-˜Heterophobia’ rife
The Golden Mile doesn’t belong exclusively to the gay community and a false belief that it does is hurting local businesses, a restauranteur abused for welcoming pilgrims has claimed.
Snakebean owner Jeremy McNamara has received more anonymous hate mail over his decision to place a sign in his restaurant’s window welcoming World Youth Day pilgrims.
Absolutely disgusting that you advertised to the World Youth Day freaks who hate gays, one letter said.
But McNamara feedback from gay customers had been supportive.
As a business we’ve made an effort to contribute to the gay community, the SGLBA and almost every gay charity. If people think it’s about greed they have no idea what it’s like running a business on Oxford St, he said.
I really think this attitude has contributed to the decline of the area. There are sectors within the community that are politically active and have very strong opinions and believe, -˜This street should belong to us’.
Gay people who moved to the area 20 years ago had moved on, McNamara said, to other suburbs and other phases of life.
He first opened the R.Q. restaurant seven years ago before moving on to Snakebean two years ago. During that time he has seen many gay-owned businesses on Oxford St close.
He said the City of Sydney’s plans for a food and services emporium on Oxford St was a wonderful idea, but still three years away, and it wasn’t clear if many businesses would survive that long.
[Oxford St] has to become a destination again for something other than night clubbing. It’s a very sick area. We just wanted to invite anyone to the restaurant, whoever they are, so we can pay our bills, McNamara said.
Sydney Councillor and Liberal Lord Mayoral candidate Shayne Mallard wrote to McNamara after being alerted to the hate mail, saying he too had copped offensive and hurtful comments from within the gay community -” in his case for belonging to the Liberal Party.
This is the sort of separatist extremism that has done so much damage to the GLBT community in the minds of the broader community and fuels the campaign of the reactionary right against us, he wrote.
It’s ironic that we fight for equality and acceptance only to experience prejudice and limits on our freedoms from within our community.
Go away Shane Mallard
You really annoy me
I couldn’t give a stuff about Oxford Street quite frankly. Even when it was supposedly hip and happening it was sickeningly over-rated. Today it’s just sick. But if it’s such a gay area then I guess the the fault lies with the gay community for letting it languish and not supporting it. You should actually be happy that people come in from the suburbs and give it what little life that it has. You should actually thank them because they are keeping it alive.
But what’s so special about Oxford Street anyway – as opposed to any other street – that requires such attention?
Bring on the school of puppetry like some nutcase suggested. Bahahaha!!!
Oliver & James, Who are these hypocritical, fascist, homosexuals and Bitchy Queens who you refer to? The ones saying that the decline of Oxford Street is not about gay people, but about homophobes who have driven gay people away from the area? Notice how I said “Homophobe” not “Heterosexual” as the two are not the same thing. There are plenty of heterosexuals who are not homophobes, and there are even some homosexuals who are!!! Look abit deeper to the real problems of Oxford st and try to come with a solution. Blaming it on gay people will only drive us further away and you can be your bottom dollar that suburban “party goers” won’t have any loyalty to the area and won’t allow it to survive as they are just after a good time for themselves on Friday and Saturday nights. They don’t care about the street any other day of the week.
Shayne’s spot on. If we have any moral integrity then we should resist bigotry and close-mindedness on the Right AND the Left. Intolerance by any other name still smells as foul!
I can understand glbqti being offended by the pilgrims and their supporters. These hateful words were written by Joseph Ratzinger, a Vatican Cardinal in 2003,-œHomosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. Homosexual acts go against the natural moral law. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved. Why should we have welcomed these hatemongers? It’s rather similar to the local coffee shop that allegedly had links to Hillsong and American evangelical movements that advocated ‘correcctive therapy’ for homosexuals.
The owner of this restaurant has my full support against these hypocritical, fascist, homosexuals.
Oxford St is not owned by Gays, its just a highly populated Gay area. So its Ok for Gays to have a Mardi Gras, Protests and walk around half naked but once a poor Business owner wants to pay his bills, hes attacked by Bitchy Queens who are worse than the attitude of Homophobes. I will deliberately go to Snakebean and have dinner tonight there.
It is disingenuous of public figure Liberal Councillor Shayne Mallard to liken himself to the situation of private businessman, Snakebean proprietor Jeremy McNamara (who recently became an undeserving target of intolerance).
The reported diatribes against Snakebean over its WYD advertising is an unequivocal disgrace and the cowards writing them should be ashamed of themselves.
Councillor Mallard, however, is an elected public representative and should expect due criticism for his party’s continued obfuscation over equality reforms plus its denial and rejection of equal marriage. With good reason, it rings a bit hollow for him to preach from the Liberal pulpit about tackling homophobia and intolerance.
“I really think this attitude has contributed to the decline of the area”
hmmmm…. and here i was thinking that Oxford st not being safe anymore being the reason for it’s decline. PS. it’s not the homos who are making it unsafe….