Rudd says ‘it gets better’
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd is the latest public figure to lend his voice to global anti-homophobia campaign It Gets Better.
In the video Rudd said Australia has a zero tolerance to bullying.
“This message is for the young folk in our schools who are bullied because they are gay.”
“In Australia it’s reported that one in two LGBTI teens experiences bullying at school. It’s got to stop.
“Let me say quite simply, it’s not okay.”
Rudd joins US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and a host of community leaders and celebrities lending support to the anti-homophobia campaign.
“Together we can work to fight discrimination,” Rudd said.
“Australia is a country that prides itself on diversity and that is why we need to challenge homophobia in schools and in our communities.
“Because if we say it is unacceptable then it will get better.”
Rudd’s It Gets Better message appeared following discussions at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth in which Rudd raised the issue of criminalisation of homosexuality.
A spokeswoman for Rudd’s office told the Star Observer Rudd yesterday raised the issue with Commonwealth foreign ministers.
“He strongly declared Australia’s position on decriminalisation, and our determination to continue to advocate for LGBT rights within the Commonwealth and more broadly,” she said.
It’s understood Canadian foreign minister John Baird was the only other foreign minister to join Australia’s calls.
Oliver given your gay hate comments in the past, saying GLBTI people should not even be included in the Equal Opportunity Act etc, and they should not have children, I find it hard to take you seriously.
I would like Kevin Rudd to come and support equality before the laws in all areas for GLBTI people, and in Marriage, but I do welcome his call to end some forms of discrimination.
To quote from an Anglican Arch-Bishop, and someone who really understood discrimination.
“To penalise someone because of their sexual orientation is like what used to happen to us; to be penalised for something which we could do nothing [about] — our ethnicity, our race. I would find it quite unacceptable to condemn, persecute a minority that has already been persecuted.” Nobel Peace Prize winner and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeLDsBPSzYg&feature=related
I had to play the vid several times it was so hilarious and tragic. The part I really love was yet again Rudd wanting center front seats with Hilliary Clinton, like he’s one of the big shots on the world stage. The guy has real emotional problems and you can see from the scripted folksy language he’s just one of us?!
The truth of the matter is that Rudd couldn’t care less and I really take exception to him taking credit for a you tube event so he could score brownie points with the IT generation just in case he needs their vote should he become PM again.
He is a consumate fraud, a phoney and a politicican who has voted for gay discrimination on a number of occassions including the 2004 marriage act change and continually allowing the petty non-issuance of certificates of no impediment to overseas Aust. gays who may wish to marry. This guy is just all hot air and words.
Dave, yes, only you know everything about history, the rest of us are so uneducated and dont deserve to voice our opinions. It may surprise you, Im not “Oliver Twist” from the 1960s movie, the same way you think Iain is a Christian lobby troll. Dave, sounds a bit like online snooping dont you think!
Only Iain knows the bible and what Jesus might have said? Sounds like ” The cult of the Tin Shed”.
Well said Dax!
Iain…..thank you…I rest my case. I couldn’t have supported my position any better than you just did. peace. xx
A good start Mr Rudd, but this needs to be followed up by further support including marriage equality. Time for Mr Rudd to meet more gay people I think
Dax, I know sarcasm is not easily conveyed in writing but that is just ridiculous. I have no idea what obscure conclusion you came to regarding that comment but the fact that you thought I was serious is cause for concern. Further, I suspect that your failure to comprehend my first statement and dismiss it as ‘syntax errors’ is similarly a symptom of your woefully bigoted views towards those who disagree with your opinion.
Fact is, your obscure anecdotal evidence does not prove anything. At best, your evidence is an exception to the rule, demonstrating that the early church suffered the same problems it does today. Identifying that there is no recorded instance of Jesus speaking out against homosexuality in order to prove your point is similarly grasping at straws and shows you are trying to validate your position to yourself as much as everyone else. I am sure I could validate many similar behaviours through the same incomplete reasoning. Either you are a Christian who does not approve of homosexual marriage or you are not a Christian. Quite simple really.
Shaun, if you understood the relationship of those particular verses to New Testament Christianity then you wouldn’t be asking that question.
ED: Polling has found that a majority of Australian Christians support same-sex marriage, while the Quakers, Unitarians and Metropolitan Community Church are all denominations that believe same-sex couples to be acceptable for both civil and religious marriage.
I fully support the It Get’s Better project, but I can’t support Rudd’s message here. Knowing that he is being a hypocrite regarding gay marriage only leads to the conclusion that the video is for the sole purpose of political point scoring.
I honestly think that if the people behind the project knew his views they would want to distance themselves from him.
Dax – after some research on marriage, I concede and withdraw my statements RE the religious institutions. You are right, and thank you for inspiring me to do some research on the subject beyond the walls of knowledge that I had come to understand – yes I am man enough to acknowledge when I made an argument based on limited and ignorant claims, which I thought where true.
Sometimes you do have to look beyond what you were taught, in order to find the TRUTH – I thank you for that.
I too thank you for conceding that the premise of bullying is a disease that all should partake in wholeheartedly.
Re gay marriage referendums etc votes or what have you – rest assured you have my vote of confidence and support.
So in conclusion – stop bashing Rudd on that premise :)
What I find interesting is the fact that the same place in the bible that states men should not participate in homosexual acts, and that there should be no adultery is also the part that says real christians should not eat pork, because it is an unclean animal…How many Christians have a big fry up before church on a Sunday?
Please stop claiming that civil marriage is a Judeo-Christian tradition, because this is, quite simply, historically inaccurate. A ‘marriage’ is a legal contract; a ‘wedding’ is a ceremony to celebrate that contract, and is usually performed in a church.
The Ancient Greeks were performing civil marriages long before Christianity, and even Judaism, came into prominence. Back then, marriages were financially-based, and involved the acquisition of concubines and slaves. The Catholic Church didn’t officially adopt marriage as a sacrament until the Middle Ages (11th Century.) Before then, churches may have performed ceremonies, but marriages remained legal institutions. Marriage contracts aren’t held by churches; civil marriage remains a legal institution to this day.
Also, regardless of whether you agree with their theology or not, there do exist churches that would recognise a same-sex marriage. The Metropolitan Community Church, the Unitarian Universalist Church and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and the Ecumenical Catholic Church, to name a few, are all Christian denominations that would recognise and celebrate a same-sex marriage. Even the Reform Jewish movement is quite liberal to same-sex marriages. Please do not blanket all Christian institutions as being opposed to same-sex marriages because this is, again, factually inaccurate.
I really don’t understand the point of creating a separate institution for same-sex couples, when same-sex marriages will affect opposite-sex marriages minimally. As I’ve already stated, civil marriages are legal institutions, not religious; and there do exist religious institutions who would recognise same-sex marriages. Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything.
Just one more comment…..we gay people have existed since the dawn of time and have been in loving relationships just as long as heterosexuals have. Homosexuality is not some 2nd millennium disease….It’s a fact of life.