Letters to the Editor

TO CLARIFY
To Shayne and MPK (www.starobserver.com.au). Firstly I don’t think any respectable person would be so puerile as to write such unconstructive schoolyard bully slurs.
In the greater world (outside ghetto Sydney) we call it debate and it should remain robust and critical, not vengeful, personal and laced with spite.
Debate occurs in our parliaments, our broadsheets and in much media and is a healthy and critical part of our democracy. Disingenuous vents under noms de plume are spineless and odious. With no real argument or unsubstantiated claims they become offensive, unconstructive and potentially libellous.
I fear that either or both of you have close vested interests in the scene and my cynicism leads me to think you have something to lose should Mardi Gras get its eventual shake-up.
To clarify your absolutely incorrect and, dare I say, illegal comments about my attempted involvement (and remuneration) with NMG (NMG do operate with privacy laws regarding deals and contracts), I wish to let you know that NMG didn’t even bother to tell me (I had to chase this info) that I wasn’t involved with the launch until about two weeks prior to the launch (after three months of negotiation) and no fees were discussed or contracts signed.
I would love to know where you get your information from. Are you an insider? Even if I had issues around poor payment, is that not better than undervaluing the entertainment industry and being exploited? What do the stars get paid to perform for Mardi Gras?
Regarding BGF’s financial position, best you go to their website and view their books, or pop in and have a chat. I am a sole trading contractor and speak regarding BGF from this perspective.
-” Tobin Saunders, Byron Bay

DIVERSE QUILT
Gary of Melbourne (SSO 943) wrote to dismiss the value of same-sex unions, but he was really on about religion. The two ideas need to be separated.
Australia is today a wonderfully diverse quilt of cultures. Kevin Rudd should have immediately removed all religious references from the Marriage Act, in recognition of this multicultural diversity. Thus people from all cultural and religious groups could freely commit to whatever relationship their church defines.
Publicly however, at the local Town Hall, all couples should be entitled to step forward and have their relationship recognised as being equally valid. Qualities of harmony, cooperation and mutual respect as practised by these couples should be publicly celebrated as contributing to the fabric of the nation.
The separation of church and state is after all a major plank of our democracy. It was an idea in the gospels, taught by that great liberator Jesus when he said, Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, render unto God, etc. As a lapsed and chronically disappointed Catholic, that is one of my rare quotes from church literature.
I would urge Gary of Melbourne to read John Boswell’s book Same-Sex Unions. It contains the idea that in the ancient world same-sex unions, eg Roman emperor Hadrian and Antonious etc, were officially publicly blessed and celebrated monumentally. Only upper class marriages had official status, chiefly because the marriage contract amounted to a company merger. How ordinary folk shaped their lives was officially uninteresting, so long as no laws were broken.
When the Catholic religion was adopted by the Roman empire it continued this ceremony of blessing same-sex unions. Still practised in some countries today (Bulgaria, Romania), the prayers were later modified and used as a marriage ceremony to make heterosexual union solemn and binding.
I no longer practise the religion of my birth -” I have no love for a church that despises gays and lesbians. My spirituality is a personal concern. Nor do I agree with gay activists who argue that seeking same-sex union recognition is imitating heterosexual culture.
Until recently gays and lesbians have lived a hidden culture, under threat of official discrimination and persecution. Last week was a historical first when US President-elect Barack Obama listed gays and lesbians in his message of cultural inclusiveness.
Our community has a great energy and ability to create a vital original culture. The stability and uniqueness of our relationships can contribute to public culture, as well as drag shows and dance parties. We should continue this creativity but on the national stage.
Alongside the colours of other groups and cultures making up the national quilt should be the red of our AIDS ribbon, and the pink and lavender and black of our badges of oppression. The larger world can only be improved by our joining it.
-” Anton, Tempe

TRUE GAY RIGHTS
Finally! A voice of reason and understanding. No, Gary, you and your lover (SSO 943) are not the only ones who feel this way about the gay marriage crap.
My friend and I have been amazed and aghast for some time at the way the emulation of an anachronistic heterosexual ritual has become the benchmark by which gay liberation is now measured. Homosexual debate and discussion in the gay and mainstream media has been dominated to such a degree by the topic that many vital issues have been shunted aside in the quest to achieve this absurd goal.
The questions we ask are how and why?
How was the gay rights movement hijacked by the lobby for gay marriage? When did gay marriage become a limp, misrepresentative synonym for gay rights?
We speak of true gay rights. The true freedom to be who we are. Sexually. Creatively. Politically and spiritually. Not aping heterosexuality and morphing into the grey mass of the mainstream.
Why was the gay marriage lobby given such a powerful voice and allowed to ignore, or even work to remove, the rich gay underground, and purport to speak for so many homosexuals?
In discussing the issue in his book Homocons: The Rise of The Gay Right, Richard Goldstein says that giving the gay marriage lobby such power and influence threatens to siphon money and energy away from other items on the political agenda. Such an effect has been in operation for some time now, as gay marriage has been held up as the final barrier to equality.
Paradoxically, marriage is not about equality at all. It has its roots deep in the subjugation of women, property ownership and deference to patriarchal religious laws.
As Gary says, there are so many ways we can show our love for each other and so many issues, locally and globally, that need our attention, time and money. Let’s turn our focus to them.
-” Benjamin, Fitzroy, Vic

FIRST, THE PERVERTS
RE: Say Goodbye to online porn (SSO 943), this smells of a Government deal with Family First and other far right, zealous, homophobic groups.
Rudd pledged during his election campaign to speed up internet connections in Australia, where connection speeds are well below other advanced economies. The Government’s own research has shown that filtering lowers speeds by 30 percent or more even under ideal testing conditions. And while the filter was initially touted as a cyber-safety measure for homes with children, now we learn of the existence of a secret blacklist, that would apply to us all. We were deceived.
Parents who want filtering can easily acquire it for their homes. There are also serious questions about the accuracy of the filters, with even the best performers over-blocking hundreds of thousands of innocuous web sites, up to six per cent of sites, like Dick Smith or the Breast Cancer Council.
But it’s the politics of this that alarms me most. Conroy, on behalf of the powerful God-botherer lobbies, is seeking to equate those who would prefer an unfiltered internet with seekers of child pornography. This is not only patently ridiculous, Oliver, it is a slur. And the fact that the blacklist will be secret suggests no protection from political or homophobic censorship. First they came for the perverts -¦
-” Shayne, Potts Point

WHAT A JOKE
Again, the world laughs at Australia. Internet censorship? In 2008, you have got to be joking. Remember the saying one man’s morals should never become another man’s law. If some people don’t want to see internet porn, that is perfectly OK, they don’t have to. But other adults are perfectly capable of making their own decisions.
-” Tom, London

GET REAL
Re: Gay venues wrongly targeted (SSO 943), these imposed measures indicate a level of ignorance and community awareness by the government that we cannot overlook.
Did government go out to the problem areas late night/morning and check out which problem venues have the problem crowds hanging around outside?
If that step had been taken then the imposed measures would have applied to a different set of venues -¦ ignorance is not bliss.
-” Jose, Sydney