Wednesday, 13 December 2017

A Christmas song for those who hate Christmas (video)


It's been a shitty year with a lot of issues. So what better way to fix them all but with an Australian Christmas song :s 

 
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Tuesday, 12 December 2017

The review into "religious freedoms" 2018


Phillip Ruddock, who was part of implementing Howard's 2004 reform of the marriage act to exclude LGBT people, has been assigned by Turnbull to conduct a review of "religious freedom" in Australia. Cripes knows WTF he's going to come up with at the end of it, but you can bet that the recommendations won't be good for us LGBT. There's not even LGBT representation in those taking part in it.

 To me it just seems like another opportunity for the far right of the gov to resurrect their failed religious exemptions that they tried to get through with the marriage equality legislation. This is looming as the next big struggle for us against the likes of Abbott and Shelton. A struggle where we fight to keep discrimination laws that protect us being attacked and unraveled by christian RWNJ's, who after oppressing us for centuries now claim themselves to be persecuted just by our existing equally on the same planet as them.

 Yes it's great that we now have marriage equality (well with some compromise's) and David and I are planning on a simple marriage next year. But we shouldn't make the same mistake as many LGBT in the US made. They just about went to sleep over there thinking that now marriage was won it was all over. Many didn't suspect or expect the viscous reaction from the extremist far right christians who challenged their equality and civil rights in various states over and over. And the RWNJ's have had successes. This all under the guise of "religious freedom", or to put it another way, wanting to be able to discriminate against gays on the basis of their religion. 

 To give an example yet another group has opened up over there called Christian Civil Rights Watch, which has set itself up in a major assault on the LGBT. Their extremism is thus:
“Gay pride” necessitates anti-Christian hate. It must. “Gay marriage” and other “sexual orientation”-based laws do violence to freedom and truth. They are the hammer with which the postmodern left intends to bludgeon bloody religious liberty and the Judeo-Christian sexual ethic. The liberal viewpoint is that any viewpoint, save the liberal viewpoint, must be criminalized and prosecuted.

 According to the unequivocal moral precepts of the Judeo-Christian tradition – explicit throughout both the Old and New Testaments – homosexual behavior is sin. Sin is evil. Homosexual behavior is the central, defining characteristic of so-called “gay marriage.” Therefore, “gay marriage” is evil. Christians are obligated to avoid sin – to “do no evil.”

 It’s not popular to speak such simple truths in today’s politically correct world. But at CCRW, we’re not out to win a popularity contest.

  To homosexuals we say this: Yes, you are equal in God’s eyes. You are loved. These things are true, not because of your homosexual lifestyle, but, rather, they are true in spite of it.

  Most homosexuals know intuitively, we believe, that their lifestyle is unnatural and immoral and that the oxymoronic notion of “same-sex marriage” is a puerile farce. Thus, they must force others to affirm both their self-destructive lifestyle and their mock “marriages” under penalty of law. They must physically compel everyone to engage their “emperor’s new clothes” delusion, so they can feel better about bad behavior.Christian Civil Rights Watch
Sound familiar? The RWNJ's in Australia may not say that in so many words, but given the amount of opposition and angst to gay marriage here it's likely they're censoring themselves when speaking about it. Although we have had some shocking comments from various numbers of them in the recent years leading up to equality. Remember Abbott has spoken twice at the US hate group "Alliance defending freedom". Opposition to marriage equality has always been about homophobia and misinterpreting the bible. At least this US group is open about it, saying they're against us because the bible. In Australia they're rather more subtle, but it's the same thing really. A struggle between religion and secularism, pure and simple. The nutters don't seem to realise that Australia is a secular democracy, not a theocracy.

 Religion in Australia already has a raft of "protections". A church or religious organisation can legally fire people because they're gay, or not hire them in the first place. That's today in Australia. What more religious privilege do they want? This from Australia:
We must not overlook the fact that the reforms introduced last week are already under serious threat, as a result of the Review into ‘Religious Freedoms’ announced by Malcolm Turnbull on 22 November. 

Former Liberal MP Philip Ruddock – the Attorney-General who oversaw the introduction of the ban on marriage equality in August 2004 – will spend the first three months of 2018 examining how Australian law can ‘better protect’ religious freedoms. 

As we all know, increases in special privileges for religious individuals and organisations almost inevitably come at the expense of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex Australians (as well as other groups, including women). 

Despite this, the panel for the Ruddock Review does not include any representatives from the LGBTI community (with Ruddock joined by the head of the Australian Human Rights Commission Rosalind Croucher, retired judge Annabelle Bennett and Jesuit priest Frank Brennan). 

So, by all means spend the remainder of December celebrating our recent success. Because when 2018 starts we must stand ready to defend those gains, as well as protecting a wide range of other existing LGBTI rights, which will likely come under sustained attack. Alistair Lawrie   
As a final note, these are the organisations being targeted by the US Christian Civil Rights Watch. You will notice a certain theme going through them:





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Sunday, 10 December 2017

Moving statement from equality campaign :)


Well after that last post this is something really positive. The Equality Campaign has released a statement about the events of the week. I really like the bit that no other LGBT Australian will have to go through what we have, particularly under the Abbott/Turnbull gov, ever again.

 
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Retarded vile comment on my YouTube channel *sheesh*

So the above comment to a video of David's fish tank (which I posted about 6 months ago and has had all of four views) greeted me in my inbox this morning. Incredibly the user calls himself "Fat retarded conservative FOX viewer". His YouTube channel has one subscriber with no content. The video of David's fish tank that he commented on is here.

I'm just going to report the idiot to YouTube as you do for abuse. I do wonder though why someone would suddenly leave a comment like that on an extremely obscure video with only 4 views in 6 months? I've got a feeling it's probably to do with marriage equality passing into law here and the hater's feathers are flying over it. Seems like too much of a coincidence to me.

*Update: I've done the whole reporting thing from his channel where you have to give links and refer to the actual comment etc. In doing so he's been blocked. I've also taken down the comment from my video; not having anything of mine online being used as a platform for a hating troll. 

BTW for the record, I don't have AIDS and never have. My HIV viral load has been undetectable for all the years I've been on meds, making it impossible to pass on even in unsafe sex. 
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Saturday, 9 December 2017

Turnbull and Abbott are losers re marriage equality - Angry Aussie (video)

Abbott flees the chamber to abstain from the last marriage equality vote

If you've felt angry and frustrated with Turnbull and Abbott during this whole marriage equality process then this is the video for you :)

 

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Friday, 8 December 2017

Turnbull is taking the credit for marriage equality and it's sick & wrong

 We LGBT are finding Turnbull even more revolting than ever today. The sight of him on the media prancing around and crediting himself with the passing of marriage equality in the parliament is deeply offensive, not to mention his wanton praising of the postal survey as a good thing.

The fact is he has been a slave to the far right of his party for the whole time he's been prime minister. He's caved in  to their every wish because he needed their support to stay the PM. They had him over a barrel, hence all the policies he's supposedly come up with weren't because he was leading but because he was concerned for his political career. He capitulated on climate change, coal mining, and the rest of it, not the least being marriage equality.

The numbers to pass marriage equality have been there in this parliament since the last federal election. All it needed was for parliament to be allowed a free vote (John Howard had 5 of them during his tenure). But the far right that was running the show wouldn't have it. Instead of standing up for us he stood up for his own political ass and again gave them what they wanted; a postal survey on our existence and our relationships to decide our human rights. He threw us to the wolves for his own career. Many of us will be dealing with the hate produced by the survey for many years to come.

During that survey I vowed I'd never forget what he did to us for no reason other than the pleasing of the lunar right in his party. We became canon fodder in their culture wars and delusions about what Australians wanted and cared about. We were subjected to the most vile criticisms and lies about us in the public sphere very much so online, without the usual protections from the Australian Electoral Commission. The survey for many was nothing more than an excuse for those who despise gays to "have their say", and vote on us.

It should never happen again to any other minority in this country. To have Turnbull now crowing about it all after capitulating to those in his party against us time after time is beyond comprehension. It's like he's fucking us over all over again, again for the sake of his own political career.  

BTW,   


My VPN reckons I'm in Perth :)
 
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Christians who promised to divorce if SSM happens, back down in humiliation


In 2015 a Christian couple in Australia vowed to get divorced if same sex marriage was 
passed in to law here. I remember they were very adamant about it, saying that marriage wouldn't mean the same thing if LGBT were included in it.

 So the Daily Mail has caught up with said couple yesterday and they completely backed down in a humiliating defeat. They didn't understand the law in the first place, but you know ignorance of the law is no excuse. Especially when you're going on newspapers across the country announcing your intentions. To be divorced you have to be separated for ages or something. No shit Sherlock; marriage isn't a play thing to make some political point with. Assholes.

And BTW, eat shit Lyle. 

Nick and Sarah Jensen, from Canberra, sparked controversy in 2015 when Mr Jensen announced they would end their decades-long legal union if same sex marriage was legalised. 

 When legalisation seemed much more likely in November, Mr Jensen said he would wait to see the letter of the law before making a decision. 

 And after Parliament finally passed the law to cheers on Thursday afternoon, Mr Jensen announced his position in a statement to Daily Mail Australia. 

'My previous public comments regarding civil divorce never envisaged me separating from my wife, but rather our marriage from the State,' he wrote. 

'The legislation currently makes it untenable for us to do this under the law. 

'The point we were highlighting and that still stands however is the fact that a redefinition of marriage changes the agreement under which we were originally married. 

'We will be making no further comment'. Daily Mail  

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Lyle Shelton caught in bald face lie - American catches him out online

JoeMyGod
It's official. Lyle Shelton is a liar.

 Thing is he doesn't seem to get that his comments are viewable across the globe, including to those people who know intimately the subject matter he's lying about. In this case it was about the US cake shop owner case who refused to serve a gay couple because of his religious beliefs (ie. make them a wedding cake). The case is currently in the US Supreme Court I believe as a test case to see if the cake shop owner is in the wrong or not, possibly having implications for the unraveling of current anti-discrimination law over there.

 However, true to form as in the postal survey, lying Lyle is very slippery with the facts. In this case outright lying about the case. I present exhibit A:

A casual observer may well think what he says is true, whatever his bigoted and delusional interpretation of it is. However due the the world publicity that Australia passing marriage equality has attracted, the above Tweet has gained the attention of none other than Joe My God, of the JoeMyGod US blog, who replied to Shelton pointing out his lie. May I say in a wonderful way :)
"Eat shit Lyle". He just a twisted lying asshol. The ACL even thought they would be fine writing a marriage discrimination bill for the federal parliament to pass. How the fuck do they keep their charity status? Anyone who lies like that surely must be a politician? I think he is; a failed one. So the boys have found him something else to do in connection with the National party.

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GetUp - How far we've come (video)


As Penny Wong has said, "It's been a long ten years"....

 
 
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Thursday, 7 December 2017

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



The last division with only five people voting no
The Guardian live feed






Dragging this gov kicking and screaming into this century






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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.



 
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Wednesday, 6 December 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 :)

 
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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  
 
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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  
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Tuesday, 5 December 2017

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?

 
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