Council rejects gay youth support
A City of Casey councillor has slammed his colleagues for failing to support a plan to take a stand against homophobic bullying.
The motion by Cr Simon Curtis (pictured) asked the council to speak out against hate and intolerance directed towards the GLBTI community and to include on its website a link to the online anti-homophobia It Gets Better campaign. It also called for councillors to send a video of support. It was defeated by five votes to six.
Curtis criticised the decision of the six councillors, including the Mayor, to reject the proposal.
“I think it’s been a failure on behalf of this council to not pass this motion,” Curtis said.
“If I was a young person in Casey and I was having trouble with some of these issues and I knew this was representative of our city … I certainly wouldn’t feel supported by our community or by my representative in council.
“I was very disappointed to miss getting it across the line.”
Crs Curtis, Judy Owen, Kevin Bradford, Wayne Smith and Lynette Keleher voted for the motion. Crs Shar Balmes, Sam Aziz, Geoff Ablett, Bob Halsall, Amanda Stapledon and Beverley Hastie voted against it.
Mayor Shar Balmes told the Star Observer the council’s support should not be limited to “one section of our community”.
“Read the motion passed following Cr Curtis’ defeated motion and that will tell you exactly how this council is supporting all youth, regardless of what circumstances they are in, regardless of what lifestyle choices they make, regardless of where they are, council supports all youth and condemns all forms of bullying,” she said.
“There are many categories of groups that could be specified. Cr Curtis highlighted one, but there are countless others. It’s really not fair to discriminate against the countless others by only highlighting one.”
Curtis said the lack of support for GLBTI youth was inconsistent with the council’s role to support minority groups and said bullying on the grounds of sexuality should not be tolerated.
“The It Gets Better website is a mainstream website and the interesting thing is, I don’t see myself as a radical, I don’t see this as a radical kind of motion,” he said.
The Casey council area includes the suburbs of Narre Warren, Cranbourne, Berwick and Lynbrook.
Unfortunately the Casey council is run by the worst bigot of them all named Sam Aziz. This man has been in the news for his hatred of Muslims and now in this article we see that he was also one of the counsillors who voted against the motion. It doesnt suprise me the least bit. A bigots prejudice usually extends into more than one minority group. And Sam Aziz is no exception with his Islamaphobia and a homophobic bigot which are just a small portion of repertoire. It disgusts me that someone as biased as that man can be allowed to discriminate and jeapordise the rights of the people he’s supposed serve. Especially someone that just hates Islam alltogether and has even expressed a disliking of even moderate Muslims.
Jon,
Uniting Care in Gippsland has started a young GLBTI youth group with the help of the Council. Sorry to hear of your experiences of Gippsland. I have found it very gay friendly, especially in Sale, Bairnsdale, and even Heyfield. Even the dairy community of Tinambra has a pub that some gay guys run and everyone turns up to eat (the food is brilliant). They even installed a grand piano! I have been surprised at the old ladys who say you must go eat at the boys place! The politicians might be rednecks, but the people have moved on and are progressive, at least the people I have met along the way.
I live in the Baw Baw Shire, which geographically is next up from the Casey Shire. As Councils go Baw Baw Shire is the most backward talked about non progressive Council you could come across. In parts of the Baw Baw Shire district if a person fits within the GLBTI banner and lives under this council it is scarey. Why? Because homophobia is rampant in way too many towns of Gippsland and many GLBTI people are intimidated to step into thier community and feel safe or to simply get a sense of beloning and acceptance. Casey Shire suburbs and unfortunately some counsillors within Casey Council are not that different from Baw Baw with unfortunate high levels of small mindedness who don’t value the enormity of the issue at hand. Cr Curtis has my respect and I congratulate him and his supporting collegues on the gutsy effort to take such a stand in bringing the need for GLBTI support into Casey via advocating that Council take a proactive effort promoting GLBTI tolerance via thier website. I hope news spreads fast and that this is the begining for all councils having to stand up, be counted and take the responsibility that it ‘is up to them’ to both educate thier communities on issues of homophobia and bullying, in addition to supplying a direct line of support and resource for GLBTI youth and adults. Stand firm councillors. The world needs people like you, our Councils need people like you, and so does the GLBTI community.
One can see from her comment “regardless of what lifestyle choices they make” Shar Barnes is clearly a homophobic bigot. People choose to be gay as much as one chooses to be black, blue eyed or 6ft tall.
That’s great Dave – more councils should do the same.
If anyone’s interested in hearing what some of the people have sent us with regard to equal marriage – you can find it here:
http://www.headspace.org.au/is-it-just-me/real-stories/your-voice
My council started a young gay group with the help of Uniting Care.
This was after a few young gay people killing themselves in our area. A few months earlier the Local Catholic Bishop was ranting in the press against Gay Marriage etc. I told him this would lead to people taking their life and I have reminded him since.
There is a great campaign of terror by the Catholic Church against even Priest who speak out let alone us. The effects of suicide are simply devastating on the community.
Casey Council will no doubt wear the same burden our community did if they fail to help.
I congratulate Cr Simon Curtis.
Homophobia has a significant impact on a young person’s health and wellbeing, increasing their likelihood of self-harm and suicidal behaviour. The It Gets Better campaign encourages community members to share messages of acceptance – what’s wrong with that?
headspace promotes acceptance of sexual orientation and gender diversity. One huge step in making this happen is to introduce equal marriage rights, ending social exclusion and giving all Australians the same basic rights. Earlier this year we set up an email address to share your opinions, stories and experiences. By emailing [email protected] headspace will ensure your voices are presented to Prime Minister Gillard.
Sharing messages of hope and acceptance make a difference, and so does taking a stand against those who choose to stand by idly. Well done Cr Curtis, keep up the good work.
Sounds like one of the hate churches was active here.
re the catholic church, go to http://www.catholicarrogance.org