Gay – Page 11 – mikeybear

Brutal Oxford Street Attacks on Jewish gay man

This news of a brutal attack on Simon Margan, a Jewish gay man in Sydney, is extremely disturbing. Whilst there does not yet appear to be any indication Simon was brutally attacked because he was Jewish, there appears to be strong evidence he was attacked because he was gay. Despite that, there needs to be support from the Jewish community to say that it is unacceptable for any member of the Jewish community to be subjected to vicious hate attacks, especially if they are motivated by homophobic intolerance.

There has been no visible support from the Australian Jewish community to date on this matter, specifically addressing homophobic intolerance and violence. This situation is now critical and there must be strong, visible support from the entire Australian Jewish community that hate crime and intolerance based on sexual orientation is unacceptable. There must also be a strong message that any intolerance of a person based on their sexual orientation is completely unacceptable.

I call on the leaders of the Australian Jewish community to take an immediate and effective stand.

I hope to see a media statement from the Jewish community issued before the end of this week.

Michael Barnett.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Roy Freeman
Date: 12 August 2010 14:35
Subject: [Dayenu] Oxford Street Attacks
To: Dayenu Yahoo

I just wanted to share with you news of this disturbing unprovoked attack that took place on Oxford Street on Monday evening. Gay-rights activist and Dayenu member, Simon Margan, was attacked along with 5 other people before the assailant was caught. Simon was kicked in the eye, which shattered his eye socket. He will have to have plastic surgery as a result.

If you were around Oxford Street on Monday evening and witnessed any of these attacks, please contact Surry Hills police.

http://www.samesame.com.au/news/local/5746/Six-injured-in-Oxford-St-bashing-spree.htm

Roy

GLBTI, Jewish and enrolled to vote in Melbourne Ports or Wentworth?

With the federal election looming, there are a number of political parties offering to fight for increased rights and equality of GLBTI people and families. The key parties offering this are the Greens, the Australian Sex Party and the Secular Party of Australia. The Liberal Party offers no hope for advancing the rights of GLBTI people and families in Australia. The Australian Labor Party has previously advanced the rights for GLBTI people and removed a lot of the discrimination that we had been facing, however it is currently not prepared to turn around any significant existing discrimination facing GLBTI people, most notably in the area of marriage.

The Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group (TGLRG) has set up a web site “Moving Forward“. They have surveyed a number of political parties and posted their responses online. Take some time to read these survey responses. TGLRG will post responses from other political parties as they are received.

The electorates of Melbourne Ports (VIC) and Wentworth (NSW) contain the largest Jewish populations in the country. They both also contain significant gay, lesbian and bisexual populations.

The Greens’ Sue Plowright, the Australian Sex Party’s Christian Vega and the Secular Party’s Gregory Storer are candidates in Melbourne Ports. The Greens’ Matthew Robertson and the Secular Party’s John August are candidates in Wentworth. [I have provided links here for candidate’s web sites that I am aware of. I will post others if they are brought to my attention.]

If you are in Melbourne Ports, LIVE are running a candidates forum on August 10. Click here^* for details and to RSVP. You can also send a question to the candidates via the web site.

If you are in Wentworth, Network (for Jewish young adults who are searching for, questioning and celebrating their Jewish identity) are running a pre-election candidate forum on August 11. Click here for details and to register.

As I become aware of further such meetings or supportive candidate details prior to the election I will post them to my blog. If you have any relevant details feel free to post a comment below. Thanks.

Michael.

* http://live.org.au/community-events/candidates-forum

What sort of people don’t take youth suicide seriously?

I asked the question on my Facebook profile:

What sort of people don’t take youth suicide seriously?

The responses so far:

Luke: people who put their own self interests ahead of the safety and well-being of vulnerable, young Australians…evil, hateful people…
Leigh: The Victorian labor party! We campaigned for YEARS and they were not interested! 13 young people in our tiny area (6 country towns) died in one year and they didn’t think it was a problem.
Jason: The church
Elvira: People who don’t see youth suicide as having any correlation with glbti community. People stuck in the middle ages.
Tony: People who don’t take GLBT youth suicide, or any youth suicide seriously have their head in the sand, and it is just an ignorant, disgusting and narrow-minded stance to take.
Gregory: Amazing comments Michael – good to see some people have an idea about what’s going on!

I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine where the real problem is.

Shoshana Silcove: “I am against gay marriage”

Shoshana Silcove posted a comment on Mark Baker’s blog on Galus Australis telling the world she is against gay marriage. That would make her a party pooper and a homophobic bigot, for starters.

Shoshana writes (her spelling errors are included):

I am against gay marriage but, that does not mean I would in any way supoort slaughtering people for being gay. One can see homsexuality as immoral yet, not be in any manner or form a proponent of persecution or genocide of gays. Persecuting or genociding any one group for any reason is horrifc and immoral too. I take umbrage with Mr. Baker’s implication (read between the lines) that those who do not want to see gay marriage legalised are inclined to be immoral persecutors or murderous beasts.

Let’s play a game here. I think I’ll call it ‘swapsies’. It goes like this. Take a word out of a sentence and swap it with one or more other words. It’s very simple. We’ll play the game using Shoshana’s statement:

I am against gay inter-racial marriage
I am against gay Jewish marriage
I am against gay Progressive-Jewish-is-not-really-Jewish marriage
I am against gay Muslim marriage
I am against gay Christian marriage
I am against gay indigenous marriage
I am against gay secular marriage
I am against gay religious marriage
I am against gay fat-person marriage
I am against gay really-ugly-person marriage
I am against gay disabled-person marriage
I am against gay marriage-of-convenience marriage
I am against gay marriage

That was fun. I’m sure I could play the game for hours on end. Will they bring it our for Xbox or as an Android/iPhone App? But what would Shoshana Silcove have to say about these? Would she approve or disapprove of any of them? Shoshana? Do any of them appeal to you? Send me your preferences. I’d like to hear them.

Dear Shoshana, who gives you the authority to determine which two consenting adults can or can’t get married? If same-sex marriage doesn’t please you, kindly refrain from commenting. I don’t care who you marry. It’s none of your business to make judgement calls about who I can marry. I may disapprove of your choice in marital partner, if anyone would want to marry you, but to be honest, I don’t give a rats arse.

Michael.

Mark Baker: a Jewish perspective on gay equality

Mark Baker has written a particularly poignant piece for Galus Australis challenging discrimination against same-sex attracted people, from his Jewish perspective:

When a Kiss Means Death

We need more intelligent, compassionate and articulate people like Mark fighting for the dignity and equality of same-sex attracted people in the Jewish and wider community; people who are not scared of religious bigots.

On the contrary, John Searle, JCCV President, could learn a lesson from Mark Baker. Searle should be ashamed of himself. He claims to be looking after the best interests of the members of the Jewish community yet he is too spineless to speak out on this critical issue, preferring to pander to the traditonal intolerant and antiquated orthodox bloc. Just what sort of a leader and man is he?

Thank you very much Mark.

Michael.

The bitch has died, and I’ll miss him dearly

Addam Stobbs, Bitch Queen to the Melbourne gay community, dies at 3am on Wednesday June 16 2010

Addam Stobbs at the 2009 Midsumma Carnival (photo by Michael Barnett)

News just in that a person who has been a staple in the gay community for at least the past 14 years that I’ve known him has just died. This is a shock and complete surprise. Addam Stobbs. Bitch to the stars. Gone.

I loved Addam. He was one of the nicest-to-your-face people I have ever met. But he was a nice person. He made me laugh. Just listening to him talk, on the radio, on a microphone at Midsumma, in the street, on the phone, at Club 80, wherever. He was a lovely, callous, direct person with a huge heart.

The world needs more bitches like Addam Stobbs.

I’ll miss you sweetie.

Mikey.

[My photos of Addam on Google Photos here and on Facebook here]

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DP Tex McKenzie <texmcx57@yahoo.com.au>
Date: 16 June 2010 15:13
Subject: [QueerNews] Vale Addam Stobbs
To: Qmelb <qmelb@yahoogroups.com>
Hi all – sad news. I have just forwrded the following email around the Victorian AIDS Council and People Living With HIV/AIDS Victoria (hence the mention of Addam being a supporter of our organisations).
I have just been on the phone to the Program manager @ JOY 94.9 and have been told that Addam Stobbs passed away today.
Addam was a long time supporter of our organisations and was the host of Allegro Non Troppo on Sundays on JOY. He was also on the board of JOY and had been a long time member.
Addam has in the past interviewed many people about HIV and same sex related issues. The program Allegro Non Troppo is broadcast on the Community Radio Network around Australia and the programs he and his radio partner Peter presented helped to de-mystify both HIV and homosexuality to non-alphabet folk.
Earlier this year he and his partner celebrated their 9^th year together.
He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.
I imagine funeral details will be in the print media and online in the next few days.
Thanks…
DP Tex McKenzie
Health Educator – Outreach

A Pluralist Panel on Homosexuality & Judaism: comment, photos and my address

I was invited to participate in “A Pluralist Panel on Homosexuality and Judaism” by Hineni (Melbourne) and the Monash Jewish Students Society on Thursday June 3 2010. The other panelists were Michael Cohen, Rabbi Shamir Caplan (Orthodox), Rabbi Ehud Bandel (Conservative), Rabbi Fred Morgan (Progressive). Absent from the panel due to illness was Hinde Ena Burstin who was to talk from a Jewish lesbian perspective.

Kudos to the event organisers Hineni and MonJSS for bringing this much-needed discussion to the community. It is perhaps the first time an intelligent, informed public discussion has been had in the Melbourne Jewish community on anything to do with homosexuality.

It was put to me that the evening was going to be controversial, not so much because of homosexuality being in the topic, but that there was going to be one each of a Progressive, Conservative and Orthodox rabbi (a Neapolitan assortment?) in the same room at the same time. I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere. 🙂

Aside from a few minor technical and logistical glitches the evening went really well. Each of the first four speakers delivered their address from their respective professional perspectives with no real surprises or revelations.

The Orthodox perspective given apologised for being intolerant of homosexuality and didn’t offer very much real hope for same-sex attracted people.

The Conservative perspective was up front about being “in the middle” of tradition and change, yet said that gay men and women were equal within the community and their sexuality needed to be taken into account and not ignored.

The Progressive perspective similarly acknowledged the importance of a person’s sexuality and went on to say that the Progressive movement was supportive of same-sex relationships and would acknowledge them as much as possible, yet they weren’t on par with heterosexual relationships.

Both the Conservative and Progressive perspectives put forward also acknowledged that children could be successfully raised in a same-sex relationship, something that the Orthodox perspective didn’t seem to have the capacity to understand.

Audience members were asked to write questions down on paper supplied and then at the end of the panel presentations, a selection of questions would be put to the panelists. The questions asked were intelligent for the most part but didn’t ask the tough questions that I felt needed to be asked of the rabbis.

What made me most unsettled about the line-up of speakers (aside from me) was that they were all heterosexual men, dictating the terms of acceptance, to one degree or another, of same-sex attracted men and women and our relationships. I would really like to have seen a female rabbi (yes, they do exist in the Progressive world) or an openly gay one (yes, they do exist) speak on the topic.

My thanks again to Hineni and MonJSS for organising the evening. My thanks also to my wonderful partner Gregory Storer for giving me the necessary support. His photographs of the evening can be viewed on Google Albums and Facebook.

My address from the evening is here.

Michael.

Gays in the AFL: don’t out them, recruit them

The AFL Players Association spoke out against homophobia in sport. Then the Western Bulldog’s Jason Akermanis made a contentious statement that gay sportsmen should not come out because it wouldn’t be safe for them. Thus ensued a lot of discussion in the mainstream and GLBT media regarding gay men and sport (start here).

It’s been said that the first person to come out will be in the media spotlight and there will be a lot of money to be made out of the story. Indeed.

At the same time as all of this speculation and discussion, we have in our midst two gay / gay friendly rugby teams – the Sydney Convicts and Melbourne Chargers. The relevance of this is that it shows gay men can play sport and they can play “a man’s game”.

I contend by corollary that if some gay men can play rugby, one form of football, then some gay men can also play any other form of football, such as soccer or AFL football. The rules, skills and equipment differ, but overall they’re still games of strategy, discipline, teamwork, brute force and man on man.

Based on the commonality of rugby and AFL football, I can envisage a situation where there would be some talented gay men in the community who could be recruited into a program to develop their skills sufficiently to bring them to a junior or senior competition level. Admittedly I am fairly naive on the politics and dealings of the footy world but in its simplicity it makes sense to me.

Rather than out the closeted gay men in AFL, the easier path would be to recruit gay men into existing AFL clubs. This would have the bonus of helping make the environment comfortable enough for closeted players to consider coming out. Bring the best men in to play the game, and make the game a friendlier and safer place for all. Everyone’s a winner.

Sydney’s Jewish community adopts anti-homophobia/anti-transphobia policy

Hot on the heels of the Victorian Jewish community calling for respect for same-sex attracted Jews, the NSW Jewish community has passed a history-making motion for a policy on counteracting hatred and discrimination against gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender persons*.

The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies has voted overwhelmingly to implement an anti-homophobia/anti-transphobia policy.
This is fantastic news for the Jewish GLBT community as the NSWJBD finally recognises that there is a demographic within the Jewish community that needs more support.
Roy Freeman — J-Wire, May 26 2010

Congratulations to everyone who supported this history-making policy change, and most especially the dedicated team lead by Roy Freeman from Dayenu.

It is long overdue for the entire Jewish community to understand that same-sex attraction and gender-identity variation is normal and valid, just like being left-handed. There is no room for intolerance of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, or who simply do not conform to heterosexual or conventional male/female stereotypes. The Jewish community must move with the times and learn that these are normal, acceptable human behaviours. The cost of not doing this will continue to be counted in human lives.

* 2010 copy of policy statement on Dayenu archives here.

Israel’s national GLBT association receives award from President Shimon Peres

Israel’s national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) association, the Agudah, has received an award for volunteerism by the President of Israel Shimon Peres. That’s quite an achievement. Read the story in Hebrew here or a translated version here.