Letters to the editor – Melbourne

POLICE UNIT #1

The Victorian Liberal/National Party is on a roll, cutting the GLBTI Unit in the police force.

This comes after they have introduced legislation to sack people because of their sexuality. You know the jobs — those who work in soup kitchens, or helping people who have a disability, those who wash you when you are too ill to wash yourself.

I am not surprised they would cut the GLBTI Unit from the police force. So far they have taken a baseball bat to our community, reducing protection we had in the Equal Opportunity Act. Why would we ever expect justice from the Liberal/ National Party? They are run by the same fundamentalists that now inflict violence against us at equality marches.

— Dave

POLICE UNIT #2

Actually, the new structure, depending of course on how it’s actualised, may not be so disastrous.

I disagree with Greg Adkins’ belief that the GLBTIQ community will have to compete with multicultural communities for attention and that actually seems a bit of a divisive viewpoint (I’m certainly not saying it was intentional on Greg’s part). That view suggests that there is no crossover between GLBTIQ and multicultural communities, and no mutual issues of interest.

The new structure could actually allow for better collaboration and understanding across different areas of community engagement rather than having a silo mentality.

— Tom

PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM

This is an important step for both Judaism and for the push for marriage equality (‘Progressive Judaism backs marriage’, SSO Online).

It is great to see religious organisations getting involved in this. Progressive rabbis have been performing same-sex commitment ceremonies in Australia since 2008, but are unable to perform same-sex marriages until the federal Government allows.

— Roy

NAME CALLING

First of all, I’m gay.

It is fine for public money to be used for this (if it has for other projects previously — otherwise get rid of all public assistance, ‘Gay hate gathering for Sydney’, SSO Online).

Their views are just as valid as yours/ours and they have just as much freedom to give voice to those values, whether we think them right or wrong. We aren’t the ultimate arbiters of good and evil, everyone has different opinions, and we need to grow up and just suck it up. It’s a bit of name calling, we can deal with it.

Besides, I see more hate and vitriol in gays when they’re attacking social conservatives (and see it far more often) rather than the opposite — some of the disparaging remarks I’ve heard are way over the top.

— Tyson