Monday 26 January 2009

Pride March! this Sunday, Saint Kilda

Proud to be Queer! Pride in our Student Union!


Come and join the National Union of Students Queer Department Pride March contingent.

This year the theme of Pride is "Your Rights, Our Rights, Human Rights" and it has never been more vital to have strong, independent student unions that can foster and facilitate queer Activisim.


The March is on Sunday Feb 1. Assemble at 3pm on the corner of Lakeside Drive and Fitzroy street. The MArch will kick off at 5pm.


For more info on the Pride March or the NUS Queer Department, feel free to contact Heidi Claus and Liam Byrne, the National Queer Officers at queer@nus.asn.au


Last years march:

Sunday 18 January 2009

Awsome Quotes:

"I wish Jesus would come back and say 'that's not what I meant!' "
"They need to read the scripture, in Mathew, chapter 13, verse 4 it says 'shut the fuck up' "

-Margret Cho
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=k4nt4U7YGaI

Very funny and, she makes some valid comment, though not all totally PC or reflective of contemporary Queer theory, but none-the less well worth a look!

Tuesday 2 December 2008

"They're comming"

I was asked to do a post on this link: http://presetyourjet.wordpress.com/2008/11/22/they/ . It's definitely worth a look I don't think I've ever laughed so hard. I tried to upload it on here but I couldn't work out how to. As many of you know technology is not my thing.

The article is about the use of the word "them" Most of us are familiar with the concept of the "us and them" mentality. It is an idea frequently perpetuated by governments, bosses and the ruling class elite.


"The war on terror" has been and sadly continues to be an effective "us and them" manipulation tool. This is not a new or unique technique Nazzi Germany and McCarthy America also provide examples of the "us and them" manipulation technique in action.


The youtube clip which accompanies this article did make me laugh, but at the same time it is frightening. While to us it seems ridicules we must keep in mind that there are people who take this seriously. In America we witnessed the powerful and expensive campaigns behind "Prop 8." The right to same sex marriage was lost in 3 of the 5 states that tried to ban it. This happened amidst the election of Barak Obama, the first black president of the US - Are we heading in to a time of greater tolerance, of more left winged politics? Don't count on it!


This add, like the "Be alert not alarmed" adds and the lovely fridge magnates were aimed at creating fear and creating an enemy. Any enemy is better than the government.


Same sex marriage remains illegal in Australia, Howard banned it in 2004 and Rudd refuses to repeal this ban. Idealistic, but blind Labor loyalists point to the ability of same sex couples to pursue civil unions in some state. Is this equality? Sure, it is, it's just that heterosexuals are MORE equal! These inconsistent marriage/partnership laws create a hierarchy of relationships and they most certainly reinforce the us and them mentality. Queers and straights do not have the same rights. Legally we are not equal. This legal inequality separates us in to the "us" and "them" categories.


So laugh at the crackpots in the youtube clip, it is well worthy of a hearty belly laugh, but remember these crackpots are a wealthy and therefore politically powerful minority who have robed us of our rights and will continue to do so!

Thursday 27 November 2008

Monday 17 November 2008

Rally: Repeal the Same Sex Marriage Ban

This Saturday 22nd
Speakout and Petition Handover in support of Gay Marriage
12:30 State Library


The ban of same sex marriage across 3 states in America and the campaign to ban it in more, is a painful reminder that not only must we continue to fight to GAIN our rights, but we must fight to MAINTAIN our rights!
Protestors in Iowa pictured left.

I have been involved with a group that has been petitioning for equal marriage rights over the past year (of course the over all campaign began much earlier). It is quite clear that public opinion is in our favour. Our petitions have been signed by over 30,000 people. a recent Age poll showed that 79% (an overwhelming majority) of Australians support equal rights for same sex couples. In reaction to this public opinion the Rudd government announced a raft of changes to homophobic laws; many of which would be automatically reversed if same sex marriage was legalised and if passed may save the Government massive amounts of money. None the less the proposal was indeed a victory for our side but it falls well short of the campaigns demands!

The ban imposed by Howard in 2004 was a massive slap in the face to queers and activist, a curt reminder to "Keep in our places"-we will NOT!!

This Saturday, in the city at the State Library there will be an important rally which aims to put pressure on the government to repeal the ban and make Rudd follow through with his legislation changes. At the rally the petition will be handed to a Greens Senator, to table the issue in parliament.

Friday 14 November 2008

Sodomy

I'm bussy with exams and too lazzy to do a proper blog post so i thought i'd just post this instead....

An interesting email sent to me by my Girl Friend today... (Note while she tallks of the 'Torah' as she is Jewish, Christians have also included this in their holly scriptures (The Bible) I'm not as familiar with the holly scriptures of Islam but it would not suprise me if the Koran had the same or a simmilar story)

The English word Sodomy is derived from the destruction of Sodom in this week's Torah Portion, Vayeira. A common misconception is that Sodom was destroyed for engaging in homosexual acts (thus the term Sodomy). However, these homosexual acts were merely manifestations of Sodom's real sin: hostility to strangers. Sodomites would rape visitors due to a hatred for outsiders.

In light of this realization, perhaps we should revisit the definition of the word sodomy. A word that for so long has been used to induce shame and self-loathing in homosexuals could instead be used to discourage homophobia and other forms of intolerance against "outsiders" in our society.

The message of the destruction of Sodom is thus to welcome and embrace all people in our community -- not in spite of their difference -- but precisely because of it.

It just goes to show, the meaning of holly scriptures, like most text, is all in the niterpretation.

Saturday 1 November 2008

Q+A: Kicking Ass To Get The Job Done!


Q+A: Queers and Allies, Questioning and Answering is a group that was set up and run by students at Northcote High. At the conclusions of Rainbow Day 08 (an event i will talk about at a latter date) we were asked to speak at a forum of teachers and other high school workers (school nurses, welfare staff, principles etc) about our group. Bellow is an extract from the speech I gave.

On this day which we had worked so hard for not only to make it good, but to be allowed to do it in the first place we had a speaker from PFLAG. Kerri was informative and entertaining, we were gratefully to have her there. However before she left she told us that she believed that "Northcote High should be the blue print for all schools" she then went on to tell us that it's "all about the head" She felt that the existence of Q+A, our ability to run Rainbow Day and celebrate sexual and gender diversity was because of our principal (little did she know our teacher banned the use of the word "sexual" as in "sexual diversity" on any display we had up at the school and did not understand what "gender diversity" is! Anyone involved with the group knows that that's not true!

We had to campaign hard to have this day and she refused to let us have casual clothes on that day. Our original idea had been to have a free dress day allocating a colour to each year level, each year level would have represented a colour of the rainbow and we were going to ask students to submit a gold coin donation for this. This is standard practice in events at the school. We had hoped to raise money for a queer youth related group. She wouldn't allow this. She also wouldn't allow us to have the free dress day arguing that year 12 students would get to excited if they were allowed to wear free dress and this would cause them to do poorly in their exams.

She also did not want us to put on 'Rainbow Day', but we gave her little choice. Presenting a letter to the school committee which involves parents and Friends of the schools, and anything tabled at the meeting goes on public record. Presenting at a staff meeting, I announced that we had proposed that such a day be held. As a result I gathered much staff support. This put the principal in a bad position to deny us the day. (Ofcourse Kerri, from PFLAG had no way of knowing this and we don't blame her for the misconception)

Freedoms Are Won Not Given! I know, i know you're sick of me saying that, but it's true SO true! Queer and Allied students have not been given anything but challenges by the school administration. We have fought for every minuscule gain we have achieved in our aim to make NHS a safer place for queer and questioning students.
The point of this speech was 1) to offer advice as to how to develop a Queer group at a high school and 2) to attempt to show teachers how much power their STUDENTS have. Students CAN make a difference and at Northcote High we are!
so any way, here's part of the speech....
We have met and dealt with numerous challenges as a group.

  1. The first was that we had our posters taken down by school administration. So the simplest piece of advice I have for you is make sure you get the right approval to have posters up!
  2. Sadly we had a number of posters being torn down by students. Largely dealing with this was resilience, we just had to keep putting up the posters-which did play on our environmental consciences a bit. We also quickly learnt where they were taken down from, and where they were mostly likely to stay up. We found putting them in classroom windows and staff offices facing out meant that they were not torn down.

  3. Our group was largely populated by year 12’s who wont be here next year. Overcoming this so far has been largely through word of mouth, having the younger students who do come encourage mates to get along. We soon found that close to 50% of the students coming to our meetings were non-year 12 students. Today has also had a recruitment focus. Telling students about the group, advertising our meetings and we’ve planned a special meeting tomorrow with a guest speaker. We spoke at the year 9 assembly, and went around to the year 10 and 11 homeroom classes to advertise the day and the group-In the hope that these students will be able to take on leadership positions in the group next year.

  4. Before we could put on rainbow day or get serious about a campaign to reduce levels of queerphobia we had to have the administration of the school accept that there was a problem in the school. When putting up posters to advertise our group we encountered hostility over the word “make” as in “make NHS a queer safe space” There were some people who disliked the suggestion that NHS was NOT already a queer safe space. Certainly we felt that this was something the school administration could not judge as they’re not students. They don’t experience and witness queerphobia in the same way we do. Suggestion that any queerphobia in the school was the result of “one or two bullies” was highly insulting to the group and put a bit of a block on what we wanted to do. After discussions and several proposed plans we decided as a group we really couldn’t do any work until the school was forced to recognize the queerphobia with in it. We submitted a letter to our school principal and school council detailing our concerns, with some suggestions for improvement including rainbow day as well as collecting anecdotes from students and teachers detailing experiences of queerphobia in the school. This resulted in us being invited to talk to staff meetings and committees- which has raised awareness of queerphobia among staff and has put sexuality and gender diversity back on the agenda.

    I hope what I’ve said has been usefull but I must stress what I think is possibly the most crucial point: For their to be real change there must be student led and organized groups! Students will listen more to other students than teachers and a group like Q+A provides an ability for self empowerment of queer and allied students. This sense of being able to make change and stand up for what you believe in creates confidence and students create their OWN safe place.

So far this year Q+A has created a year 7 lesson plan which has been used to a great degree of success, put on an excellent day which sent a clear message to the school that NHS was a place of gender and sexuality diversity and that such diversity deserved to be celebrated, we have raised conscious levels of students and teachers, we have had a commitment from the school curriculum committee to make queer-friendly changes to the education and the manner in which staff are trained and simply by existing and meeting regularly we have given queer and question students a place to feel safe and supported, supported not only in that we will never mock them in regards tot heir sexuality and gender identity, we are also providing a support in which we work together to overcome the discrimination that Queer and questioning students are forced to put up with. We WILL be back next year! In fact our own curriculum committee (a Q+A sub group)intends to meet at the conclusion of exams to make reforms to the year 7 health curriculum which will then be put in place for following years.

Friday 10 October 2008

The History of Queer Pride Flags

I've been doing some research on the Queer Pride Flag. I had heard that there used to be 8 stripes, with a hot pink and a turquoise and that each colour meant something. The fact that there are a number of different colours also represents diversity I did however learn more than I expected...

The Rainbow (or Gay Pride) Flag was created by artist and vexillographer (fancy ass name for flag- designer) Gilbert Baker, a friend of the late Harvey Milk, who was an American politician who was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was assassinated in November 1978-the same year the flag began to be used prominently in San Fransisco. Baker, dyed and sewed the first flag himself. The flag debuted at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. It has since been used around the world as a symbol of LGBT unity in many variations, including adaptations such as bumper stickers and decals. The Rainbow Flag is frequently credited as being recognized by the International Congress of Flag Makers (ICoFM). There is no such thing as the ICoFM but was actually a slip of the tongue in an interview where baker confused the organization FIAV (English version of FIAV, or the International Association of Vexillological Associations) and the event Flag Congress.

Changes made to the flag:

There is much debate as to how the flag went from 8 to 7 to 6 and some accounts state that it went strait from 8 to 6. Here are a number of the theories:
1. The pink stripe was drooped because Baker ran out of pink Dye

2. San Francisco-based Paramount Flag Co. began selling seven-striped (top to bottom: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet) flags from its Polk Street retail store, which was located in a large gay neighborhood. These flags were surplus stock which had originally been made for the the International Order of Rainbow for Girls, a Masonic organization for young women. As these were so readily available, they for a time became the 'gay pride' flag out of convenience.
Baker goes commercial...

3. Apparently after the pink was dropped by Baker and his volunteers, Baker desired an even number of stripes on the flag.

Baker asked Paramount to make vertical banners that would be split and displayed from the angular double bars of the old-style lamp posts on Market Street. Baker and Paramount’s vice president Ken Hughes agreed to drop the hot pink and turquoise stripes and replace the indigo stripe with royal blue — resulting in three stripes on one side of the lamp post and three on the other.

The reality was that the gay community at this time (1978-1979) used almost any flag with a rainbow of stripes. Here are some examples of other rainbow flags...






International co-operative alliance (Christian socialists)


Italian peace flag, same design as the Greek peace flag which reads "epihnh" -peace in Greek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_symbol#The_Peace_Rainbow_Flag)


Flag of lingua Franca Nova


Jewish autonomous oblast in Russia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Autonomous_Oblast)


Meher Baba -Indian spirituality
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meher_Baba%27s_flag)

Wednesday 1 October 2008

The Birth of Sexual Opression in Australia.

I got a tad distracted as I was revising for my HIStory exam, I would like to call it HERstory, but what we are taught in school is very much HIS-story!....

We generally like to believe throughout history that majority opinion goes from worse to at the very least, less worse. Sadly this isn’t always the case. Governments will use what ever oppression they deem necessary at any particular point in time to create their desired effect; Whether that be anti-Muslim racism and the fear of terrorism to support US imperialism or sexual oppression to ‘strengthen’ the population among other oppressions. Sexual Oppression is sharpest when governments most require the reproduction of the working class. Cipi Morgan points out in her article ‘Colonial invasion and homophobia in Australia’ “heads rolled across Europe like billiard balls as kings, queens and clergymen scrambled for complete control over the lives of ordinary people” We see this also during WWI in Australia, with a ban on the importation of contraceptives, and again in Nazzi Germany when women were recruited to reproduce with soldiers, and queers and feminist were thrown into concentration camps (along with Jews, socialists, gypsies, Jehovah Witnesses and the many other outspoken individuals and groups). There is minimal if any ‘progression’- rather there are peaks in different opinions based on political struggles and the government’s desperate protection of the economy in our ‘national interest.’ We see much time, but little progress between Hennry Parks’s statement in 1866, that in the business of colonisation, “there is only one way to do it-by spreading over it all the associations and connections of family life” and Howard 2000 assertion that children require one mother and one father-ruling out any aberration to the nuclear family.
"Freedoms Are Won not Given!!!"

As I have asserted again and again on this blog and in my life outside this blog (yes I do have one) we as women, queers and allies have been GIVEN NOTHING! All the rights we have were hard fought for and won. Including the right to vote, the right to use contraception, the right to abortion, the right to have relationships with members of the same sex (not marital yet, but we are working on it!) We find our selves constantly having to defend the rights we do have let alone the ones we continue to struggle for (pro choice rally this Saturday, starts at 12.00 at the state library.)

There can be no doubt of the significant damage done to Australia’s indigenous people and the environment following the British Invasion in 1788. The land was considered to be 'Terra Nullius'- a land which is not inhabited. Cook and the British law of the time had decided that the "Indians" he encountered had no right to the land as they were not 'improving the land'-because we all know how greatly European invasion 'improved' the land.

The extreme poverty of the under classes of Britain had been forced into crime. The numbers of this massive class were so large that they could not be contained within England and so deportation to the "new land" began.

There is no evidence to suggest that queerphobia existed prior to European invasion. In fact in many pre-colonial and pre-class societies there is evidence to suggest that both sexual and gender diversity was more acceptable though different terms were used. Sister-girls are an example of this in Indigenous Australian communities. (Sister-girl: The acceptance and visibility of sistergirls is often considered far greater than gay men or lesbians in aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Sistergirls are biological men who are effeminate or live their lives as women. Communities will often accept and recognise sister girls as women. Sistergirls undertake the roles and responsibilities of women having relationships with straight men. However sistergirls do not generally identify as transgender.) Societies in North America and Siberia are also said to have practised transexuality and homosexuality. In many ancient societies same sex relations were not only accepted but exalted. Examples include the Mycenaen society of around 12000BC and the Athenian and African societies of 400-300 BC.

Even with the rise of the church “homosexuality” as a separate sexual or identity category remained unknown. The term “homosexuality” was first coined by a German scientist;
Karl-Maria Kertbeny in 1869.

According to Australian historians R.W. Connell and T.H. Irving, the panic around sexuality flared up in the 1820’s. with Governor Arthur’s booting out of officials for offences such as “adultery” and general sexual immorality. They argue that “particular venom was directed against homosexual relationships formed by many convicts and pastoral workers” adding that “unmarried convict women got a fair pasting as sluts and whores” They also point out that although the “1812 parliamentary inquiry into transportation had hardly raised a question about sex, the 1837 inquiry…positively smouldered with innuendo, scandal and moralising.”

Morgan points out the sexism inherent in the over used metaphor in colonial studies which “depicts the agent of colonisation as man and the tragic subject as woman (some kind of irresistible “wilderness” for man’s exploration).

The new ruling class of settler Australians struggled to gain control of the largely prior-convict working class. Family units have long been understood as being an effective way of controlling workers. For the creation of families, wom*n were essential. There were offcourse few wom*n in settler Australia. The Port Philip District (now the state of Victoria) had 75 women to 2000 men in 1838.
The much celebrated Caroline Chisholm, a member of the British ruling class worked to domesticate the ‘frisky convict males’ She lobbied with missionary zeal for the importation of young wom*n. These young wom*n she argued, would galvanise the establishment of an Australian working class family- the platform of an obedient society
The wom*n and their children, Chisholm said in 1847, would act as “God’s police” taming unruly male workers.
This wave of women was intended for the sexual and domestic service of the state. Chisholm herself was involved in first the education of these women; teaching them the skills of cooking, cleaning and elocution, Chisholm then helped to ensure these young wom*n acquired jobs, as domestic labourers. Young wom*n were encouraged to travel to the “new worlds” of which Australia was one in order to find “respectablility” The colonies were advirtised as offering "respectable" work for a wom*n and eventually a greater prospect married-Marriage anf family life ofcourse being the ultimate goal for wom*n and the only way for a wom*n to acheive true respectability. Ruling class wom*n in Australia are reported to have complained about the difficulty in finding female domestic labour and that when found it was expensive and hard to keep. This shows us the vital role that wom*n play in sexism and the relation of sexism to class society as opposed to the gender of the perpetrator.

The use of “decent” working class families by the ruling class in Australia mirrored that of England; With the intensifying of gender stereotypes and the extraction of unpaid female labour in reproducing, feeding, clothing and caring for workers. At this same time the first of the trials of homosexuals were occurring, including that of Oscar Wilde in 1895.

Homosexuality was not invented in Colonial Australia however it certainly made it’s debut as public enemy number one in the eyes of the ruling class.

The old fashioned, conservative, bloodstained and oppressive values of the ruling class are no less prevalent in today’s society, though they tend to manifest themselves in different ways. Like all oppressions, sexual oppression is a tool used to keep the working class in it’s place.

Writting Themselves in Again

This is the summary of the key findings from the 'Writing themselves in again' report on the sexuality, health and well-being of same sex attracted young people in Australia.


1749 australian young queer people answered the survey.


I have sumarised the finding of this report and put them into a slide show, 1st slide pictured left. To be shown by our school Q+A group at a staff meeting.

About Your Sexual Feelings:

Key finding:
•Young women were more likely to identify as bisexual or no label than men
•More than a third of young people realised their sexual differences very early in their lives. (over half of young men and women cited realising they were not heterosexual before the age of 14)
•There was no relationship between age at first realization of sexual feelings, current attraction and gender of sexual partner.
•Once young people reframed their experiences oh homophobia as an issue of bullying and not of truths about themselves, they were more likely to feel better about being same sex attracted.

About Your Sexual Behaviour
Key findings:
•SSAY (Same sex attracted Young People) were more likely to be sexually active earlier than their Year 10 and 12 peers in secondary school
•SSA were more likely to be having sex that matched their sexual attraction in 1998.
•65% used a condom at their last penetrative encounter (58% of young women and 68% young men)
•10% reported being diagnosed with an ATI
•11% of young women had been pregnant (one third of these women identify as being attracted exclusively to their own gender), 10% of the 15-18 year old sub-sample
•6% reported having been diagnosed with some form of hepatitis

How do People Treat you?

Key Findings:
•38% of participants reported unfair treatment on the basis of their sexuality
•44% reported verbal abuse and 16% reported physical abuse because of their sexuality (figures are largely unchanged since the 1998 report)
•School was the most dangerous place for young people to be with 74% of young people who were abused experiencing this abuse at school (80% young men, 48% young women)

Impact of Discrimination and abuse

Key Findings:
•Homophobic abuse has a profound impact on young peoples well-being
ØThose who had suffered abuse felt less safe at school, home, on social occasions and sport
ØThose who had experience abuse were more likely to self-harm, report a sexually transmissible infection and use a range of legal and illegal drugs
ØYoung people felt the most safe at home and the least safe at sporting events

About your drug use

Key findings
•In 2004, the reported use of all drugs, including alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, part drugs and heroin was down on reported use in 1998 (percentage of young people who had injected drugs dropped from 11% to 4%)
•Drugs remain substantially higher than for heterosexual youth, for example, over double the number of SSAY have injected drugs
•There remains a significant relationship between homophobic abuse and drug use
•Drug use serves a number of important functions in these peoples lives.

Disclosure and Support

Key Findings
•Support from all confidants was higher in 2004 than it was in 1998
•Young people who had support felt significantly better about their sexuality
•There was an increase in support from teachers and student welfare coordinators in 2004
•Almost three quarters of young people had spoken to someone on the internet about their sexuality

Sex education information

•The internet was the most important source of information about homophobia and discrimination (71%), gay (73%) and Lesbian (60%) relationships and gay (69%) and lesbian (54) safe sex
•80% of these SSAY found sex education at school to be useless or fairly useless, while 20% found it to be useful