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

Bigot Point: "Gay marriage leads to bestiality."

Bigot Point: 

"Gay marriage leads to bestiality."

 Some creepy people have tried to link homosexuality with bestiality, when there is in reality no link between the two. 

 With homosexuality being naturally exhibited in about 10% of humanity, we can extrapolate that the number of homosexuals who exhibit Zoophilia

would be far less then the number of heterosexuals that do. 

 So if those arguing against allowing marriage equality (due to a fear of animal-human marriage) were serious they would be arguing for same sex marriage and trying to outlaw heterosexual marriage as heterosexuals would be more likely to suffer from zoophilia.

 But they are not because its clear those saying this kind of hate speech are only interested in spreading homophobia.

Definitions:

Zoophilia: Sexual fixation on  animals. 

Bestiality: Sexual acts with animals.

For this post when i write animals i am referring to non-human animals.

 But this argument is even worse as none of the marriage equality legislation has even hinted at allowing human-animal marriage. Of course none of the bills have even mentioned decriminalizing bestiality. The reason for this is that allowing same sex couples equal rights is a completely different issue.  

 Again this point is made to simply vilify gay people, to try to associate their desire to have equal rights with something that is seen as wrong by our society. As those seeking to deny marriage equality have to stretch this far , it shows that there really are no valid arguments against marriage equality.

 I see nothing wrong with the legal definition of marriage being the union of two* consenting adults.  

 As soon as anyone tries to argue that we don't need the participants to be consenting (and adult) i (and i hope most Australians) would have a serious problem with that. 

  * The number of consenting adults allowed in any given marriage is a completely different point.

 If the government ever tries to make human-animal marriage legal i will oppose that, as the animal can not consent. But there is no reason why we should oppose equal rights to gay people, lets address one issue at a time, lets not try to muddy the waters with fear-mongering nonsense. 

 If someone is trying to use this argument against marriage equality, you would be better served finding someone who is more honest and actually knows what they are talking about.

 Remember hate speech and vilification of gays is homophobia and homophobia leads to hate crimes.

----

Bigot Points Debunked:
 

"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."

"Marriage is about procreation."

Its trash day: Scott Morrison

Its trash day:

Scott Morrison

 Scott Morrison (ScoMo) is a Liberal party (far right wing extremist) politician. 

 He was Australia's immigration minister for a time and was often criticized for his draconian treatment of refuges. 

 His actions during this time were believed by many to violate the Refugee Convention. His seemingly indefinite imprisonment of child refuges was seen my many to be unconscionable.

 In an astounding move Scot Morrison was not held accountable for his actions but instead the welfare of vulnerable Australians was placed in his hands as he became Minister for Social Services. Later he would be rewarded with the role of Treasurer which he still amazingly holds today.

You may remember that ScoMo attended the ACL gay-hate rally, and said he respected their horrific homophobic views. 

  Now in a show of complete ignorance of the issues facing LGBT Australians he has claimed he knows how the LGBT community feels because he has faced similar bigotry. 

  A straight, christian, white, wealthy male, claiming to know how homophobia feels, claiming to have suffered hate speech. It is disgusting that he can hold such a position in our government and seemingly not have a shred of empathy.

 No Scott Morrison doesn't face the same bigotry, he has the right to marry, he can safely show affection to his partner without the fear of being bashed or murdered. He has no fear of letting slip his partners gender as it wont negatively effect how companies, employers or acquaintances treat him.  
  He certainly doesn't have organizations whose sole purpose is to lobby against him having equal rights. He doesn't have politicians arguing that he shouldn't have the same rights as them. 
 He cant know the fear that some homophobe with a gun will go into his local ScMo pub and murder 49 ScoMos. 
 He has no idea how it feels to face such bigotry. That he claims to shows that he is incredibly out of touch with the effects of the bigotry that he himself promotes.

 Malcolm Turnbull claims that Australia now has zero tolerance for homophobia, and yet Scott Morrison remains Treasurer. He claimed that the 'debate' leading up to a plebiscite allowing gay people equal rights would be respectful, despite the escalating examples of disrespect, vilification and hate speech against the vulnerable LGBT community..

 Here is a link that will help you contact Scott Morrison and respectfully ask him to educate himself or politely ask him to step down.

Contact ScoMo

Even if you think ScoMo has faced 'discrimination' due to his actions, there is still one major difference. He chooses how he treats others, while homosexuals are born homosexual.

Its Trash Day: Bob Katter

Its trash Day:

Bob Katter

 Bob Katter is leader of a minor political party in Australia. He is often referred to as the Mad Katter due to his ridiculous antics. One can only assume he is left to participate in Australian politics as part of some kind of in joke. Maybe the other politicians consider him to be like a mascot or something. 
 But the joke has gotten old, the mascot is pissing on the carpet and nipping at the guests, its time to put it out to pasture.

 Just days after the horrific Orlando massacre, a terror attack in which gays were gunned down Katter has released an advertisement where he kills two people with a gun.

 This may have been less reprehensible if Katter and his party didn't have a history of blatant homophobia.

 When confronted on the issue Bob Katter claimed the advertisement was funny and that he had no idea that the largest gun massacre in America had happened. Bob Katter claims not to watch television or read newspapers, and this may indeed be true given Bob Katters utter ignorance about everything. 
 But it is difficult to believe he had contact with no one before releasing this add, that no one thought to mention that endorsing gun violence just after Orlando gay hate terrorism might not be the best idea. 

Adding insult to injury Bob Katter went on to insult anyone offended by him and his advertisement. When a reasonable person accidentally offends a group, they will be shocked at their faux pas and apologise, they will try to make amends. Bob Katters reaction to continue to lash out at the victims of the terror attacks, and those who support them, suggests to me he knew full well what he is doing, but that's just my opinion.

 

 When even National parties politicians are calling for you to resign you should know you have really gone too far.

 The options are as follows:

1. Bob Katter knew about the Orlando terror attack and released his advertisment anyway because it helped his well established homophobic agenda. If true he is a hate preacher glorifying violence, endorses terrorism and should resign, before charges are brought against him.

2. Bob Katter didn't know about the largest gun massacre in US history, he didn't know about a major gay hate crime that shocked the world.  If so he is incompetent and unfit to hold office and should resign.

  Malcolm Turnbull the current Prime Minister has now said Australia now has zero tolerance for hate preachers, but as yet there has been no legal action against Bob Katter. 

 ENJOY

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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.

 

 

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."