Sex and Politics in the Oz Down Under

Sun, November 28, 2010 10:14:25 PM

	GREG in Adelaide sent this in. . . .I think we all are interested in what is going on, beyond our own little playpens.   Thanks, Greg.  My fault, eh?  COOL, good, successful blog. . hahahhaaa        Tired weary ole Justin O'Shea, back at campus, of a Monday Morning. . .when it is almost December!

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Hey Justin,
Things are getting interesting here in Oz.
Politically and socially....at the same time.

> Senior cabinet ministers now believe it is "inevitable" that a conscience vote on same-sex marriage will be endorsed at the ALP's national conference late next year, setting the scene for parliament to debate legislative reform in 2012



We have the situation where our last election left the govt with the only option of forming a coalition and the factions are making it hard for the traditionalists within the labour party.
Some compromises are afoot and some interesting leverages.

Check this out.
http://www.news.com.au/national/wong-gay-push-sparks-fears-of-labor-hijacking/story-e6frfkw9-1225962418126

I don't think they'll get it through this time...but it is getting closer for sure.
No time for politics. I vote and give my opinion, but I do not seek to change other people's minds other than by example.

To be honest I've never closely followed what our nation and govt have been doing as regards gay marriage and gay rights, we don't have it bad here, discrimination is not really bad, we don't seem to have a lot of violence against gays here. Sure there is some, but it is certainly not the norm.


Since I'm not really out, I've never felt the effects...in fact, thinking back, I don't think I've ever been discriminated against ... not that I'm aware of.
Sure, there are plenty of close friends that do know about me...and no doubt quite a few of them would have let it slip into a wider circle, and others might have guessed or wondered, but no sign of anything bad. Lucky I guess.

To be honest, being gay has not been a consuming part of my life. Living life has been more important to me.
Friends, family, people in general have always been the most important thing in my life.
As for myself, learning, seeing new things, achieving, designing and learning how to make and build things...(electronics, and mechanics) has always been my passion.
Helping people, being liked because I am a nice, witty, fun person to be with, racing motorcycles, food, cooking, travel, pets, ....and my great circle of friends, yep, that about sums me up.

Sorry I'm rambling..about me again...me me me me!...ha!


Here's a bit from a recent piece that a noted radio and TV commentator/journo recently had published in the national newspaper "The Australian"
>
> Our new Prime Minister is an atheist. She doesn't believe in God, but she believes in the sanctity of God-blessed marriages except for gay people.
>
> Sounds hypocritical to me. She lives with her partner Tim Mathieson, a condition the church would quaintly describe as "living in sin".
>
> If the hairdresser with whom Gillard lives had been female I wonder if her views would be different? And where does Penny Wong stand on this? She is a cabinet member who has fewer civil rights than her colleagues, purely because of her sexuality.
>
> Gillard said: 'We believe the Marriage Act is appropriate in its current form, that it's recognising that marriage is between a man and a woman."
>
> That statement came on the same day the female Prime Minister of Iceland married her female partner. In Mexico City, capital of a fiercely Catholic country, same-sex marriages and adoption by same-sex couples have been legal since March of this year.
>
> In the US some states recognise same-sex marriages although those laws have been rolled back by referendum in places such as California. Closer to home, the Labor-dominated territory government in Canberra legalised same sex marriages, but was overruled by the federal government, in the same way the Howard government blocked voluntary euthanasia in the Northern Territory. The Victorian Labor Party (Gillard's home state) supports gay marriage.
>
> Gillard says her government (and Kevin Rudd's government) had taken steps to equalise treatment for gay couples over matters such as social security benefits.
>
> But she is not going to scare the voters, especially the religious Right, by advocating anything more than that.
>
> The Liberals and Nationals are even more locked in. After all, The Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, has admitted he feels "threatened" by homosexuals. That's weird. What's also weird is the strident opposition when most marriages in Australia are these days conducted by celebrants and not in churches, only about 10 per cent of Australians are weekly churchgoers, two out of three marriages end in divorce, and one in three Australian children are born out of wedlock. What are people afraid of?
>
> The only encouraging thing for gay people is that they know their day will come. Equality will prevail. One day.
>
> Remember, how many African-Americans living in Georgia in the 1960s could even dream of a Barack Obama in the White House.
>

This guy was anti-gays for years, loud and outpsoken. Often controversial on various subjects, but he does have a lot of followers, so his 'conversion' (ha!) is something significant, people are at last speaking out....maybe it will happen this time, maybe I'm wrong, but then the wheels of politics turn very slowly and it won't be addressed for another year or so.

I blame you for getting my interest up (!) in sex and politics and social change... I hope you find the goings on in the Australian political sex-stakes interesting as I am now doing,....and that Penny Wong is really an impressive and intelligent person, she can really talk and deliver a speech with conviction that would even fool me....but I think she is honest and has integrity, unusual for a politician, I sort of trust here, so she must be good, haha!......if we were both straight I reckon I'd go for her!...Ha!
Cheers mate,
Greg

A speech by Penny Wong 

	370504-aus-news-file-penny-wong-transcript-281110.doc (28KB)