Letters to the Editor

OUT OF TOUCH
Shayne Mallard, a self-appointed campaigner against verbal and physical abuse against members of our community on Oxford St, you are now using this newspaper to call for verbal abuse against Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore as she travels up Oxford Street on the night of the gay and lesbian Mardi Gras Parade. You are out of touch.
Clover Moore MP, a heterosexual woman who has supported and stood side by side with our community for over 20 years, can stand with pride on her own very impressive record.
What have you done ? A gay man who represents the Liberal Party on council. Your time on council has been truly unremarkable.
Nothing illustrates to me more clearly how out of touch you are than the enduring image of you with your solitary gay supporter standing on Stanley St with your poster of a beaming John Howard on the Saturday before Howard and his rotten homophobic government were thrown out of office. Readers, I will let you imagine how this was received in East Sydney.
-” Chris

NUDIST COMPLAINT
I went to Fair Day as a nudist. Despite being clad in rubber bands, the Fair Day Working Group complained we should put our clothes on as children were present.
Neither was the Working Group interested in a police letter explaining our costumes met legal requirements, and threatened to call authorities. As a result I left.
I wasn’t aware nudity poses a threat to children, nor that we caused offence to others. Could Mardi Gras please explain why it wasn’t open to reason and refused to accept our costumes?
-” Stuart

MISLEADING
How misleading can a headline be? Venezuela lagging on reform? (SSO 958)
Given that your interviewee Cesar says that Venezuelan society has yet to embrace gays one would think that a President pushing for gay rights would be just want the doctor ordered.
But no, Cesar’s cynicism towards the continuing and evolving movement of Venezuelans working for a more just and equal society, puts him in stark contrast to the majority of Venezuelans who have just voted to further endorse the revolutionary process there.
Cesar reminds me of many in the gay communities who refused to support the struggle for gay law reform in Australia on the grounds that it would alienate society. They too didn’t want political discussions. But this merely maintains the status quo.
If we stayed quiet, in our place, respectful, there would have been no law reform of any sort.
I’m glad Cesar is in Australia. If he was in Venezuela he would be part of the problem not the solution.
-” David

KENNETT’S VIEWS
Re -˜Vilification’ (SSO 957): It was interesting reading Mr Burns’ article regarding his case against Mr Kennett. It might be useful to consider what Mr Kennett did not say. If males who have sex with other males are a possible danger to male students are males who have sex with females a danger to female students?
If so and to be consistent, Mr Kennett should be supporting a ban on heterosexual males teaching female students.
-” David

LEECHES
In 1978 when I was a fresh-faced young man I protested in Sydney’s first gay civil rights demonstration because of inequality being directed against the homosexual community.
I have been a gay crusader ever since, always ready and willing to stand firm and fight the good fight for a community denied its full legislative equality.
It saddens me, the leeches sucking the last drops of blood from a vein of a dying Mardi Gras are flagging its move to Homebush.
Homebush holds no history for me as an original fighting warrior of the 1978 struggle.
The battle was fought and won in the vicinity of the current parade route.
Mardi Gras was once a warm-blooded advocate for its community.
It’s now the equivalent of law enforcement because it seems just as cold-blooded.
The past is important to me because it’s where my memory is.
-” Gary Burns

STIRRING SPEECH
How disappointing SSO failed to report on the stirring speech at Fair Day made by Andrew Heslop.
As someone who struggled with my gender identity until I was into my 30s it is a long and hard road when you don’t have any support.
How do you tell your wife and teenage children that you have spent the majority physically a male but mentally and emotionally are female?
Sharing my pain was the toughest point in my life. One day I hope they will understand why I had to transition and we will be reunited.
I long for the day when one of the boys is at the other end of the phone to tell me everything is fine.
Until then I wait in hope and am grateful for advocates like Andrew Heslop who can argue logically and passionately for those of us unable to.
-” Helen

ANNOYED SEX WORKER
Congratulations to the irate NSW sex workers who wrote to the ACON Board.
I have often thought about writing a letter as I too have been frustrated by SWOP in recent years.
I have been a sex worker for over seven years and often travel around NSW and Queensland, working in regional towns and cities. I used to often ring Jules, the regional outreach worker at SWOP, for information and support, and looked forward to her visits if we were in the same town at the same time.
It was a huge shock to hear that she had left SWOP.
Since that time -” about 3 years ago -” SWOP has never advertised that position and has never published in The Professional or on their website who we can contact for regional sex work info.
The times that I have rung SWOP I get told to ring Scarlet Alliance as they’re the sex workers who will know. The sexual health clinic people are great but really -” unless you’ve actually been in the room you just can’t debrief with someone or ask certain questions unless you know that person has been, or still is, a sex worker.
SWOP (and ACON) always state they are a -˜state-based organisation’. I think that’s a joke. Sex workers don’t just work in Surry Hills -“ we work everywhere!
In the new edition of The Professional, the Aboriginal outreach worker talks about doing regional outreach. Why is it OK for her to do that and yet the regional coordinator position can still remain vacant after all this time? What are they doing with the money?
-” Name withheld

HYPOCRISY
Opening to rave notices from the critics, an Oscar-winning performance from Kate Winslet, The Reader, a film set in Nazi Germany tells of the love affair between Kate and a 15-year-old boy.
That makes her a pedophile doesn’t it? But a nice heterosexual one.
Imagine the screams of outrage if Kate’s role had been played by a man. Shock horror.
The hypocrisy is mindbending. The theatre would be picketed if they even tried to screen it.
-” Pat