Book Review: Intermediate types among Primitive folk

 Intermediate types among Primitive folk

Author:                          Edward Carpenter

Publisher:                      George Allen & Unwin Limited

Type:                              Hard Cover

Pages:                            174

Genre:                            non-fiction

Published:                     1911

ISBN:                             Unknown

 This is an old book, its pages roughly cut and i had to read it in short bouts as its ancient pages brought on sneezing fits.

 This amazing work looks at the why of queer (LGBTQ) people, why did homosexuality evolve, what is its purpose? And in doing so it shows how influential queers have been to the development of civilisation. It is not difficult to read though and avoids using too many "university speak terms." It remains highly accessible to the novice reader.

 I often write notes when i know i am going to review a book, and i have filled two double sides of A4 pages with brief notes to refresh my memory of things i thought were fundamentally important. 

 Do no t fear i am not going to write about everything this book entails. I will note that it does use some antiquated language and has some old fashioned beliefs, but considering it was partly written in 1907 i am sure that can be forgiven. 

 The book looks at the role queer people have had through many different civilisations in our history.  We see again that queer members of society have filled valued positions in the past and such people were seen as a blessing to the group.

 This work is well thought out, excellently explained and logicly reasoned. It shows that being queer is of course natural and proposes that civilisation itself may have relied upon queer people to develop. It shows that queers being outside the usual masculine/feminine roles had time and inclination to think, to developed new ideas and look at problems from a different perspective. It shows that queers were a forward force in human evolution giving us amazing advances in religion, science, invention, art, crafting, healing, philosophy, music dance and poetry, 

 There is also chapters on "hermaphrodites", women, and the Samurai. In addition to a conclusion and index.

 Before talking about what is traditional, (yes this book does demonstrate some traditional same sex marriages through history), you need to read this book. Before talking about what is natural or best for society you need to have read this book. It should be required reading for everyone commenting on queer issues. It should be in every high school and university library.

 It is extremely shameful that we had this knowledge way back on 1907 and homophobic bigots in Australia are still trying to deny queer rights.

 

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: Did Hanson say something factual?

Hanson was sort of right, but for the wrong reasons.

 Pauline Hanson of the racist OneNation* party has declared that she still doesn’t support equal rights for LGBT Australians, because she mistakenly thinks that giving gay people equal rights would somehow take rights away from her. This of course nonsense and matches her usual uniformed opinion. 

 Its like she has her "whites" only beach where she swims, and there is infinite room, but she doesn't want any "non-whites" on the beach because she thinks it would somehow take away her ability to beach, or redefine what swimming was or something. Its sometimes really difficult to understand this kind of stupid.

Or

 It like if she stole a recipe for pancakes from a Pagan group and shared it with all her Christian friends. But then when the Pagans asked her for a copy she refused saying that doing so would be taking pancakes away from her and would lessen her pancake experience.

OR

 Its actually exactly like she has the rights to do something that other Australians have had taken away from them through no fault of there own. And she doesn't want them to have the same rights as her because, because i cant even think of a legitimate reason. She has said she is against same-sex people marrying because she doesn't personally need to marry someone of the same sex, but that cant be it really can it? Is she really just petty, selfish and cruel?

 Does she think same-sex marriage would be compulsory? Does she think opposite sex marriages would be annulled? Does she believe that couples will be magically sex changed so they would no longer be in opposite sex marriages? 
 Please Pauline become informed before you speak, there are gullible people who believe what you say at face value. I doubt she even consulted one LGBT group before spouting this nonsense.

 When confronted with the documented fact, proven by professionals that the kind of hate speech allowed by a plebiscite on human rights would be damaging to the LGBT community she said, "i don't agree with that". 
 She really thinks that her uniformed opinion is more important and accurate than actual qualified professional studies.
 I knew she was ignorant but this is willfully so. She has the facts presented to her and just says no, as if she can alter the fabric of reality with her obnoxious rebuttal. Well i suppose that fits in well with the other conspiracy theories of OneNation* members. Who voted for this kind of anti-intellectualism?

 She also supports the homophobic plebiscite that even if it passed and all that, wouldn’t give equality to LGBT Australians as the LIB/Nats will put in legislation allowing same-sex couples to be legally discriminated against, that’s not equal rights.

 She went on, and I kid you not, she went on to say that if LGBT Australians don’t like not having equal rights they should leave Australia. 
 Is that her solution for everything, does she have shares in passenger liners or something?
 I suppose we can get on the same boat as the Asians, Muslims and Aboriginals, oh that’s right it cant be a boat, boats are still bad right?. Does OneNation* believe in the science of aerodynamics? I have my doubts as OneNation* is so anti-science and anti-facts. 
 It is so ironic that despite the fact that OneNation* supporters want to change our constitution and don't like Australians freedoms and rights, and want to change these things. It is them who say "Australia, love it or leave!" They fail to acknowledge how hypocritical this is. I prefer to love what is right with Australia, and work towards changing those that are not, to make Australia better for everyone. If anyone needs to leave, can it be the racists, and bigots, please?
 The amount of exceptions to the One Nation she wants to create grows more every day.

 She was sort of right when she said that Australia should stop listening to minority's. But she was right only in that Australia needs to stop listening to OneNation*, as they only got less then 5% of the vote they are a very vocal minority indeed. 

 But she is wrong because the reason we should stop listening to OneNation* isn't because they are a minority, it is because they spout ignorant, uniformed, bigoted nonsense.

 However she did say she would vote yes on equal rights if the plebiscite result was yes, so hey she is right in doing that. I just hope if it comes to that, that it hasn't cost too many LGBT lives.

 But before you start checking the ancient texts to see if Hanson being right is a sign of the apocalypse, her reasoning is still wrong.  
  She shouldn't vote for marriage equality because a popular vote said it was popular (and polls already show that by the way), no she should be fighting for equality, because it is the right thing to do.

* OneNation may exclude entry due to ethnicity, gender, religion or sexuality.

Sources:
Pauline Hanson homophobia  
Pauline Hanson still homophobic

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

Review: Closets are for Clothes

Closets are for Clothes

A history of queer Australia 

 

Author:                               Rachel Cook

Publisher:                           Black Dog Books

Type:                                    Soft Cover

Pages:                                   147

Genre:                                  non-fiction

Published:                            2010

ISBN:                                   9781742031040

 The book itself is well made. I did notice a few (only two) errors however these were seen in extracts from letters and diary, so they may have been included to retain authenticity. As mentioned the book has many accounts of the history of Australia from those who lived it, sadly there are only a few black and white photos within the book.

 Pages from book

 This book is an exploration of LGBT life in Australia from "colonization" onward. It is a pity that there is no information within about LGBT life before invasion. Though i have a feeling that this is because such information is difficult to access if it even still exists at all, and not necessarily a whim of the author. Lets take a quick look thorough with some commentary on what i thought were some of the highlights.

 The book begins with some praise by notables including The Honorable Michael Kirby and nice introduction
 Chapter One deals with the first non-native Australians, the convicts. We see lesbian marriages taking place way back in 1792, now that's traditional. We learn that sodomy (oral or anal sex) was punishable by death or transportation (to Australia), though it is noted that only gay men were prosecuted for sodomy. This must mean that a considerable number of early white Australians were indeed gay, indeed there is much evidence of homosexual couples living as married in the colony's. The homosexuality was so prevalent (and distasteful to snobbish British eyes) that it brought about the first calls for an end to transportation.

 Chapter Two we learn that gay men also came to Australia as free settlers seeking a better life away from the prying eyes of family and harsh judgement of the law. We take a look at some gay bushrangers, as well as early works on the fact homosexuality was a natural part of human sexuality.

 Chapter Three We hear a lot of the 1950's fear of the other, and it is sad how much these sentiments mimic the hate spewed forth by racists and homophobes today. You may be forgiven if you think the author was in error and accidentally published pages from the One Nation website in the wrong section, but no 1950's bigots and 2016 bigots are just playing to the same darker aspects of humanity.

 Chapter Four looks at life after World War Two.

 Chapter Five examines the sham that is aversion therapy as well as the treatment of homosexuality as an illness and its failure. Because even then they knew the problem wasn't homosexuality it was homophobia.

 Chapter Six shines a light on a dark era of Australian history with the targeted harassment, and entrapment of Gay men by government forces. It is also incredible to think that we were once so barbaric as to have made it illegal to have been born a 
homosexual male. It is amazing how humans thought they were above the laws of nature.

 Chapter Seven deals with the 60's and 70's with topics ranging from the white Australia policy, the Kinsey report, the burgeoning gay rights movement, and the forming of what would become the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

 Chapter Eight takes a look at feminism, and AIDS. It is interesting to note that despite the vilification and hate of the disgusting Fred Niles (and his ilk) the LGBT community helped Australia become a world leader in dealing with the AIDS crisis.

 Chapter Nine shows us some gay people becoming famous and some LGBT characters appearing on television. It looks at inclusiveness, transgender issues, adoption, IVF, and the fight for equal rights. As well as the horrible act of John Howard changing the marriage act, in order to nullify existing LGBT marriages and prevent more, he did this disgusting thing without a plebiscite mind you. We also see that about 70% of homophobic bullying experienced by young Australians happens at school, which shows again how important initiatives like the Safe Schools anti-bullying program really are and how immoral it would be to oppose them.


The book ends with an extensive glossary, timeline, index and ample references. 

I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Australian history, law, civil rights and LGBT issues. It is easy to read and should be in every school library history section. The book really needs an updated edition but is still a good reference from 2010 and back.

Also check out The Sex Lives of Australians for more on this topic.

 
 

Bigot Point: "Marriage is about procreation."

Bigot Point: "Marriage is about procreation."

 Some bigots want to argue that marriage is about creating children and not about love. 

 This argument implies that marriage is currently about procreation and that marriage equality will change that. The thing is the current marriage laws in Australia are not about procreation at all, there is no fertility test before you are allowed to marry, there is no contract requiring the creation of children. Those saying this as an excuse to deny equal rights are lying and sowing discord. 

 Worse still they are spreading homophobia that leads to the kind of violence we experienced in the Orlando homophobic terror attacks. We all must stand up against these bigots that support such terrorism.
 Even if you agree with these bigots, to hold these barbaric opinions, there is no valid reason we should be enforcing there discriminatory views in our laws.

 Bigots arguing this are saying that they want to prevent marriage by those who do not want to or are incapable of producing children. One would assume that those who are "too old" to safely have children would be included in this ban.

Malcolm Turnbull has said Australia now has zero tolerance for homophobia, and yet there are still hate groups active today spreading this hate speech.

 Please let your local government representatives and your churches know you stand against terrorism and homophobia. 

 Please support marriage equality.

"Children need both a biological Mother and Father."

"Same sex marriage isn't biblical marriage."

"homosexuality is a choice."

"Same-Sex marriage isn't Traditional Marriage"

"Homosexuality is Unnatural"

 "Marriage Equality threatens religious freedom"

"Same-sex marriage isn't natural marriage."

 "Marriage equality will destroy free speech"

 "Same-sex marriage will be forced on everyone."

  
Further Reading:

Marriage Act 1961

 

Bigot Point: "Marriage equality will destroy freedom of speech!"

Bigot Point:

"Marriage equality will destroy freedom of speech!"

 

 Sometimes you may hear bigots cry that freedom of speech will be lost if we allow equal rights in Australia. 

 This is simply not true. To the best of my knowledge, and i have checked, none of the bills concerning marriage equality have also aimed to reduce freedom of speech laws at all. 

 Just so your aware of the truly disingenuous nature of this argument, Australia doesn't even really have any free speech protection in our constitution.  

 We do have a freedom of political speech (protecting our political opinions from governmental prosecution) protected by the constitution, which shouldn't apply to arguments against equal rights, just as it would not be effected by laws embracing marriage equality. 

 Please be aware that John Howard, (who also changed the marriage laws in order to exclude same-sex couples), reintroduced an antiquated sedition law, reducing Australian rights to free speech.

 Freedom of speech in Australia is a complicated topic and i am not a lawyer, we do have an implied freedom of speech here at least. What is important to remember is that marriage equality bills have never and i doubt ever will effect free speech legislation. 

 If the bigots using this argument instead mean that equal rights will destroy anti-discrimination laws, then again that would be erroneous as no pro-marriage equality bill would address, let alone lessen any existing anti-discrimination laws. 

 The only way a marriage equality bill is related to anti-discrimination is in the fact that bringing equal rights back into marriage law would make the marriage act non-discriminatory. 

 It might shock you to learn that religious organisations are already exempt from many anti-discrimination laws. I know i would be uncomfortable if any organisation i was associated with desired or accepted exemption from such things.

 Now perhaps the bigots mean that hate speech laws will be destroyed if we allowed marriage equality. The same reasoning goes here, the two laws have little to do with one another, marriage equality bills would not alter hate speech legislation. Marriage equality will neither strengthen nor diminish anti hate speech laws.

 I should note that anti-hate speech laws in Australia are rarely enforced, one simply needs to look at the anti-gay hate groups webpages or press releases to see hate speech flaunting the standards of any civilized society.

 As you can see anyone making this kind of argument is ether very ill informed or is lying in order to further their own dubious desires. Many of the hate groups that have come out against marriage equality use this kind of disingenuous language and it should offend us all. It personally disgust me, i can only imagine if i were Christian and saw so many of these lairs spouting falsehoods and sowing discord among Australians.

 

"Children need both a biological Mother and Father."

"Same sex marriage isn't biblical marriage."

"homosexuality is a choice."

"Same-Sex marriage isn't Traditional Marriage"

"Homosexuality is Unnatural"

 "Marriage Equality threatens religious freedom"

"Same-sex marriage isn't natural marriage."