Letters to the Editor

BAR BUFFER
Harley Dennett is right to point to inherent problems with large pubs and clubs on Oxford Street (SSO 938).
However, Sydney Council’s proposed boutique laneway bars should not compromise residential amenity.
Its Late Night Premises Development Control Plan has more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese and needs urgent amendment: it does not demand a plan of management for bars actually within residential apartment blocks in sensitive red zones.
A minimum 100 metre buffer zone between bars, and between bars and apartments, should be introduced to give back residents their right to live in their chosen environment. After all, many bar patrons are actually residents.
This will raise the bar of urban environmental sustainability.
-” Andrew Woodhouse, president, Potts Point & Kings Cross Heritage Conservation Society

THANK YOU ALL
This is for all the people that loved Mark and I.
Thank you all.
From
Celebration of The Life Of Mark Adams
By Mark Adams
Edited by Don Balfour
A human life is sacred.
It is sacred in its being born
It is sacred in its living.
It is sacred in its dying.
The flame of life is fragile yet while it burns, for a short span or a long span, it radiates light and heat. If you stare at the flame and then shut your eyes, your eye remembers the light. So shall our minds remember Mark. Though the flame of his life has been extinguished, our memory’s eye still sees him, our mind remembers the power of his personality, how he walked through our world, how his life touched and shaped our lives.
The time has now come to say our final farewell to Mark.
Knowing this time was coming, Mark has left a message to be read to you all.
I have always believed that if you are honest, compassionate, generous, and altruistic in life that your life was worthwhile. You don’t have to be an achiever to qualify.
Time is so precious and must not be squandered. This doesn’t mean doing a bucket list but it means that you ensure nothing is left unsaid and that you ensure that all the people that mean anything to you know they are loved. It is not a time for conflict but a time for reflection. I would like you to do all you can to avoid being judgemental of one another as you all live unique lives in all sorts of relationships with one another. Do not bear grudges but release them and move on. It will give you freedom of mind to see the beautiful things in life and recognise compassion and love more readily from others. These last two qualities were very apparent and intensely heartwarming as I received them from you all in the period before my passing. I was blessed in having an insight about how and approximately when I was going to pass over. Knowing that I was surrounded with love made the whole process beautiful. I believe that my energy life force will be released and transformed in some way. But I do not know how as I write this, but it certainly will be an experience.
With gratitude we acknowledge his part in our lives, the love that Mark had for us, the love that we have for Mark, the love that has brought us together to support and comfort each other. In this spirit of love we say our goodbyes using the words that have always accompanied men who go down to the sea in ships.
Godspeed, Mark, safe journey.
We are so glad that you lived.
To My Love of My Life.
You will find me in front of the DJ’s Box in the RHI.
I love you with all my Heart..
Today there is one more Angel looking after me
-” Don Balfour (Frage)

SUMMIT FOR ALL
For those who were equally uninformed, qangos = acronym for Quasi-autonomous Non-government Agencies.
SAGE made it’s presentation on behalf of CAAH and the assembled groups voted (I believe unanimously) to proceed without CAAH at this meeting. SAGE chose to leave the meeting as well. I did not see norrie-mAy at all during the day long sessions.
What does it take to be a grassroots activist group? What qualifies as grassroots and who decides which groups are grassroots?
I’d suggest that GLITF, The Gender Center, Twenty10, HALC, New Mardi Gras, GLRL, and GLCS are groups that are controlled by their members and volunteers. The SSO, SX and LOTL were all there and represented by their editors. I suspect that you will see fair and unbiased reporting from all the gay press on the Forum.
Not everyone believes that the in-your-face aggression of groups like CAAH is productive or adds to the advancement of equal rights or social justice. Nevertheless, it is just as clear to me that groups like CAAH have the right to exist and to protest and to act in their own best interests. CAAH did accomplish something in their legal actions on WYD. However for CAAH to claim full responsibility is a bit much. Just as these more radical groups do not have to listen to me, I do not have to pay attention to or support their agendas either.
In direct contradiction to norrie-mAy welby’s accusation for a few good people to do nothing as a referral to the 2020 Forum, my suggestion would be that there were quite a few good people actually doing something other than trying to push their own agendas on to everyone. There was a genuine spirit of cooperation and listening at the first session of the forum.
Some will undoubtedly compare the Forum with the old inter-agency attempts of years ago. Maybe we’ll do better this time. For the most part, the players have changed and we’ve come a long way since then.
It is always convenient to bash ACON. I believe that it is completely and totally counterproductive to bash either the organisation or the people who are the heart and soul of ACON. Their mission has changed considerably over the years, and ACON has adapted quite well to the changes in the world. Sure, they’re big and with the size and the money and the influence comes some control and maybe more of a bureaucratic approach than some would like. Before anyone decides to throw the ACON baby out with the bath water I’d ask you to consider whether the communities are better off with or without ACON. To me that answer is obvious, we’re much better off with ACON and I support them by being a member and critically commenting on the things that they do and do not do.
The peak organisations did not become peak by sitting back chirping and pissing and moaning about how some seek power and prestige. They became peak because they did and continue to do things that others believe are useful and productive in gaining equal rights and social justice for our communities.
One very encouraging thing was the involvement of the young leaders from Twenty10. If we have had a failure in our communities and in our organisations, it is the failure to train or educate for our future. Because most of our organisations are staffed with volunteers and/or relatively low paid (yet highly qualified) executives we get so involved in the tasks of the day that we fail to train our replacements.
We need (IMO) to preserve our history and to be able to transmit that history to create our future. The cliche is those who do not know the history are bound to repeat it.
­-” Henry, Albion Park

Proud celebs
What’s with the character assassination of gay celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, Sam Ronson and Ricky Martin?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no card-carrying member of the LiLo Fan Club, but I do get really annoyed by celebrity magazines and other commentators who want to slag her off just because she’s with a chick these days.
Sure, she’s earned a rep as a skanky ho hanging with Paris, snorting anything she could get her hands on and rooting all those boys for years, but it looks as though she’s finally got herself sorted out. Heaven forbid someone should actually be happy with a partner of the same sex.
Being gay in Hollywood shouldn’t really be a novelty, but even though there have been openly gay stars over the years, it’s still a little taboo. Which probably explains the fascination with LiLo and Sam’s every move. And the speculation about Ricky Martin’s sexuality after the news broke that he had two babies by a surrogate mother.
I reckon good on them. Maybe the queer press could do a gay in Hollywood feature actually celebrating the queer actors who are out and proud, rather than vilifying the poor buggers for cheap headlines.
­-” Cara, St Kilda

FORGET THE HYPE
Like most sane individuals, the meteoric rise of Sarah Palin disturbs me. What disturbs me more is the way that many of my gay peers delight in her every move.
I’ve noticed friends embrace her as some kind of a kitsch gay icon. Hello! The woman is a Republican religious fundamentalist.
While we’re busy obsessing over her latest public gaffe or her hockey-mom background, we’re ignoring the more important issue: this woman is on her way to the White House.
Let’s not get swept up in the hype, and remember that she is against rights and equality for gay people (and her continued use of the word tolerance, as if she deserves a medal for allowing gays in her country, is disgusting).
­-” Alex, Fitzroy

GAY FILM FLOP
I just watched the film Shelter after I saw it had been voted in a website poll as one of the best gay films of all time.
I was sceptical, because the story about a hot surfer hooking up with his best friend’s older brother seemed like the plot of a second-rate porno, but I was more than pleasantly surprised.
It was funny, sensitive, well-made and moving.
Unfortunately, that’s something of a rarity among gay films nowadays -“ the last one I watched before Shelter that didn’t make me cringe in embarrassment was Brokeback Mountain (interestingly enough, both films had straight guys playing the male leads). Why do we usually get it so wrong? Does anybody else agree that gay-themed films are, by and large, awful?
-” Tony, Yarraville

BAD TIMING
Re: Mardi Gras gets government funding (SSO 938), Interestingly three random strangers in places I’ve been today (who don’t know that I’m gay) have said they are pissed about this.
I guess the timing of the announcement following on from the V8 super cars one for Homebush Bay could’ve have been better.
-” Ronson, Katoomba