Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 21:19:57 +1000 From: leto@mira.net.au (Brendon Wickham) Subject: (Australia) Brother Sister News - 4/4/96 BROTHER SISTER - QUEER NEWS FROM DOWNUNDER Issue 103 - 4/4/96 Including: 1. Virgin Bar draw protest 2. Thwaites wins well despite gay opponent 3. Study finds shift in HIV attitudes 4. National move on XXX movies 5. Midsumma tram dispute broadens 6. First open Senator This and previous postings are archived for the QRD. Point your URL to http://werple.net.au/~leto/news/index - or go through the Pacific Region of the QRD at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/world/pacific/ =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ VIRGIN DRAWS PROTEST *Outraged Catholics have swamped Stonnington Council with complaints of blasphemy over the sign advertising Virgin Mary's cocktail bar in Commercial Road.* The Council received a series of complaints last week about the venue including one from, Monsignor Cudmore, the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Cudmore wrote: "I am told that the establishment displays prominently a statue of the mother of Christ .. I write as Vicar General of the Archdiocese to protest not on my own behalf but on behalf of the Catholic Church in Melbourne." Another letter from Dave Forster of Deer Park expressed "extreme disapproval and disgust at the use of the name 'Virgin Mary's' on a lesbian bar". "Being a Catholic for 55 years I find the use of the name to be grossly offensive and blasphemous," Forster said. According to patrons the bar displays no religious symbols inside and its mainly gay clientele enjoys the club atmosphere. A planning officer for Stonnington Council, Colleen Peterson, said: "We are negotiating with the owner about the issue and there has been some talk about lodging an enforcement order for the signs removal." "We understand that the owners are unwilling to remove the sign," she said. The planning division of the council were concerned with the location and colours of the sign and the fact that it appeared to have been erected illegally without a permit. In its replies to the complaints the council said it considered the "naming of the premises is in bad taste" but added it had no control over the business name. The council issued an interim order requiring the sign to be covered and the owner to apply for planning permission. The owner of the bar was not available for comment but a planning submission lodged on his behalf stated, "there have been a few 'holy complaints' lodged against the sign - not against the colour or size or location of the sign, but against its message." "We do not think that the message is a relevant planning consideration," the submission said. Simon Johanson THWAITES WINS WELL DESPITE GAY OPPONENT *Even the choice of an openly gay candidate did not deter the gay community and other residents in the electorate of Albert Park from delivering a strong swing to Labor MLA John Thwaites in the State Election on Saturday.* Thwaites, who claimed a swing of nearly five per cent across the seat, said "the gay community was generally very supportive particularly on the issues I ran on including equal opportunity legislation and Fairfield Hospital". Albert Park, covering St Kilda and Prahran, is considered to be the electorate with the highest gay and lesbian population in Victoria. "There seemed to be strong support with people helping out in booths and handing out how-to-vote cards," Thwaites said. His opponent, Liberal candidate Eacham Curry who ran on an openly gay platform, admitted he was disappointed not to win but said he was not surprised given Thwaites high standing in the area. Curry, who works in Box Hill TAFE as a student welfare officer, entered the campaign late with little or no profile. "By running I hope I've managed to change the perception that Liberal governments are not friendly and open to the gay community," he said. Curry believes changes made by the Kennett Government have benefited the community. "The anti-discrimination legislation Kennett introduced has had a positive effect on discrimination cases presented so far", he said. "I don't believe the gay community wants to be treated differently from anyone else, they want the same rights as anyone else," he said. Curry will consider running again in the next election but in the meantime intends to maintain close contact with people in the electorate. "Although I'm not a sitting member, I do have access to the Liberal Party and because I ran feel a responsibility to put the views of people in Albert Park to the Party," he said. He believes Thwaites "can't afford to be complacent" about the result given the drift away from Labor in the area over the last decade. But for Thwaites the result confirms that Labor has arrested the gradual decline in their vote over the last decade and have made up some ground. "I will continue to raise issues (important to the gay and lesbian community) in Parliament and give them a strong profile," he said. "I would hope that by giving publicity to these issues we can force the Government to back down on some of their proposals," Thwaites said. Simon Johanson STUDY FUNDS SHIFT IN HIV ATTITUDES *A new joint study by Macquarie University and the University of Sydney indicates that prejudice against people living with HIV is on the decline.* A group of researchers from the National Centre in HIV Social Research at Macquarie University and the Department of Psychology at the University of Sydney investigated changes in HIV knowledge as well as changes in prejudice toward people who might be infected with HIV. Their research has been published in the latest issue of the prestigious British psychological and socio-medical journal, AIDS Care. Questions were designed to indicate whether students had accurate knowledge that HIV may be transmitted through specific sexual practices with either casual or regular partners. An additional eleven questions contributed to an index of Social Avoidance, to measure the level of prejudice against those living with HIV. At Macquarie University, male students had more accurate knowledge than female students, but at Sydney University there were no significant sex differences in knowledge. Male students were more prejudiced than their female counterparts at both Macquarie University and Sydney University. Statistical analysis of Social Avoidance revealed a significant reduction in prejudice over time, with more rapid decrease in prejudice among the male students. "More than a decade into the epidemic, people are knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS and its modes of transmission. There is widespread understanding that ordinary social contact with people who are infected, or presumed to be infected, does not pose a risk. Commensurate with the improved awareness of HIV/AIDS, the social climate toward those living with HIV/AIDS has improved," said Dr Paul Van de Ven, Senior Research Fellow at the National Centre in HIV Social Research. "By now, there are few individuals in Western industrialised countries who have not been touched by the epidemic in either their personal or public spheres. For whatever reason, be it pity, compassion or basic decency toward others, people have come increasingly to realise that we are all affected by HIV/AIDS, not just a handful of minority, stigmatised groups. It is perhaps this recognition which is the foundation for the normative shift in attitudes," Dr Van de Ven added. The participants in the research were 7387 heterosexual university students. Most of them (6500) were first year behavioural or biological sciences students who completed annual surveys (1988-1995) at Macquarie University. The others (887) were from four biennial (1987- 1993) random samples of all students below 30 years of age at the University of Sydney. According to Associate Professor Susan Kippax, Director of the National Centre in HIV Social Research: "Whereas less social avoidance was partly attributable to better knowledge over time, we conclude that the improved social climate toward those most affected by HIV is mainly due to a shift in cultural norms." "Our findings are not to suggest that discrimination and its pernicious impact no longer exist. Certainly, though, compared with the late eighties, the present social climate is more conducive to alleviating the burden of prejudice from those living or associated with HIV/AIDS," Professor Kippax argues. NATIONAL MOVES ON XXX VIDEOS A strong push from the ACT to change classification of all X and some R-rated videos is being quietly discussed by the federal government, despite pre-election Coalition threats to ban X-rated videos altogether. According to ACT Attorney General spokesperson Stephen Forshaw, the federal government has committed to give the re-classification proposal "consideration". The new video classification system, proposed in November by ACT Attorney General Gary Humphries, proposes that videos depicting sex between consenting adults which was not violent or "demeaning" would be rated "E", and very violent videos, currently rated R, reclassified to a "V" rating. Movies currently rated X that contain "demeaning" images or depict sexual violence would be banned. "We're trying to crack down on violent material, [which is] more offensive to the current community standard than straight sex that does not involve minors or contain demeaning images," says Forshaw. The Coalition's law and justice policy, released in February, states: "X-rated videos have been banned from sale or rental to the public in each of the States. The Australian Capital Territory should not continue as a centre of distribution for such material to the States. The Liberal and National Government will ban the X-rated classification." Spokesperson for the Federal Attorney General, Megan Bonny, carefully interprets the policy statement as "a ban on the X-rated classification," rather than a ban on the videos. According to Bonny: "The Attorney General is now looking at whether Coalition policy is compatible with the ACT scheme and the discussions are ongoing." It is hinted that a re-classification scheme could have spill- over effects into other states, particularly NSW, with a view to decreasing police corruption and black-market sales of sexually explicit videos. "The NSW Attorney General's office was not at all dismissive," says Forshaw. According to Jessie Choy, spokesperson for the NSW Attorney General Jeff Shaw's office: "If [the issue] came before [the NSW] Attorney General, he would consider it." "These videos are very popular," Eros Foundation (a "lobby group representing traders in non-violent erotic adult goods and services") president Fiona Patten points out. "Sixty-four thousand admit Australians buy them legally and another 640,000 people buy them illegally. Seventy per cent of adult Australians believe adults should have the right to access this material. "There are ten million [sexually explicit] videos in circulation today. It would be impossible to rid the world of them." ACT mail order companies pay out over $3 million to federal and state governments per year. According to Patten, this is one reason the federal government is under "a lot of pressure to change the classifications," as opposed to banning them altogether. In order to do this, the matter has to be put to a vote of the attorneys general and, in some cases, censorship ministers, and the decision must be unanimous. Following that, it would be the responsibility of the Office of Film and Literature to define what is meant by terms such as "explicit" and "demeaning". "We're specifically not setting definitions in terms of 'demeaning', because our understanding [of the word] may not be other peoples' understanding of demeaning ... It is not our role to set precise definitions or guidelines, just the parameters," says Forshaw. Julie Catt, SSO MIDSUMMA TRAM DISPUTE BROADENS *A group of Midsumma Festival revellers plan to take the Public Transport Corporation to the Equal Opportunity Commission following the failure this week to conciliate a dispute involving a tram driver.* In February a group of 12 passengers on a St Kilda Road tram complained they were harassed and verbally abused by a driver after attending the Midsumma Carnival. Group spokesperson, Libby Jamieson told Brother Sister that the Corporation was backing its driver in the dispute. "The PTC had no intention of resolving the matter at the meeting," she said. "As far as they were concerned the driver had acted according to procedure to resolve a noise issue and had not discriminated. "Since the group has been treated with such dismissive arrogance, the best course of action to take now is a formal complaint to the EOC which the whole group will finalise next Wednesday." FIRST OPEN SENAT OR *Tasmanian environmental activist Dr Bob Brown officially became the first openly gay man to be elected to Federal Parliament last week.* Dr Brown, a 51-year-old former Tasmanian State MP, defeated sitting Democrats member Robert Bell to take the island State's last Senate seat. He outed himself during an ABC television interview in 1976 and was elected to the Tasmanian Parliament in 1983. The news of Dr Brown's election was welcomed by the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group, which described it as a historic moment for the country's gay and lesbian community. Rights Group spokesperson Richard Hale said Dr Brown was currently the only openly gay man among Australia's 756 parliamentarians. "Bob Brown has a good track record on gay and lesbian human rights and we look forward to him working with the Democrats and Dee Margetts to pursue this issue Federally," Hale said. Before his resignation due to ill health in January, NSW MLC Paul O'Grady was the only openly gay parliamentarian in Australia. Ironically, Tasmania is the only Australian state in which sex between men is against the law. Tasmanian gay activist Rodney Croome said he believed a decision b;y the Democrats to direct preferences to the Call to Australia Party in Tasmania had been instrumental in the loss of Bell's seat. =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ BOTTOM LINE *Odd justice* To my enduring regret, sub-judicial reader, my parents called me Jeffrey rather than Justice. Imagine the occupational possibilities of the name Mr Justice Smart! I'd be at the bar in my silky robe, or prostrate on the bench within minutes, with a name like that. Sadly, a legal career shall never be mine. I cannot claim the spectacular title of Supreme Queen of the High Court. That pleasure goes to the impressively bewigged boys and girls who have devoted their lives to the pursuit of truth and justice through our glamorous old legal system. The judiciary (what a gorgeous, flamboyantly glittering word that is) have an enormous impact on the way in which gay and lesbian rights and freedoms are protected in our community. In some cases this responsibility is acted on with empathy and wisdom. At others our poor old judges are just as susceptible to flights of homophobic fancy as the rest of this tawdry old world. Take the case of the sentence handed down recently in the case of a Perth man who stabbed his lover to death. The defence argued that the killing was in response to a long period of brutal domestic violence. The defendant pleaded the `battered wife syndrome' - an appallingly sinister term in itself - and was convicted of manslaughter with provocation. In another case, this time in fantastic New Zealand, a jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case of a straight man who bashed, and severely disabled, a man who propositioned him. In this case the bizarre and chilling `homosexual panic' defence was employed by the defendant. This peculiar phenomenon apparently mitigates violence against gay men on the basis that a fellow is justified in biffing a poof on the nose where he fears that he is about to be the subject of a sexual advance. Consider, if you will, the outrageous fact that the defendant in case number 1 (in Perth) was gang-raped SEVERAL TIMES during his first five weeks in jail, for refusing to smuggle drugs into the penal facility. How can a judge not THROW OUT OF COURT a defence lawyer who uses the `homosexual panic' excuse, when sexual violence is being committed on gay men by straight men? And yes, this is a bit of outraged invective. I think I need a lie down with a gavel and a funny wig. This idea of taking motive and circumstance into account when considering violent crime is a difficult one. I'm no lawyer, but I would have thought that where violence has been done against a person (say rape or other physical assault) who then defends him/herself or retaliates with force or violence, that the courts may need to take the original violence (the thing which sparked the retaliation) into account when sentencing. But to even LISTEN to the `homosexual panic' defence, where the accused reacts violently to an assumed sexual advance, is ridiculous. Who knows, maybe one day I will go to the bar (goodness knows I spend enough time at the front bar of the Prince of Wales to have earned a permanent spot on the full bench) and when I do just watch out! There's going to be some emotional little judgements handed down! Jeffrey Smart =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Brother Sister is a fortnightly newspaper published in Melbourne, VIC and Brisbane, QLD, Australia. I have selected the main news stories as well as items of interest. Overseas media who utilise any or all of the above material please credit Brother Sister as your source (and by-line if it is listed). Thank you. Brendon Wickham