap. The far right kept going right to the bitter end, and we'll never forget what no balls Turnbull put us through for the sake of his political career. To see him basking in the glory at the end in parliament today praising the postal survey was just sickening. The audacity for him to take credit for this is right over the top. The victory is ours, not his. We were the ones who paid the price for it. It feels more like limping over the line battered and bruised rather than a triumphant passing of the posts.

The religious freedom debate has been deferred to a committee to report back it's findings next year. This is a start but the fight isn't over. 

The Guardian live feed

"I've managed to live long enough to see this unimaginable thing!" David Marr in tears on #TheDrum as #marriageequality passes the House of Representatives pic.twitter.com/HS6xuFr0Oz

— ABC The Drum (@ABCthedrum) December 7, 2017

The last division with only five people voting no

The Guardian live feed

We got it done, thankyou, says Ian Thorpe. Parliament did what it said what it would do, I'm surprised, he says #marriageequality @AmyRemeikis @Paul_Karp pic.twitter.com/v22BFuOYJR

— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) December 7, 2017

Australia, you had our backs, thankyou @MagdaSzubanski #marriageequality @AmyRemeikis @Paul_Karp pic.twitter.com/O26Ef3Arha

— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) December 7, 2017

It took too long. It hurt too many. But we are finally there, Australia. The patience, dignity and resilience of the LGBTQI community has been extraordinary....and I'm available for weddings... #MarriageEquality

— Charlie Pickering (@charliepick) December 7, 2017

Finally! We have #MarriageEquality

All credit goes to the brave, resilient and fearless #LGBTIQ community who fought for decades for today.

Ashamed about what you were put through but so bloody happy right now. LOVE to you all 🌈❤❤❤❤

— Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) December 7, 2017

Dragging this gov kicking and screaming into this century

Now it’s official 🌈 #marriageequality pic.twitter.com/4QeQf8CMeB

— Qantas (@Qantas) December 7, 2017

A tearful Tanya Plibersek, with Bill Shorten, Trent Zimmerman, Warren Entsch &Julia Banks sing "we are Australian" with the public after the vote in the house @AmyRemeikis @murpharoo @GuardianAus #politicslive https://t.co/Jz9pqczrVe #SSM #loveisloveislove pic.twitter.com/I7CxHK6xPZ

— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) December 7, 2017

Loony right going down in flames in lower house :)

Today is the day when marriage equality is expected to pass the House of Representatives in Canberra. The votes on religious exemption amendments are not going the way of the RWNJ's at all.

You can watch it live here. 

Also live updates here.

Breaking: Second conservative amendment fails 56-87

Gallery applauds

— Lane Sainty (@lanesainty) December 7, 2017

 

New X-Files series Jan 3rd! (video)

Red alert folks. A new series of ten episodes will begin airing in the US on the third of Jan 2018. Have your torrent programs at the ready. That will be the afternoon of Jan 4th in Australia when the first torrents start appearing online. Oh and BTW, don't forget the VPN :)

 

The absurdity of the religious exemptions argument - US anti gay cake shop case (video)

Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop

As our Australian parliament is passing a consensus marriage equality bill that will have no amendments for "religious freedom" exemptions, a case in the US where a cake shop owner who refused to serve gays is continuing to unfold. Thankfully such cases won't come to fruition in Australia after marriage equality passes as current anti-discrimination law won't be overrode/unraveled because of so call religious exemptions.

However the US appears to be in an ongoing culture war fought out in the courts between those who say all commercial businesses should not refuse service to people because of whatever, and the US religious freedom advocates who say they should be able to refuse service to certain people that their religion doesn't agree with.

This isn't a new thing over there. In the 1960's religious objectors were using the exact same arguments to justify not serving black people. As now it was fought out in the courts. Today it's the LGBT where these same issues are being revisited, the gays being the new targets in an effort to wind back discrimination laws.

This is exactly what the far right of the gov was trying to do here with the marriage equality bill before parliament now. They wanted a federal law to override state based anti-discrimination law already in place, so that LGBT could be refused service by commercial businesses for no other reason than that they are gay. They wanted discrimination against us put into law.

This article goes to the core of the religious freedom argument and shows it for what it is; absurd. The cake shop involved in the US case is called Masterpiece Cakeshop, who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple for no other reason than that they were gay, citing their religious beliefs as giving them the right to do so.

In short, Masterpiece does not just seek a license to discriminate; it seeks a license to discriminate enshrined in and protected by law. 

 Masterpiece’s religious owner and his conservative allies don’t want to be the exceptions. They want to be the rule, like Jim Crow was the rule in the South. They seek a legal regime in which anyone can opt out of any law in the name of religion. They seek a world in which laws apply to other people, not them. They seek a world in which no one tells them what to do. 

These arguments are simultaneously rooted in history and unique to our political moment. How can that be? 

 It is hard to read the arguments coming from Masterpiece and its conservative allies — “My religion tells me that homosexuality is wrong and I shouldn’t have to endorse or participate in something I find morally abhorrent,” for example — and not think about Jim Crow South. In 1964 and 1965, black Americans at the vanguard of the civil rights movement drove in to drive-in restaurants, sat at lunch counters, and walked into motels only to be turned away because they were black. Those establishments, by law, only served whites. In every single public accommodations case of the era, white business owners argued that their religious beliefs conflicted with the prospect of integrating the races: “My religion tells me that black persons should not be mixing with white folks and I shouldn’t have to endorse or participate in something I find morally abhorrent.” 

Black patrons won their cases over the next 5 years, as various public accommodations cases made their way through the federal courts. The Supreme Court addressed this religion argument directly, calling the religious pretext to discriminate “patently frivolous.” 

 How is it possible, then, that we find ourselves back at the Supreme Court litigating the same question? Towleroad  

 

Gov RWNJ's have conceded defeat for their religious exemptions :)

 

The number of MP's who will vote against the religious protection amendments to the marriage equality bill has now increased, to an amendment slaughtering 80. So much so that dopey Dutton has conceded defeat.

This is an unmitigated failure by the lunar right. They comprehensively failed in the senate and they are failing now in the House of Representatives. Perhaps the poor dears may need a bit of counseling to cope with such a humiliating slap in the face. George Christenen has resorted to begging parliamentarians to vote with him saying "It's not a big ask". Obviously the guy is having trouble with defeat. Where's his god now then?

But most of all, this is an enormous smack down of Lyle Shelton and his extremist Australian Christian Lobby. They had so much influence in the gov that they wrote their own marriage discrimination bill for the far right to present to parliament as a replacement for the consensus Dean Smith bill. But they failed. Every step of the parliamentary way. All those TV appearances, all that media coverage, all that money they spent, and they've fallen flat on their faces. How sweat it is. 

Immigration minister Peter Dutton has conceded defeat over proposed amendments to the same-sex marriage bill that would have introduced wide-ranging exemptions, saying it is "impossible" they will pass. 

The House of Representatives is working its way through a lengthy list of speakers on the bill, which is expected to pass the parliament by the end of the week and pave the way for same-sex couples to marry in Australia. 

A number of proposed amendments, conceived by a group of government MPs who are largely opponents of marriage equality, would introduce broad exemptions for those who disagree with same-sex marriage. 

 These would include extending a right to civil celebrants to refuse to marry gay couples; protecting under law beliefs against same-sex marriage, sex before marriage, and gay relationships; and legislating a right for parents to remove kids from classes that mention same-sex marriage. 

But, as in the Senate last week, they are set to fail. A strong majority of around 80 MPs – consisting of Labor, four of the five cross benchers, and a handful of government members – is expected to vote down each amendment. 

More government MPs will vote against some of the amendments, but not others. 

 Dutton said the parliament is "governed by arithmetic" and conceded "it will be impossible to get those amendments up". 

 Dutton has argued for religious protections to be addressed in a review led by former attorney-general Philip Ruddock next year. This is in contrast to some of his fellow conservatives, including treasurer Scott Morrison, who have insisted protections should be enshrined in the marriage bill itself. Buzzfeed  

The stupidest argument against marriage equality I've ever heard (video)

Suck it up Lyle

So, the marriage equality bill is now in the lower house of parliament and the gov bigots have yet another chance to put their case against David and I marrying. This one however takes the bloody cake! Honestly, it's the most nonsensical argument against it that I've ever heard, and with all the bullshit that we Australian LGBT have had to endure to get to this point that's really saying something.

Goodenough (yes that's actually his last name) was of course the far right's first attempt at drafting their own marriage "equality" bill, before it morphed further into la la land when the Australian Christian Lobby penned their draft.

Here he claims that David and I will cost the taxpayer money by getting married. It is the most stupid thing I've ever heard in this whole sorry debate. It has no connection to reality or facts. Is he on drugs? How else could he make this shit up?

Ian Goodenough argues that the "budgetary impact" of same-sex marriage has not been fully assessed and the costs of change will likely fall to the taxpayer! pic.twitter.com/LPpoytAQkX

— Lane Sainty (@lanesainty) December 5, 2017

 

Amazing latest images from the Juno spacecraft of Jupiter

*click to enlarge

These are from the latest and ninth flyby of the Juno craft of Jupiter. It has captured truly stunning pictures of the planet. The above one is from 33,000 kilometres up showing Jupiter's southern hemisphere.

*click to enlarge

 This one is closer at 18,000 kilometres up, showing swirling masses of clouds and storms in the northern hemisphere. 

*click to enlarge

Closer still from the same storm systems, this show a close up of a raging storm within that. This is from a mere 10,000 kilometres up. 

You can see more pictures here. 

Postal survey was deeply painful to LGBT people - study

Comment replying to me under ACL YouTube video during survey

*Update: You can find the study itself here.

Turnbull is going around crowing his head off about how good the survey was and what a great idea to do it. However he appears to ignore the fact that in hoisting the survey on us was equivalent to throwing us to the wolves. Does he have any idea what it would be like to have who you are and your personal relationship debated publicly across the country? I don't think he has an inkling of the sort of vileness out there in some parts of the community against us. It certainly surprised me.

Now a study of the effects of the survey on the LGBT has been released, and it gives an indication just how deeply hurtful and upsetting it was to many of us. We have paid a very high price for Turnbull's political career. It wasn't needed and it all would have been over months ago with a free parliamentary vote. For Turnbull now to take credit for marriage equality is sickening. After what he put us through he should be apologising to us not crowing.

Mr Turnbull also noted he was the only Australian prime minister to be "unequivocally and consistently in support of legalising same-sex marriage", and said it would be "forever to the credit of the Coalition that this momentous social change occurred with the overwhelming mandate of the Australian people" through the postal survey. 

  However, new evidence emerged on Monday of the negative experiences endured by members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer community during the postal vote. 

A survey of 9500 LGBTIQ people by the left-leaning Australia Institute and the National LGBTI Health Alliance identified higher levels of personal stress and trauma than are widely appreciated. There was also anecdotal evidence of increased verbal and sometimes physical assaults. 

The survey showed more than 80 per cent of LGBTIQ people found the survey stressful, and as many as seven out of 10 people in the affected community avoided being with people in general as a way of coping. 

Australia Institute deputy director Ebony Bennett said the postal survey result was "overwhelmingly positive politically" but the debate "has taken a real toll on the LGBTIQ community". The Age  

The postal survey made LGBTI Australians feel f**king awful, research confirmshttps://t.co/WPfiGYMx4T pic.twitter.com/IDictoh8Vv

— Star Observer (@star_observer) December 5, 2017

From the study

Daughter's latest ultrasound of baby at 12 weeks

*click to enlarge

This has to be the clearest ultrasound of a baby I've ever seen. Usually to me it's just a bunch of uninterruptible blobs. So this is my grandkid at 12 weeks, the end of the first trimester.

NSW will be ready for marriage equality when it passes (video)

In response to a question by Jenny Leong (of the NSW Greens) in the New South Wales state parliament; to the premier asking if the NSW Births Deaths and Marriages would be ready when the federal gov passes marriage equality for people to be marriage as soon as possible, the answer from the premier was "At $56 a pop you betcha we will!". 

 

Trumps tax plan predicted to fuel a new HIV epidemic in US

Unlike here in New South Wales where HIV medication is free along with the ease of access to medical services, it's not so in the US. Already participation rates in taking HIV meds are just terrible, pretty much because of cost. Now Trump is wanting a new tax plan of his which will decimate services for HIV+ people. Far out, what a fuckwit.

“For transgender people living with HIV in particular, this bill could mean the loss of life-saving treatment and fuel an epidemic that the U.S. government has ostensibly pledged to end,” Kris Hayashi, the executive director of Transgender Law Center said in a statement. 

Already, only about half of low-income people living with HIV are receiving the HIV drugs they need because of cost, and eliminating the individual mandate would only increase this. Without insurance, HIV medication can cost up to $20,000 a year. 

Further, a new study by the Center for American Progress found that 15 percent of LGBT Americans are uninsured in 2017, twice the national rate. 

 “Not only that,” Stoll said, “but LGBT people are more likely to be middle to low end earners, and this bill is just going to be a disaster for them.” 

LGBT people disproportionately struggle with poverty—20 percent of LGBT people have annual incomes less than $12,000, compared to 17 people of non-LGBT people. Transgender people are four times more likely to have incomes under $10,000 per year, despite having higher rates of education. Towleroad  

UN says you can't discriminate over religion

The UN is visiting several countries including Australia, to encourage companies to adopt their new Standards of Conduct for Businesses in regards to discrimination against LGBT people in the workplace. 

In what will send shivers down the spine of Lyle Shelton and his Australian Christian Lobby, the UN specifically points out that LGBT should not be discriminated against in the workplace because of a person's religious beliefs.

So what's next for the ACL and Shelton? Shelton vs the United Nations? It wouldn't surprise me.

Even though the officials in the company may not hold discriminatory attitudes, Ms Gilmore said there was a duty of care to ensure peers and relationships with suppliers and customers rooted out discrimination. 

The Deputy High Commissioner praised companies in the United States who denounced the controversial "bathroom bill" for transgender people, and said it was a good example of companies fighting for human rights. 

So far, 24 companies have signed up to the UN's standard of conduct and an additional seven will be announced at the Melbourne event, which follows from events in New York, Mumbai, Paris, London and Hong Kong. 

Ms Gilmore said discrimination against LGBTI people in Australia was real and it affected their ability to talk openly about their relationships. 

She said people had a right to their religious beliefs, but they should not impose those beliefs on others. 

"There's no religion, tradition or culture, no matter how fervently held that can be used to deny others their human rights," she said. News.com

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Lyle.
 

85% of DSP applicants are now rejected

This article was in Crikey at first but it was behind a paywall. However the original authors of it have put it up on their Unemployed Workers Union site and now is available to all.

Just a few years back the success rate of Disability Support Pension applicants was about 30%. Today it's at a mere 15%, a decrease of 50% under this Abbott/Turnbull gov. 

People with severe disabilities are now finding themselves rejected and having to go on the unsurvivable dole. Those unfortunate enough to be younger have had to go through a gov review where they're taken off the DSP pension and put into the unsurvivable dole/Newstart and told they must look for work or even lose that. You can't survive on the dole even if you're fit and healthy. How is someone suffering illness supposed to get by on that? Around $500 a fortnight if you get full rent assistance.

It's criminal what this gov is doing. Targeting the weak, vulnerable and sick, whilst giving $50 billion in tax cuts to big business. They're doing it off the back of us.

Over the past few years, there’s been some remarkable cases where even terminally ill patients have been deemed ineligible for the DSP. Yet, there still appears to be very little public pressure on the government to loosen these strict welfare eligibility requirements that clearly cause much duress.

Pushing people like Huynh and Kim off the DSP and onto the unemployment benefit yields a small saving for government and the taxpayer, but results in a significant loss of income for people who already struggle to get by. Considering that a quarter of disabled Australians already live below the poverty line (the highest rates in the OECD), this seems an astonishingly cruel way for us to cut costs. After all, Australia already ranks near the bottom of OECD nations when it comes to total welfare spending as a proportion of GDP — a stat kept conveniently quiet by pollies and pundits looking to further gut social security.

Rather than investing in policy that actually tackles the conditions that entrenches so many Australians in poverty, we’re more preoccupied with delegitimising vulnerable people’s claims for welfare. No matter how we try to justify or spin such “cost-saving” approaches, we are in effect choosing to punish people for being disabled. Unemployed Workers Union 

Oh, just as I was about to post I checked the link and it appears the story has been taken down. Likely Crikey didn't want their paywall to be undermined? So I've taken clips of the whole bloody story in the public interest. The whole story screen grabs are posted below. Hey, it was there on my screen.... So what? My corner of the internet is small and I doubt they're going to go broke over my little blog.

 

World AIDS day

For those who don't know us, please remember that we're just people like you. We're not mysterious, or even infectious anymore when meds taken and become HIV "undetectable". It's been proven in global studies (including Australian ones). Ignorance is what creates stigma. Please remember that.

 We live in society, among you. I ride the buses in Sydney as I don't have a car. I sometimes wonder if the person in the seat next to me would do if they knew I was HIV+. The truth is there's not the slightest danger. Even if I had unsafe sex with the person I couldn't pass it on being undetectable.

In NSW we are on track for near zero new infections by 2020, thanks to campaigns within the gay community and generally to address this issue. The hope is that (like past diseases) HIV will eventually end in coming years due to lack of new infections. It's happened before with other illnesses and it can happen again. 

Yet we still have to deal with the bullshit of the ignorant...  

 

South Australia switches on worlds biggest lithium ion battery (video)

ScoMo loves coal

South Australian premier likes to piss off the coal lovers in the federal gov. Their solution to the states energy blackout would have been to abandon renewables and build a big smoking coal fired power station. However SA has done just the reverse having Elon Musk build the biggest lithium ion battery storage facility in the world. Linked to a wind farm nearby. The battery was built in less than 100 days, fulfilling Musk's promise to do it in 100 days or it's free.

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill and Neoen deputy chief executive Romain Desrousseaux flipped the switch on the Tesla-made battery storage installation, stating that "this is history in the making". 

 "South Australia is now leading the world in dispatchable renewable energy, delivered to homes and businesses 24/7," Mr Weatherill said. 

 The 100-megawatt battery system provides 129-megawatt hours of energy, reduces intermittency issues, and manages increased demand during summer peak loading periods, potentially providing enough energy to power 30,000 homes for eight hours, or 60,000 homes for four hours. 

 It is paired with French energy firm Neoen's Hornsdale wind farm, located near Jamestown, about 200 kilometres north of Adelaide. 

 Mr Desrousseaux said the launch is a major achievement in Australia's energy landscape. "Neoen is pleased to be able to reinforce its Australian footprint through the achievement of the Hornsdale Wind Farm & Battery and is extremely proud to contribute further to the development of renewable energy in Australia," Mr Desrousseaux said. 

 Tesla said this battery will support the state and provide increased security for summer, helping South Australia meet heavy demand. Sydney Morning Herald  

South Australia is now leading the world in dispatchable renewable energy, delivered to homes and businesses 24/7. The world’s biggest lithium ion battery. History in the making. @Tesla #cleanenergy #renewables pic.twitter.com/QCDfr1gob4

— Jay Weatherill (@JayWeatherill) December 1, 2017