LESBIAN AND GAY SOLIDARITY NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE

ISSN 1446-4896 ISSUE 5, 1999, NUMBER 45
DECEMBER 1999 - JANUARY 2000

1) JOBS IN AUSTRALIA: IF YOU ARE NOT A CHRISTIAN, YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO GET A JOB!:
Tony Abbott is the Minister for Employment Services in the Federal Government of Australia. Chris Puplick is the President of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board. In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald of 4 January 2000 Chris Puplick wrote:

"The minister (Tony Abbott) trots out the old homophobic canard that Catholic schools cannot be forced to employ "openly" gay teachers (a subtle if rather revealing distinction), but his Government"s policies hold those same schools to account under the Racial Discrimination Act if they seek to exclude teachers on the basis of their racial or ethnic status."

Chris Puplick's article was in response to the outcry which greeted the awarding, by the Federal Government, of job-placement contracts to four Christian organisations, with considerable funding from the Government. These Christian organisations promptly stated that they would insist on adherence to Christian ethics and standards by those they employed in their organisations and those they placed in employment.

There was, understandably, an immediate outcry from the Australian community. Non-Christian groups were outraged - Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists - in fact everybody else other than Christians.

The contract winners set out to justify themselves, but have failed to convince!

As homosexuals are taboo to the Christian groups winning the contracts, discrimination will continue in the job placement area and the Government will continue its homophobic actions to the detriment of the community at large.

2) COUNTRIES TO BOYCOTT: SERBIA/YUGOSLAVIA, KENYA, UGANDA, ZIMBABWE, NAMIBIA, NIGERIA, EL SALVADOR, BRAZIL, ISRAEL, CHINA:
Peter Collard of LGS has filed the following report for the newsletter:  SHOCK, HORROR ......CONDOMS! The response of various nations to World AIDS Day and AIDS prevention campaigns is still alarming.

ISRAEL: Israel"s Health Minister, Shlomo Benizri, a rabbi, said the country"s annual anti-AIDS campaign could not use images of contraceptives because pictures of condoms would shock many Israelis, not only orthodox Jews. (He also says that homosexuals are mentally ill, suffering from a genetic defect). Collard further advised - and the Australian Jewish News (21/1/00) reported - that some of Israel"s leading rabbis have issued a religious ruling banning their followers from using the Internet out of concern it could lead to "sin" and "destruction" and lead the young astray.

CHINA (PEOPLE"S REPUBLIC OF): The Family Planning Propaganda and Education Centre began running advertisements promoting the use of condoms on national TV just before World AIDS Day. However the Commerce Administration Bureau banned the advertisements as "sex products cannot be advertised".

KENYA: President Daniel arap Moi has declared AIDS a national disaster. He ordered a campaign of education in schools. But he refused to allow the government to advocate condom use, as it "would be morally wrong, and give youth a licence to practise casual sex." He has also commenced a campaign of arresting homosexuals, and has expressed similar hatred to that of President Mugabe of Zimbabwe. (End of Peter Collard's report)

YUGOSLAVIA: A report in the Sydney Morning Herald of 8 January 2000 stated that "Homosexuals this week joined a list of enemies of the Yugoslav state that already includes independent journalists, opposition politicians and two shadowy groups accused of trying to assassinate President Slobodan Milosevic. Mr Dejan Nebrigic, president of the gay and lesbian rights association Arkadija, was found strangled last week in his flat. Arkadija, as well as campaigning for gay rights in Serbia - which, like most of the Balkans, is a difficult place for homosexuals - was part of the Belgrade Peace Movement that has protested against the conflicts that have torn up Yugoslavia."

EL SALVADOR: Amnesty International is concerned for the safety of William Hernandez in El Salvador. He is the director of a non-governmental organisation working with sexual minorities. During  the capital San Salvador"s lesbian and gay pride celebration he received a death threat and a few days later as he and a friend came out of the organisation"s offices, a shot was fired and the friend was hit and injured. During November there were three more telephone death threats to his office. Amnesty International says there have been several killings of members of the sexual minorities" communities in San Salvador. The national civilian police have not attempted to carry out any thorough investigations of the killings or the death threats. Amnesty has called for a prompt investigation and the findings made public.

BRAZIL: Murders and threats of murders are commonplace for gays and lesbians in Brazil. For all its so-called tolerance of diversity in the Brazilian community and despite the annual Carnival in Rio, this society is one in which murder is so common - especially of street children - that a few murders of gays and lesbians do not make national headlines. Many gays and lesbians go to Brazil for holidays, particularly at Carnival time. Another country to boycott!


 3) BANGKOK GAY FESTIVAL:
The first Bangkok Gay Festival was held late last year. The programme was mostly filled with "party" events in the various gay venues, mainly in Bangkok. The southern island of Phuket held a similar festival. There was one "serious" event - a forum discussion on International Gay and Lesbian Rights. The main speakers were Prof. Doug Saunders of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) and Daniel Lee of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) in San Francisco. This was attended by guests from other Asian countries and local gays - fewer of Thai background (perhaps because of language problems - Ed.) but more of non-Thai background.

            Some points raised at the forum were:

*ILGA is Euro-centric and there is not much involvement by Asian groups.

*Most problems for gays are in former British colonies (eg Malaysia, India, Singapore). In Malaysia the Anwar/Mahatir conflict has stifled any discussion about gay rights, due to the highly political nature of the sodomy charges against Anwar.

*In some countries gay groups are refused registration, making them illegal organisations. The Bangkok Gay Festival and the Manila Pride Parades are the only ASEAN countries at present where this sort of activity can happen.

*There are perceived to be three stages in international law in the gay rights arena - Criminal law overturned eg by UN or European courts - Enforcement of equality and non-discrimination eg in military by European courts - Respect and recognition (more a public attitude issue) an example being the public outcry over a Netherlands politician failing to make a rebuttal to Mugabe"s "pigs and dogs" speech which forced him to institute foreign aid funding for "homosexual emancipation" eg to GALZ and Costa Rican groups.

*Some countries explicitly forbid discrimination based on sexuality in their constitutions. Many others include sex, but not sexuality. As the UN and European decisions were based on privacy and sex grounds this may not be a problem, but none of these constitutions have yet been tested in court.

*Human Rights is an European concept derived from the Magna Carta, but Asian culture focuses on the family and community. Hence political and religious groups do not affirm respect and dignity for gays, lesbians and transgender people.

*Asia has a great lesbian invisibility, but where seen they are active. For example Thailand has many gay but only one lesbian magazine. But the only politically active group is lesbian. This was partly attributed to the difficulty in forming an activist group, and when one was formed in an area it tended to handle both lesbian and gay issues. Also lesbians (and women in general) have a lower economic status and power, so lesbian venues/magazines are not generally as viable as gay ones.

*Recent government actions (eg Anwar case, recent bans in Thailand) have raised the profile of gay and lesbian issues in the media. Hopefully this will result in positive outcomes.

The climax of the Bangkok Gay Festival was a street parade followed by a dance party (a bit like the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras). Like early Mardi Gras parades, crowd and traffic control were non-existent. Several groups of buses and taxis forced their way into the parade. AIDS prevention was a major theme (FACT led the parade), the Hong Kong group got a big cheer, but the main emphasis was on costumes and fun (at which Thais are expert).

THAILAND: Passengers on specially marked tuk-tuks were given a free voucher for a durian-flavoured condom on World AIDS Day. (Durian is a strong-smelling Asian fruit much loved by Thais. A tuk-tuk is a noisy three-wheeled taxi).Meanwhile Thailand is being thwarted in its efforts to manufacture HIV treatment drugs by threats of trade USA sanctions if it attempts to break the monopoly patents of the drug companies. The Thai health Department believes it can Manufacture the drugs for a third the cost of the discounted drugs offered to third-world countries by these monopolies.[Peter Collard reported from Thailand] (Editor's note:  South Africa's government has withstood the threats of the US drug companies and has won some major concessions in relation to generic AIDS drug manufacture in South Africa)

3a) THE PLAY - CORPUS CHRISTI: Late last year Sydney University Dramatic Society (SUDS) produced the controversial Terrance McNally play "Corpus Christi". This is the play condemned by religious groups when, at every night of its US run, met with 1500 protesters outside the theatre. It"s about a young man in South Texas who sees himself as both gay and the son of god and relives the Jesus story. There are six lesbian roles and seven gay male roles. The characters are identified by the disciples" names and the central figure, Joshua. Quite obviously, Joshua and Judas are seen as lovers. Six religious societies demanded cancellation of the SUDS production and 250 hate emails were directed at the Union"s president. Despite a delayed start, the play was certainly provocative and extremely amusing. Directed by young Gary Lo.

4) UK ARMY BAN ON GAYS AND LESBIANS LIFTED - TO ACCORD WITH EUROPEAN UNION RULINGS; USA STILL BATTLING DON"T ASK, DON"T TELL:
After appeals to the European Union Courts from British gay and lesbian rights activists, the UK Government has at last lifted the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the UK armed forces. The new code of conduct is apparently to be based on the Australian model and will forbid touching, displays of affection and relationships across the ranks, even between members of the opposite sex. The main alternative to the Australian model was the one of the US Armed Forces which is based on the principle of "Don"t ask, don"t tell". However, this is unpopular with homosexual rights campaigners, who claim it is still discriminatory and British minister have ruled it out.

5) YOUTH SUICIDE IN SYDNEY"S WEST - GAY-RELATED? WHAT RESEARCH HAS BEEN DONE?: A report in the University of Western Sydney Alumni journal Nepean News dated Spring 1999 contains a report by Lynda Farquhar, "Early intervention shows promise for at-risk youth". Research was carried out by Ms Anne Fry, senior lecturer in mental health nursing at UWS Nepean. The article reported that "In 1997 alone, 510 young Australians - 417 males and 93 females - aged 15-24 years took their own lives".

Nowhere in the report is there any evidence to suggest that the issue of homosexuality and homophobia in the community was addressed as possible - and probable - causes of youth suicide. Yet statistics gathered by sources lacking the resources to do thorough investigations into the problems of youth suicide indicate these to be major contributions to young people committing suicide. Homophobia is alive and well and living everywhere in our society, and the religious organisations, which ought to be assisting young people come to terms with their burgeoning sexuality, are doing just the opposite. Until such time as these matters are addressed with major funded research in the area of youth suicide, the situation will only get worse and worse. Investigations by people such as Anne Fry, who is in a position to do such research, would then have more positive outcomes than those already stated in the article reporting on the Blacktown Youth Suicide Prevention Project.

6) MORDECHAI VANUNU - LATEST INFORMATION:
An item reported in the Bangkok post in November 1999 stated that the partial record of Mordechai Vanunu"s trial had been released - but Mordechai hadn't!

7) ANWAR IBRAHIM: 
In Malaysia, Anwar was sentenced last April to six years in jail for corruption and is still being tried for alleged sodomy. He says he was framed by political opponents. Now, Malaysian authorities have arrested his lawyer Karpal Singh, Ms Marina Yusoff, an opposition politician, Anwar's political secretary, and the editor and the printer of the Islamic Party's newspaper, all on sedition counts.

8) NEW YORK POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED TO 30 YEARS FOR SODOMY "LESSON":
After pleading for mercy, a former police officer, Justin Volpe, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for sodomising Abner Louima with a stick in a police station lavatory. Judge Eugene Nickerson said "Short of intentional murder, one cannot imagine a more barbarous misuse of power than Volpe's." Volpe said he was sorry and also apologised to Louima and Patrick Antoine, the second Haitian man he beat and falsely arrested that night. The judge also ordered Volpe to pay Louima compensation of  US$277,495 and Antoine US$3,550.

9) HIV JUDGE A WHITE (SOUTH AFRICAN) MAN IN A BLACK EPIDEMIC:  
Said to be the most prominent South African to come out HIV positive, High Court Justice Edwin Cameron, gay and white, is an exception to the rule in his country's crippling AIDS epidemic. He was in Australia in December 1999 on a world tour to highlight  the need for governments to recognise their commitment to pressure the World Trade Organisation and its members to support the push to relax drug patent laws. For instance, in South Africa there is the necessity to introduce an anti-retroviral regime for women with HIV. The drug AZT, which has been shown to prevent vertical transmission of HIV - that is, mother to child transmission -  in 2/3 of cases is expensive and inaccessible for the majority of people with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. The reconfiguration of the International Trade and Patent Laws is an immediate imperative ... so AZT and other drugs to treat HIV/AIDS can be accessed by people on African wages.

10) SOUTH AFRICAN RESPONSE TO GOVERNMENT HIV TESTING PLANS - RESPONSES FROM NCGLE: The Government released its proposed new HIV testing policy on 10 December 1999 for further comment. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has asked the South African Minister of Health to include the special needs of pregnant women to testing, counselling and anti-viral therapy (AZT and Nevirapine) to prevent mother-to-child transmission. TAC has welcomed the requirement that the policy will always be interpreted "to ensure respect for privacy, dignity and autonomy." TAC says that it is the death knell for "notifiability" regulations.

11) CATHOLICS STILL BUSY TRYING TO CURE GAYS: The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne is promoting a fundamentalist christian group calling itself Catholic Courage. It has sent a Courage pamphlet to 300 priests in the archdiocese. Courage asserts that homosexuals are "as sick as their secrets" and promotes treatment  in the style of Alcoholics Anonymous to help lesbians and gays to "get rid of their homosexual inclinations by prayer and therapy." It enjoys the blessing of the Archbishop George Pell. One has to agree with David Marr when in his book (High Price of Heaven) he says "if we're taught to hate the sin, we'll come to hate the sinner." After all, who hears the church saying Hate Rape - Love Rapists? 

12) NEW ASIO BILL: In preparation for the Sydney Olympic Games, a new bill gives the infamous Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) increased powers. With bipartisan support it passed quickly and quietly through the Australian Senate in November 1999. It legalises computer hacking by ASIO and gives its employees the power to modify, delete or add information. Could easily be used to plant evidence. It also allows ASIO to cover its tracks when tampering with computers and building-security systems. It may be seen as only a "Games measure" but history teaches such powers are seldom handed back ..... remember 1978 and the Sydney Hilton Bomb!

13) 2 DONATIONS - THANK YOU SO MUCH TO DONORS:
LGS received two gifts to assist with the production of the newsletter. We would like to express our thanks for their help.

14) SPAIDS LATEST: SPAIDS has written to South Sydney City Council for advice on the dates of plantings for 2000 in Sydney Park. We hope to have this information shortly and will put this in our next newsletter. We have heard a rumour that during the Mardi Gras festival in February 2000 the Council will be showing plans for a permanent AIDS Grove memorial design, based on community input.

15) INTERSECTION - LATEST: Since Christine Bird of InterSection and author of the Crossroads Tolerance Report began agitating over prevalent uncaring attitudes to sexual minorities accessing community services in New South Wales, marked changes have occurred in local government circles. At least three councils have begun researching the situation for lesbians and gays in their local areas. In November 1999 the Local Government and Shires Association Conference passed a motion making sexual minorities (lesbians, homosexuals, gays and transgender people) a mandatory target group for the social/community planning and reporting manual of the NSW Department of Local Government. Most local government and shire councils were shocked when they were expected to include lesbians, gays and transgender people in developing social plans for disadvantaged groups. They simply refused to believe that such people existed in their communities in sufficient numbers to justify inclusion. Research in Sutherland, Tweed Heads and Leichhardt has shown that councils" long held assumption is false. Even South Sydney has sent out a survey to service providers although this council wants to avoid specific research because it believes it has sufficient statistical evidence on file. (South Sydney Council covers Sydney's known high gay and lesbian  suburbs) InterSection believes South Sydney may find that it, too, is short on statistical data on sexual minorities.

16) AGE OF CONSENT -  AUSTRALIA: In a country of 19 million people and one in which there are only six states and two territories, it is unbelievable that a consensus can not be reached on a standard age of consent for all who live here. The ongoing differences show that discrimination in this area is far from resolved, and it is necessary to actively complain to your Federal and State members of parliaments right around Australia to equalise the age of consent for heterosexuals and homosexuals. This has been done in a few states and territories, but is totally unacceptable in others. The ridiculousness of the whole situation is obvious when the age of consent varies so widely in the States and Territories: 16, 17, 18 and 21.

17) AIDS AND MINORITIES: In the United States the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that, for the first time since AIDS was discovered 20 years ago, more black and Hispanic American men were diagnosed with AIDS than white men in 1998. The shift occurred, possibly because blacks and Hispanic Americans are less likely to identify themselves as gay and seek help in treatment and prevention. AIDS is the late stage of HIV infection in which symptoms or severe immune system damage are present. People in the USA diagnosed with AIDS in 1998, according to the CDC, actually acquired the infection much earlier, living 5 - 10 years symptom-free before they were diagnosed with AIDS. We have to ask, where are the statistics for American women, black, Hispanic and white?

18) HARM MINIMISATION POLICY ATTACKED: In Sydney this is the "Nile Risk Time" when Fred starts his discriminatory sniping at us. Currently, he is feeling righteous, having got his way with some rude city posters. Now, he has jumped into deep water (SMH 17/1/00) claiming harm minimisation a cruel hoax and insisting safe injecting rooms and free needle exchanges tell youth that heroin is OK. Why the SMH continues to publish his letters when he has the NSW Parliament as a platform says something about the editorial policy of the newspaper. However, Nile got a stiff serve from the AIDS Council of NSW President who quoted international and local studies which conclude that needle exchange programmes reduced unsafe equipment disposal and saved health systems thousands of $ for HIV/AIDS treatment. Another letter-writer took Nile to task for using someone's misfortune on a beach to grab a political point, for attacking reasoned approaches to the issue, and for shaming the user, to capture a few more bigoted votes.

19) NEW BOOKS:
TWO STARS edited by Paul F Walsh and launched in Newcastle for World AIDS Day 1999, is a pictorial record of AIDS memorial quilt panels which honour the lives of people in the Hunter region of NSW who have died from AIDS. It also honours those who live with HIV/AIDS.  The foreword is by Nick Enright who mentions that its symbolism is domestically simple and a beautiful and useful human creation. An afterword by Dr David Sutherland, a clinical immunologist comments that the cost of this epidemic to our community has been far greater than any text or photograph can convey.  $14.95 plus postage and handling from Elephant Press on (02) 4952 6157 or ACON Hunter, 129 Maitland Road Islington NSW 2296

HIGH PRICE OF HEAVEN by David Marr. This one is about the role salvation plays in the politics of Australia. The churches remain the most resilient, most respected, and the best connected lobby in the nation. Sin is their business. Heaven is their aim. Government is their partner. For those who have no faith in the afterlife, the price we are expected to pay for getting us to heaven is too high. Too much waste, too much cruelty, too much pain. Catholic and Protestant, old and new, they love authority and suspect pleasure. And David gets stuck into their tactics. Allen and Unwin $22.95 all good bookshops.                            

COME OUT AND MEET US at Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Fair Day on Sunday, 20 February, at Victoria Park. We shall be selling books and t shirts including Two Stars $14.95, Graham Carbery"s A History of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras $10, It Was a Riot - Sydney"s 1978 Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras $2, and t shirts Stonewall was a Riot $15, Friends of Dorothy $15 and lapel Rainbow Ribbon badges $2.50.