Digital Activism: Human Rights and Equality – Talking Digital Media, Episode 11
Adam Brown chats with me about how I use digital media to assist my activism.
James Kennard: dinosaur or responsible principal?
The principal of Mount Scopus Memorial College needs to speak up on LGBTIQ inclusion at his school.
From: Michael Barnett
Date: 22 March 2016 at 01:10
Subject: Will you break your silence on homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism?
To: James Kennard <jkennard@scopus.vic.edu.au>
Dear Principal Kennard,
Tonight I attended a Save Safe Schools rally at the State Library of Victoria.
Present at this rally was State Education Minister James Merlino, along with a range of teachers, students, parents and other concerned parties.
These people are collectively concerned about the welfare of students, and in particular, those students who experience difference in terms of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
Their concern stems from credible research that shows without necessary support, there are elevated levels of suicide. Let me repeat. Elevated levels of suicide.
I know you are an orthodox rabbi. You are also the principal of a school. I know that as an orthodox rabbi who is a principal of a school you are personally conflicted, because your training as a rabbi puts you at odds with the research, sadly. And despite this you are a signatory of the Statement of Principles, a document that could be so much more but ultimately is one that pities homosexual people and blames them for their rates of suicide.
I am writing to you not to plead or beg for you to change your perspectives on homosexuality or related issues because that would be a complete waste of my time.
What I am writing to you is to ask you how you are making the students at your school understand how you can comfortably live with the knowledge that in not talking openly and inclusively about the the wonderful diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity, you are elevating their levels of mental illness, self harm and risk of suicide.
I know you probably don’t ask them what they think of your attitudes toward these icky issues, but trust me, many other people are talking about you and your intolerance of such diversity. And these people are not just the parents, but also the teachers and the principals of other schools.
They are looking at you and wondering how a dinosaur like you can be in a position of authority at a prominent day school in Melbourne. I know dinosaurs are supposed to be extinct, but someone recently discovered a Christenosaurus and a Bernardi-Rex, so it stands that a Kennarderatops could still be alive.
I’m not joking. These dinosaurs are killing our students. They are driving them to the depths of despair, exacerbating their anxiety levels and making life unbearable.
Personally, I’d rather not have to write this letter but if I didn’t write to you I’d feel I hadn’t made my best effort to stamp out bigotry, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in Mount Scopus Memorial College.
If my dreams were to come true I’d see a response to this letter saying “But Michael, we’ve had Roz Ward come to talk to us and we’re signing up to Safe Schools tomorrow, just like King David, Bialik and Sholem Aleichem have done. We know Safe Schools is best practices, has proven outcomes and is respected nationally.”
I’m not sure that I’ll be so lucky in my wishes, but I can hope.
This is not complicated. Either you are committed to the best outcomes for your students or you are ripping off the parents at your school. If you are committed to the best outcomes for your students, in terms of overall well-being, academic excellence, sporting excellence and self-respect, then unless you are talking openly and unconditionally about these issues, I’d say you’re failing the entire school community.
Except perhaps those people who believe the Torah has it right about homosexuality, the bit where we are sinners.
I’ll let you in on a secret. I was bullied at school. I was tormented and ridiculed. I was scared to fucking hell of being gay, because when I had the shit kicked out of me on a regular basis, told I was a poofter and a pansy, that I was a fag and a homo, when I was scared to be creative, to be expressive, to shine as a student because that would make me gay, because I was scared I would be kicked out of home if my parents found out I was homosexual, because I had terrible anxiety through my teens and I hated every day I was alive, because I barely passed my year 12 exams because I didn’t want to excel in English because I was hiding a secret and found failure more rewarding, this was all because I had no one tell me that I was ok, that I was normal, that I was fine, that I was not a sinner, not a pervert, not an abomination, not aberrant, not broken and not deviant.
How many students at your school are openly accepted and affirmed because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex or any other configuration other than heterosexual and cis-gender? Do you know or do you bury your head in the sand and go la-la-la-la-la?
How many same-sex marriages of past students does your school recognise in it’s newsletter? How many rainbow families are reflected in the school’s religious program, like the shabbat service with two ima’s and/or two aba’s? How many students are openly supported in transitioning their gender at your school?
I will confidently tell you that unless you can make a public statement that addresses all of these issues in a positive, affirmative and inclusive light, free of harmful religious rhetoric, you are failing your entire school community, your students, their families, your board and ultimately yourself.
I don’t need a lesson on halacha in reply. I just need you to understand that every day of silence is another day you haven’t done your best to prevent the death of the next trans, bi, gay, or queer student at your school. And if you haven’t done your best, you are not worth being the principal of any school.
What is it Principal Kennard? Are you doing your best or are you failing everyone?
Sincerely,
Michael Barnett.
PS. As a courtesy, I’m letting you know this letter is going online and will be distributed to a variety of people who care about the welfare of students at your school. I want people to see the harm that is being inflicted on their students by your ongoing silence.
A helpful background piece on this issue can be found here along with a petition here.
Staggering to see Principal James Kennard ‘like’ a post on Facebook questioning the merit of the Safe Schools program. He has since reversed the ‘like’ on the post, but that he liked it in the first place is unfathomable for someone of his standing.
A selection of my photos from the Save Safe Schools rally at the State Library of Victoria and down Swanston Street:
Facebook. Cünt Of The Day.
Facebook banned me for 30 days for using the words “poof” and “dyke”. Why?
Over the past couple of years I’ve sustained a number of increasingly harsh bans on my Facebook account as a result of reports against content that I’ve posted.
The most recent report on my account resulted in a 30 day ban on posting that went beyond any other ban against me, including sending private messages, liking posts or pages, unsubscribing from groups (that others added me to) and so on.
I try to play fair on Facebook because I don’t really want to lose my access and I don’t really want to be a problem user.
This is what Facebook took exception to most recently:
The message in question was one I sent via Twitter that was cross-posted to Facebook. I didn’t feel this a particularly offensive message given that the words “poof” and “dyke” are in common use in Australia and given that Lyle Shelton did admit he was concerned that people might think him gay if marriage equality became a reality in Australia.
One might say that the words “poof” and “dyke” are offensive. They can be, depending on context and who is using them, much like the word “nïgger” can be offensive. I couldn’t get away with reasonably calling someone a nïgger as easily as an African American could. Similarly, as a gay man I have no concern appropriately referring to myself or someone else who is gay (or who is perceived to be) as a poof. In the right context it can even be a term of endearment.
So to my use of the words “poof” and “dyke” on Facebook, it’s hard to think Facebook actually has a problem with them:
So if Facebook permits the use of the words “poof” and “dyke” in its groups, pages and places, what actual justification does it have for slapping a 30 day ban on my account for using these words, in a context that is factual?
Double standards Facebook?
PS. Facebook doesn’t even seem to have a problem with the word “nïgger” appearing in it’s pages (etc):
or “cünt”:
Bill Muehlenberg publishes libellous comment by David Clay calling for death of Early Childhood Australia’s staff
On March 6 2016 Bill Muehlenberg published an article attacking Early Childhood Australia under the heading “Get Your Hands Off Our Children”:
Bill enforces a strict moderation regime on his site, only permitting comments to appear through a manual approval process.
The following comment by David Clay, time-stamped 9am March 6 2016, appeared under the article:
By 10:05am on March 8 2016 this comment had been removed:
https://twitter.com/atheistliberal/status/706979108647993344
A follow-up article by Bill Muehlenberg attacking Early Childhood Australia has since appeared under the heading The Sexual Anarchists Targeting Our Children.
Will Bill allow more calls for the death of innocent citizens?
STOP THE HATE NOW!
There is an extreme homophobia that exists in the Australian Jewish Community. STOP THE HATE NOW.
From: Michael Barnett
Date: 6 March 2016 at 23:23
Subject: Extreme homophobia in the Jewish community in Australia
To: Robert Goot <president@ecaj.org.au>
Cc: ….
Dear Robert,
I wish to remind the ECAJ that there is an extreme homophobia that exists in the Australian Jewish Community.
It’s name is Paul Winter and it’s name is Robert Weil. These are the names of it’s public face. There are many more names that do not dare show their face.
These people are vile humans and they claim their superior perspective.
I am sick of reading their filth and hatred toward people like me. Every time I read one of their posts I feel like vomiting.
Tonight Paul Winter has just spewed this bile:
Paul Winter says:
March 6, 2016 10:10 pm at 10:10 pm
Comparing the Nazi persecution of homosexuals to that of their persecution of Jews is false and hysterical. Homosexuals, communists and various other groups were discriminated against and were even killed. But the Nazis selected only two groups for extermination: the Jews and the Gypsies. The extermination of the Gypsies was nowhere near as thorough or as sadistic as the extermination program that Jews were subjected to.
Nobody wishes to persecute people because of their sexuality. Nobody in their right mind would want a regime to drive a person to suicide as that genius Alan Turing was. But nobody in their right mind either would acquiesce to same sex marriage or for same sex couples to raise children. That is not being homophobic, but simply recognising that we do not need to change the marriage laws in Australia where homosexuals have equal rights and that no man can be a mother nor a woman a father, role models children need to develop in a healthy way.
Complaining about a persecution that does not exist – unlike in mohammedan realms where homosexuals are publicly hanged or thrown off tall buildings – is merely a ploy to gain social goals that the LGBTIQ cohort does not need or deserve. We do not need to change to make Trotskyites deriding society as heteronormative feel comfortable. We do not need rainbow or colour me purple days at schools where students fling their difference in the face of their heterosexual peers, who then, like true cry-bullies, complain about objectors denying them a safe space. Mutual acceptance and all round respect is called for.
I have been reading Paul Winter and Robert Weil’s filth in the pages of the Australian Jewish News and on J-Wire for years and IT IS ENOUGH.
You are the head of the ECAJ and I am wondering what the fuck your responsibility is if it’s not to feed your ego and that of the other jellyfish that cannot muster up the courage to denounce extreme homophobia in the Jewish community.
Now you may guess I am angry. Yes, I am fucking outraged. I have been a victim of this shit for decades.
But let me go back to 1999. That was the year that Rabbi Emeritus Ronald Lubofsky ripped me a new arsehole in the JCCV Plenum.
Let me tell you about Rabbi Emeritus Ronald Lubofsky AM. In the 1970s this “man” used to teach bar mitzvah students at St Kilda Synagogue. With two of his students he used to masturbate in front of them during their lessons. These were 12 or 13 year old boys. There may well have been more. He took that secret to his grave. Is he a hero of the Jewish community, this man who left me distressed in 1999 because he abused the trust I gave him and destroyed me in the most inhumane manner possible at the JCCV Plenum.
I am sick of the filth that people like Lubofsky, Weil and Winter dish up on gay people. SICK OF THE SHIT.
Now you can delete this email, you can take legal action against me, or you can fucking show some spine.
I am over wankers like you doing sweet FA. FUCK THE LOT OF YOU.
Speak out on those orthodox rabbis in the ORA, RCNSW and RCV who hate homosexuality and who want to deny Australians civil marriage. Speak out on arsewipes like Winter, Weil and “Lubofsky the paedophile”. Speak out on the bigotry, the intolerance, the hatred, the homophobia and the transphobia in the Jewish community.
STOP THE HATE NOW.
Michael Barnett.
Melissa Biersack Kirby >> #INeedSafeSchools
Melissa Biersack Kirby to Ineedsafeschools
#ineedsafeschools because I’ve watch my friends be beaten up while I stood frozen scared of what could happen if I stepped in.
I need safe schools because I’ve been called some of the most horrendous things not only by my peers but a few of my teachers as well.
I need safe schools because my best friend has watched me cry into her shoulder for hours.
I need safe schools because I wasn’t given enough time to be completely comfortable with who I am before being forced to tell my parents.
I need safe schools because I ad so much self hate for myself that I wasn’t looking after myself.
I need safe schools because the only things around sexuality that is taught at my school is two pages in a text book that say GAY STRAIGHT AND TRANS.
I need safe schools because when I say that I am pansexual everyone has no idea what I’m talking about and guess that I’m in love with pots and pans
I need safe schools because I have a friend who was turned away from a school because of ‘special needs’. He’s trans.
I need safe schools because the two week long sex program in year nine has the assumption that everyone in the room is straight.
I need safe schools because for two whole years I felt broken.
I need safe schools because I’ve been trying to stay afloat while I have rocks tied to my ankles.
I need safe schools because my parents watch this happen and they feel helpless when nothing changes.
I need safe schools because I am not
Someone’s punching bag.
Something that can be tossed aside.
Someone’s pawn.
Something you can use like puppet.
I need safe schools because I am.
I am great.
And I am strong.
And my friends and family deserve that.
I deserve that.
Christianity vs. LGBTI, an unnecessary war
“This is not a suffering competition for martyrs, it’s a legislative process taking place in a secular nation.” THE Turnbull government has no firm plans for a public vote on marriage e…
MikeyBear: 1. Lyle Shelton: 0.
Lyle Shelton tells people gays are not good enough to get married. I find that message foul. He doesn’t like his own medicine.
Lyle Shelton, Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby (a gay hate group) regularly tells the world gays are not good enough to get married (mainly because he thinks it will make people think he’s gay). He also tells the world children of gay parents are neglected. He also thinks homosexuality is wrong. He has no intelligent justification for these bigoted perspectives.
I find that message exceedingly foul.
Now when someone sends Lyle a message that he thinks is foul he sticks his fingers in his ears and says “la la la la… I can’t hear you… la la la la…”.
Mikeybear: 1. Lyle Shelton: 0.
Faith and Queer Identity | Stand Up Straight JOY 94.9
I was interviewed by Michelle Barber, host of JOY 94.9’s Stand Up Straight, to discuss religion and sexuality.
[NB: My first appearance in this interview is at 15:14 – MB]
Stand Up Straight / Religion / Faith and Queer Identity
Faith and Queer Identity
November 14, 2013 by Johnathon
This weeks show is “From Religion” I have two fascinating guys joining me: Michael Barnett and Andrew Wheatland (from JOY’s Spirit Lounge). A Christian and a Jewish perspective, but of course, nothing is as you might think!
They tell their very different coming out experiences, and share their stories of being gay men and how this impacted on their relationship with their religion, family and friends.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 41:31 — 38.0MB)
A letter to Andrew Laming, MP for Bowman
Andrew Laming, MP for Bowman cares about youth mental health but if he votes against marriage equality he will exacerbate that problem.
From: Michael Barnett
Date: 8 August 2015 at 13:00
Subject: An urgent message about the mental health of youth in Bowman
To: Andrew Laming – MP for Bowman <andrew.laming.mp@aph.gov.au>
Dear Mr Laming
I’m writing to you regarding the issue of mental health in young people in your electorate of Bowman.
In your first speech to Parliament in November 2004 you spoke of wanting to help young Australians make a difference about the issues important to them:
Lastly, I want to engage young Australians. Our young Australians out there still do not have the faith in this parliament that I would love to see. How do I convince those young Australians that this political process is one in which they can have faith? How can I convince them that the issues that they want to talk about are ones where we can really make a difference?
You also spoke about knowing your limitations, about drawing from but not being a slave to your lived experience, and realising that celebrating diversity is something you value more than enforcing your ideology on others:
I am grounded by the humility of my limited knowledge. I hope I am guided, but never coloured, by my life experiences. I tell my story not to hammer some ideological stake in the ground but to celebrate the diversity of experiences that are here. Different backgrounds add to the breadth of this parliament…
I refer you to a statement on mental health on your web site claiming:
75% of all mental illness presents in people aged under 25, that’s why I’m so pleased to announce Capalaba is one of 15 locations across Australia that will get a new Headspace centre.
A further such statement on your web site claims:
Mental health is a topic I take very seriously, and for those interested we’ve just announced a new Headspace facility for Capalaba where youth can get early intervention and treatment for drug, alcohol and mental health issues. This kind of facility is the key to prevention and supporting our young people long before they’re rolling into emergency. It’s a passionate topic for many, and the majority of us have been touched by mental health in some way. Let’s work together to come up solutions and constructive feedback so we can support our young people.
It is evident that you not only care about giving young people opportunities, but that you care deeply about their mental health and well-being. I am confident most people would align with you on these concerns.
What strikes me as a little odd is that whilst you are passionate about these issues, you appear to be lacking the necessary degree of commitment to stand by them.
There is ample evidence that young people who are marginalised and discriminated against due to their sexual orientation or gender identity have poorer mental health outcomes than their peers:
Same-sex attracted Australians are more likely to experience below-average health outcomes including higher levels of depression, due to this prejudice and discrimination. The statistics are particularly alarming for younger and newly-identifying LGBTI people who have consistently higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness, early school leaving, conflict with peers and parents and suicide ideation, all directly related to the discrimination and prejudice they experience.[v]
http://www.glhv.org.au/files/writing_themselves_in_again.pdf
Young people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex who are denied hope, opportunity and the rewards of society are those who are most likely to be in need of the mental health services you have campaigned so passionately for.
You voted strongly against marriage equality in 2010 and 2012, and declared in 2011 that you are personally “opposed to SSM [same-sex marriage]” but “support legally-equivalent civil unions as an alternative“.
The masthead on your web site states:
I understand you are presently surveying your electorate on the issue of marriage equality and of this you state “I pledge to vote according to your verdict.”
You are registered as a medical practitioner Mr Laming and have worked as a GP. You will no doubt be aware of how risk factors play out in the well-being of people’s lives. I ask you to think hard about the implications of choosing to vote against marriage equality, knowing that maintaining the status quo is linked to poorer health outcomes. I also ask you to consider that a vote against marriage equality will obliterate the hopes, opportunities and rewards for the same young people whose welfare you so passionately and genuinely care about.
Polling by Crosby-Textor, the go-to pollsters for the Liberal Party (the party that you are a member of) showed that in 2014 there was very strong support nationally for people aged 18-34 (female: 90%; male 81%). In 2010 the News Ltd Same-Sex Marriage poll indicated 43% support in Bowman, 40% opposed and 17% indifferent. That means 60% of Bowman are not opposed to marriage equality.
In 2004 you claimed that you wanted to empower young Australians to actively engage in politics and to speak out about the issues that are important to them. In 2015 you are asking your electorate to tell you about marriage equality yet you are bypassing the credible polling that exists. The young people of Australia and in Bowman want marriage equality very much.
You talk of hope, reward and opportunity. You talk of wanting to reduce the plight of mental health issues in young people in Bowman. You talk of wanting to give young Australians faith in their parliament. You talk about wanting to see young people achieve what is important to them. You talk of knowing your limitations and not hammering your ideology. You talk of celebrating diversity. Yet despite all this talk you are prepared to turn your back on it if the unscientific and clumsy polling that you are engaging in suggest you should not support marriage equality.
What exactly are your priorities Mr Laming? Are they centred around the welfare of your electorate, or are they centred around your further reelection to office? Because it strikes me that the people of Bowman are not getting the best representation you could give them if you continue to turn your back on what all the evidence is showing.
I leave you with the quote that you borrowed from Robert F Kennedy in your first speech and your closing paragraph. Perhaps now would be a prudent time to contemplate them.
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. That ripple builds others. Those ripples – crossing each other from a million different centers of energy – build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and injustice.”
– Senator Robert F. Kennedy
While there are no mighty walls to sweep down in Bowman, there are plenty of opportunities for ripples of hope—opportunities to enrich a beloved community, to preserve our Redland character and to provide choice and opportunity for those whose faith has put me here.
In the best interests of the young people of Bowman, their families, friends and communities, I urge you to vote for marriage equality.
Sincerely,
Michael Barnett.
Ashwood VIC