News; RSVP, Fake News and Preventing Suicide.

 News: 23/02/2017

Video version

 

> Hate Group receives free funny online RSVPs

 A church in Melbourne invited the homophobic Lyle Shelton of the Australian "Christian" Lobby (ACL) to spread hate speech at a weekend event. They allowed people to RSVP over the internet, As a peaceful form of protest Pauline Pantsdown suggested that reasonable people could RSVP to the event using silly names and comments and hilarity ensued.
 Some of the issues Lyle Shelton was going to blunder on about seemed to included the ACL's advocacy for forcing the elderly, sick and dying to suffer, the ACL's opposition to the Australian constitution and equal rights, in addition to the ACL's advocacy for the bullying of school children.
 The bigoted Lyle Shelton is quoted as claiming that the RSVP's were;
 “the most degrading and obscene material I have been exposed to ".
 This coming from the man who has himself disgustingly tried to create false parallels between equal rights and Nazism. That is never OK by the way. Also from the man who denounces a school program, that aims to prevent bullying and youth suicides.
 Is he not aware that the ACL has claimed that smoking is healthier than being homosexual! And that the ACL tried to blame homosexuals for homophobia, homophobia that the ACL promotes?!?
 If we are to believe Lyle Shelton, and we assume he was excluding the ACL's filthy behavior from his consideration. I would suggest he need only to look at other bigots and homophobes in Australia to see far more degrading and obscene material. 
 But i am inclined to believe he is simply trying to "play the victim" as a professional homophobe i cant imagine he wouldn't keep up to date with what other homophobes and hate groups are doing and saying. In any event we can now doubly confirm that the ACL and Lyle Shelton are against freedom of speech.
 It gets weirder as this (to use the right wing vernacular) precious triggered snowflake has hired three body guards to protect him, if only every homosexual could do the same, if only every bullied LGBT kid in schools had even one bodyguard to protect them.  

 Maybe its time the ACL was officially declared a hate group and outlawed? Its at the very least time we stopped giving people like Lyle Shelton a voice on topics they clearly know nothing about. Not only has he shown repeatedly that he knows nothing about LGBT people but now he is claiming to know nothing about the homophobia that is his bread and butter, how are the other radical right wing bigots going to respect him if he doesn't give them credit for their hate speech, shame, Lyle shame.
 The Australian did a hit piece on Pauline Pantsdown which is so biased its actually funny. 

 

> A simple way to reduce youth suicide

 If you or someone you know is dealing with self harm please seek help. In Australia a shocking average of 2,687 death by suicide occur each year, that's a little over 8 deaths per day! Its horrifying that these numbers are doubled in relation to indigenous Australians. Males are around three times more likely to die by suicide then females. LGBT youth are 6 times more likely to attempt suicide. Transgender youth are almost 18 times more likely to attempt suicide. A horrifying 8% of LGBT youth (14-21) have attempted suicide. These numbers increase when considering those who thought about suicide but did not act upon those thoughts.  
  These statistics which are freely available show how important and necessary the Safe Schools anti-bullying program is. And how important it is that hate groups that incite discrimination should be stopped. 
 But there is good news an important American study titled; Difference-in-Differences Analysis of the Association Between State Same-Sex Marriage Policies and Adolescent Suicide Attempts has shown that marriage equality (LGBTI people having he same marriage rights as heterosexual people) can actually reduce the rates of youth suicide by a staggering 7%! This alone should encourage Malcolm Trumble to keep his promise and ensure LGBT Australians have their constitutional rights enforced and are permitted to marry like other Australians. He keeps getting these amazing opportunity to show some backbone and stand up to the homophobic, radical right, but he keeps letting them slip through his fingers. I hope this time he is true to his word and ensures Australia does have no tolerance for homophobia!

 Again if you or someone you know is experiencing any difficulties there is no shame in seeking out help, the statistics show you are not alone. There are professionals who will have resources that will help you cope with whatever life chucks at your face. They may have solutions you haven't thought of for helping you out of a difficult situation. Do not let the homophobes win, make them pay by living your life with love and happiness, don't worry if your not quite there yet, get the help you need and "just fake it til you make it". They will hate seeing that another LGBT youth has survived despite their best efforts. That you survive and go on to live your life means they have failed and that in and of itself is something for you to be proud of.

Indigenous population

the average number of suicide deaths per year was 2,687. - See more at: http://www.mindframe-media.info/for-media/reporting-suicide/facts-and-stats#sthash.67zIXqfO.dpuf

the average number of suicide deaths per year was 2,687. - See more at: http://www.mindframe-media.info/for-media/reporting-suicide/facts-and-stats#sthash.67zIXqfO.dpuf

Please support Marriage Equality by sending a fax with this easy web form. Remind them that Malcolm Turnbull promised to protect us from homophobia, remind them that the current marriage laws are unconstitutional and homophobic. Remind them they promised marriage equality before the end of last year. The Australian Marriage Equality website has a lot of information that can help you, check out the Get Informed tab. Thank you for helping this civil rights cause.

 

Breaking News: Turnbull has an opportunity to do the right thing.

Turnbull has an opportunity to do the right thing.

 As i am sure everyone is aware Turnbull has inherited Abbots homophobic plebiscite on equality. The policy delays marriage equality vote in Parliament until after a non-binding public vote. Even then we have seen that the promise to have this vote before the end of the year has been dropped. Despite the only reason the Lib/Nats can give for risking LGBT lives in this way is that it was an election promise. We know from there track record that the LIb/Nats don't actually care about keeping election promises.

 Most political commentators agree that Turnbull made a deal with the radical right of his party for the leadership after Abbots behavior became too bizarre to ignore. This deal with the devil seems to have included delaying marriage equality in Australia. 

 It should also be noted that the Lib/Nats plan for marriage equality would not give true equality to LGBT Australians. The documents show that anyone would be free to discriminate against gay people and pretend they were not in fact married. That is not equality,

So to sum all that up the Lib/Nat plan would:

It is no going to happen this year.
It is unnecessary.
It will be a hugely expensive waste of money.
It will provide funds for the hate groups to force channels to spread hate speech and vilify the LGBT community. 
It will provide funds for the hate groups to spread misinformation about the LGBT community.
It will include having a plebiscite that would not be binding.
Politicians have already said they will not abide by the plebiscite decision f it was for equality. 
Marriage equality would still then have to pass through Parliament at some unspecified date in the future.
True marriage equality would not be achieved because same-sex marriages would be subject to legal sanctioned discrimination.
It could cost lives.

 Turnbull has said that he believes the "debate" would be polite and civil. He has said that Australia has no place for homophobia. He has said homophobia wouldn't be tolerated in Australia. However he has failed to act when instances of homophobia have occurred. 

But the far-right within his party have done him a favor. They have proved him wrong. Before the official "debate" even started. They have released flyers that are misleading, inaccurate, and homophobic, they are in no way civil. 

 These disgusting flyers try to use Nelson Mandela in an attack on LGBT families and their children, which the Mandela foundation has declared was unauthorized and does not align with Nelson Mandalas views as he stood against homophobia. The flyers also attacked a school anti-bullying program and pretended that it was somehow linked to Australia's marriage laws.

A right wing newspaper that has previously printed racist comic in reaction to Aboriginal youth being tortured has now published a homophobic and anti-Semitic comic by the same "artist" that equates marriage equality with Nazis. As anyone with a passing knowledge of history or access to the internet should know, homosexual men were persecuted and killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
 It gets worse as the ACL hate group have made similar claims before, and it is all over the internet how disrespectful and inaccurate that was. I doubt the artist or the editors could have missed seeing this and how vicious this comic would be. Interestingly this my actually be covered under Australians anti-hate speech laws as it attacks not just gays but also gay Jews.

 This has given Turnbull an opportunity to announce with great disappointment that he was wrong and that the far-right can obviously not behave civilly, and so have proven they cant be given public funds to spread such dangerous lies. He can declare that they have forced his hand and that the plebiscite is off, he can then immediately vote in Parliament for true marriage equality. He can easily use the comic and the disgusting flyers as justification that overrides any promises he may have made behind closed doors. His first priority must be to the Australian people after all.

 At the very least he can concede that all material on the anti-marriage side must be fact checked, and that any applicantsfor the funding will have a background check, and any uncivil, untrue or discriminatory past conduct against the LGBT community will eliminate them from the process.

 The attack on LGBT Australians and their family's is so vile Turnbull could even use it as a legitimate reason to strengthen the laws protecting LGBT Australians from hate speech and discrimination.

Hate speech flyers

Response to the Orlando terrorism that targeted the gay community.

 First i want to express my heartfelt condolences to the victims and their family's of the Orlando hate crime massacre. I am in shock, as many Australians are, we can only watch on in horror as we learn more about this horrific event. I wasn't actually going to comment, but i felt i had no choice as my sadness turned to anger.

 I read in disgust as Trump tweeted without mentioning the fact this attack targeted gays, and reiterated his plan to ban Muslims, with no mention of banning homophobia or military grade weapons.
Trump hasn't been a champion in the fight against homophobia (or LGBT hate) to say the least. His party, the Republican Party had presidential candidates un-apologetically attending "kill the gays" rally's. I doubt he will address his parties homophobia.

 I watched in utter disappointment as our Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull used the tragedy to applaud his own "anti-terrorism" measures and somehow managed to not mention it being a hate crime against the LGBT community in a gay bar during pride month.
 He also failed to mention correcting his own parties homophobia; He didn't decide to protect safe schools, he didn't denounce his fellow Liberals homophobia,not even those who attended anti-gay hate rally's, and he didn't promise marriage equality.

UPDATE: Mr Turnbull has after some time made a new statement that does mention the gays. But still didn't substantially address the problem of homophobia that leads to violence. Lets hope his assurances are not empty.
 

 Make no mistake it is homophobia (transphobia, biphobia) that causes violent bigots to target LGBT people. It is the same homophobia we see in Australia perpetuated by anti-gay organizations.  We need to stop the hate.

  One could imagine these organization today, not even 24 hours after the tragedy, might release press releases condemning violence against gays, maybe some of them might make the connection that there particular brand of hate fuels this kind of violence. One could hope that some would apologise for there actions and maybe start working for peace and inclusion. 
 Maybe some of them did, maybe somewhere some bigots are realising there on the wrong side and are making plans to make amends for there past mistakes.

  Not Lyle Shelton of the Australian "christian" lobby (ACL) though, no not him. He took the opportunity to promote his and other bigots attacks of a safe schools program, designed to reduce bullying in schools and LGBT youth suicide. You know a program trying to prevent the kind of homophobia that leads to violent hate crimes. I shouldn't be surprised the ACL is a hate group and their leaders say and do a lot of deplorable things, but their really scraping the bottom of the barrel doing this today. 

 But he's not alone, Peter Madden of the Family First party, a gay hate group that actually has i think one person in our government, and no they don't really put family's first.
 That he could say such homophobic nonsense not just on the same day, but in the same tweet as he mentions the Orlando hate massacre is so mindbogglingly disgusting i am really struggling for words.

Support Victims of Pulse Shooting

 

If you want to help in another way then please contact your local government candidates, your churches, your schools, let them know you do not support homophobia. 

Consider supporting equality with your upcoming vote.

 At the very least please support your LGBT family and friends during this time and make a conscious decision to fight homophobia in all its forms.

 

 

ACL Leader equates equal rights movement with rise of Nazis.

 Hate Group Leader equates equal rights movement with rise of Nazis.

Lyle Shelton of the ACL hate group has linked the fight for gay rights to the rise of Nazis in Germany.

 The ACL (Australian "christian" lobby) is a hate group that is for bullying children and against LGBT rights. They are a group of lying, bigoted, hypocritical, anti- constitutional, homophobes.

 Those following the news may remember that these idiotic and insulting thoughts are not even his own, for when the ACL held there annual hate rally scorn was directed at the ACL for having a speaker that held those views. I did a post on it myself about my disgust that Scott Morrison our treasurer was attending the hate rally.

 So Lyle Sheldton has seen how offensive and inappropriate it is to liken gays to Nazis, he has seen the harm this caused and months later still decides that it is an appropriate thing to say.

 The fact that he had more than enough time to research the facts and still decided to mislead and vilify is disgusting. He has a responsibility to know better, and to do better.

 For the record, the Nazis were homophobic like the ACL, the Nazis persecuted an estimated 100,000 men during the Holocaust. The Nazis shut down gay groups, and destroyed literature on sexuality, not the gay men.It is the ACL and other bigots that want to shut down Safe Schools anti-bulling campaigns, not the gays. 
So bigots should really check themselves before comparing others (like  a group who were the victims of the holocaust) to the Nazis.

 Pot meet Kettle

 

 Lyle Sheldton went on to repeat some inflammatory nonsense about children being taken form a mother and father, and i just recently did a Bigot Point article debunking just such a claim. 

 Will Scott Morrison now denounce this hate group? Will the authorities finally declare this hate group a terrorist organization and shut them down? Will the ABC apologize for allowing him on the air like they have done with another radical extremist who was only in the audience and not an invited panelist?

 We all need to stand strong against these bigoted hate mongers. We need to be the guardians of what is good and right. We who choose to educate ourselves, so we don't say the opposite of what is truth, we need to oppose the spread of the kind of prejudice that the ACL encourage.
 Also if your Christian, these bigots are giving your religion and your god a very bad name, let your church know you support equality as well as your government.
 Contact Scott Morrison demand he denounce the ACL.
 Contact the ABC and demand they apologize for airing this radical extremists hate speech.

 Luckily we have a means to do so in the upcoming election. Contact your local candidates find out if they are homophobic and if they are tell them they do not have your vote.

Vote for equality this election.

Check out this helpful recourse for the four major parties.

 Again i wonder why these people don't overcome there harmful prejudices and try to do some good. Perhaps the ACL should appoint a leader that at least will follow the 10 commandments, i am especially thinking of the one about not bearing false witness.   
 But a leader with even passing knowledge of the bible might help the organization avoid such humiliation in the future.

'There are six things that the LORD strongly dislikes, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.'

                                                                                                                  Proverbs 6:16–19

When the government endorses bigotry.

Scott Morrison supports the ACL

 You will remember Scott Morrison from when he was immigration minister.

He was asked in an ABC interview:

" Three days ago an Indian student took his own life at a detention centre in Melbourne. He was in that centre because he overstayed his visa. Could that have been avoided?"

Scott Morrison smugly answered:

" Could he have avoided overstaying his visa?"

The ACL (Australian "christian" lobby) is a hate group that is for bullying children and against LGBT rights. They are a group of lying, bigoted, hypocritical, anti- constitutional, homophobes.

Scott Morrison attended and spoke at the ACL's annual hate group meeting, despite the fact he is Australia's current treasurer.

Scott Morrison has defended his endorsement at this hate rally by saying:

 "I respect everybody's opinions, I just hope and wish others would do the same,"

 Which is ironic considering he was speaking at the ACL hate group who are against equal rights, children and the Australian constitution.

One of the views he respects is the claim (by Eric Metaxas) that the recognizing of  equal rights is somehow like the rise of the Nazis in Germany. As you will be aware comments like that are extremely offensive as it was the Nazis who were homophobic. With the Nazis persecuting over 50,000 gay people during the Holocaust. For the ACL to associate such victims with their Nazis oppressors is disgusting and an opinion that should not ever be respected.

 To the best of my knowledge Scott Morrison has not been charged, he has not even been disciplined by the Prime Minister. He was promoted to the Treasurer of the Australian government after his behavior as immigration minister, one can only hope that common sense prevails and the PM at least distances himself and his party from this homophobia and bigotry.

Are Safe Schools a bad thing?

Bigots Attack Children

The bigots are at it again, it seems the mardi gras  upsets the bigots and puts them into full hate mode. If only they would educate themselves or seek professional mental help. But alas we have public displays of homophobia and bigotry.

First we had the hate group calling themselves the The Australian "Christian" Lobby demanding that they and other homophobes be exempt from anti-discrimination laws, in the lead up to a plebiscite on equal marriage rights. 

Seriously if you need to worry about your message vilifying others, maybe you should examine that message. Instead of enabling these hateful bigots, i believe that we should strictly enforce our hate speech and anti discrimination laws during this time. We need to protect LGBTI people, families and youth, from these hate groups and the negative effects they have on our society.

 Imagine what the Australia "Christian" Lobby could do if they devoted their energy to good instead of evil...

 Then we have Cori Bernardi a well know homophobe who joined the Australian "christian" Lobby in its attacks on the Safe schools program. Remarkably our Prime minister bowed to this known bigot and put the program under review. 

One would hope that the only logical outcome of a review would be that the program becomes compulsory for all students in all schools.

 This program was designed to help stop bullying in schools, as LGBTI youth are more likely to attempt suicide due to the homophobia they encounter. These people are fighting against this program. How many of them call themselves "pro-life" when they are clearly not pro (LGBTI youth) life.

Speaking for myself, i grew up in a small town public school. I imagine if there was a program like this back then, maybe i wouldn't have been bullied by the faculty into leaving school in year 11 after being denied my year 10 certificate. Perhaps the faculty wouldn't have been so homophobic, perhaps i would have fought harder to get my year 10 certificate.  Maybe i wouldn't have faced years of depression if homophobia wasn't so prevalent?

 But it isn't just Cori Bernardi (Has not been disciplined and is still a minister) and the Australian "Christian" Lobby (Now lead by Lyle Shelton, has not been outlawed, or charged) attacking our youth, Tony Abbott (Nullified marriages in the Australian Capital Territory that were between same sex couples), John Howard (Changed marriage act to exclude gay people, without a plebiscite, making the law unconstitutional), George Christensen (Disgustingly accused the safe school program of pedophile grooming among other nonsense claims. He is still a minister and has not been disciplined or charged), Eric Abetz (Who, while clearly homophobic, just seems confused and out of touch with reality in my opinion.). If any of these people are your government representatives, why not contact them and let them know their views are abhorrent.

Of course they have hit back against being labeled bigots and homophobes. But they need to understand it isn't "name calling" to call a spade a spade, if you don't like the label that fits you, change your views so that you no longer fit that label.

 I really do wish they would "think of the children" before spreading such hate, before attacking a program that reduces youth suicide. Their actions have real world consequences in our society, and in our schools. I wish they would understand they have a responsibility, if in a position of power or influence, to educate themselves, and to do the most good they can.

 I think this should show our Prime Minister that some in our community are not mature or do not have the common sense to act responsibly in the lead up to a plebiscite on equal rights.
The harm such groups could cause truly worries me.

If you would like to help keep our schools safe for all students please sigh the petition.

If you are upset, negatively effected by homophobia, or are yourself homophobic, please seek help.
Beyond Blue should be able to help or get you into contact with someone who can.