Comments on: No family left behind

By: Jo

Jo — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:08:18 +0000

It was also the wrong thing to subject people to shock treatment and lobotomy so that they became so terrified of disclosing who they were to anyone that they have lived all their lives in fear.
Now in their old age with NONE of the benefits that hets have had, they risk losing their family homes AND owing centrelink money, further punishment for being polite, silent and invisible.
Nothing is simple, especially pre stonewall.
Many did not declare their Aboriginality until it was safe to do so if they could pass as ‘white’ too.
It’s Centrelink that should be sympathetic and make administrative provisions for those for whom coming out would mean persecution from service providers in aged care as well as loss of all family supports.

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:31:34 +0000

I was very skeptical of the Labor Party when they agreed to go along with the ban on marriage.

But now they have really unequivocally given us equal rights in everything except marriage.

Dr Jo, if couples don’t declare themselves as couples, they cannot possibly expect to receive the benefits that couples receive.

And if they lie, and say they are not a couple, then that is doing the wrong thing.

By: Jason

Jason — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:46:31 +0000

I would not get too excited just yet as the reform has not actually passed yet.

By: Jo

Jo — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:09:53 +0000

Thank you to the activists who have risked arrest, turned out in the rain and fought long battles to finally get to the point where Turnbull and all of them took notice and bothered to care, including Rudd.
I mean care about their political safety.
My heart is a long way from embracing any of them.
I am disappointed that the senate inquiry is still leaving the door open for elderly gay couples to be subjected to scrutiny and investigation by centrelink to see whether they are couples, loss of some centrelink income, and potential loss of the family home and prosecution for an overpayment from centrelink if they don’t come out and then need residential care. This is not good enough, in fact it’s still discriminatory.
What an insult to elders who have lived lives of fear and persecution, including shock treatment and lobotomy.
Dr Jo Harrison

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:20:07 +0000

Thank you to both sides – both Labor and Liberal for supporting these bills.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the Rudd Labor Government and Federal Attorney General Robert McClelland for initiating this process of change so early within a new term of government.

It has not been easy and I thank you for all the time and effort you put into this. You will be able to look back at your time in government, knowing that you truly made a real significant difference to people’s lives – my heart embraces you.

Thank you very much to Malcolm Turnbull if it is true that you “made multiple phone calls to Coalition members and held a showdown in the Opposition party room to gain support for the issue,” as Harley Dennett reports above. I feel this is very strong action on your behalf – thank you – sometimes we feel your past actions on gay rights have been wishy washy, but we will not forget this.

Thank you to the efforts of HREOC who really put this issue on the public map.

By: Shiraz

Shiraz — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:16:11 +0000

Why no mention from Harley Dennett of the effort put in by the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby? Readers shouldnt have to read their separate column to find out about the efforts the Lobby has made.