News

Penrith mayor's decision- 'no to ex-gay dvds'

Penrith Mayor John Thain has announced that the Sy Rogers Testimony Ex-Gay DVD provided by the Christian Democratic Party to Penrith area public libraries at the beginning of August will not be allowed into library collections after all.

The DVD was produced by American Ex-Gay proponent, Sy Rogers, who has connections to the Exodus movement and to other US gay-cure ministries such as First Stone Ministries who promote the views of the Rev 'Doctor' David Kyle Foster who toured Australia earlier this year.

Rogers and Foster promote the view that people are same sex attracted because they have been molested as children and have failed to bond emotionally with a parent of the same sex, and equates the expression of consensual homosexual feelings with drug addiction or paedophilia.

Local Christian Democrats branch members Kim and Ron Furst claimed that Council had to restore the balance after it allowed the Queer Perspective photographic exhibition to be held on Council property earlier this year as part of the 2006 Mardi Gras Festival.

The Fursts' and two Penrith councillors who opposed the exhibition, Kevin Crameri and Mark Davis, told the local Penrith Press newspaper that rate payers' money would have been better spent on gay related health problems rather than 'celebrating the homosexual lifestyle' and 'promiscuity'.

In the same article, which presented the Ex-Gay view of homosexuality unchallenged, Mrs Furst told the Press that, 'Mardi Gras organisers are trying to spread out into the suburbs, but people in the suburbs don't want it,' and compared homosexuality to cigarettes, 'I don't have anything against smokers, but I don't want to celebrate the habit... homosexuals should be informed there is a way out.'

The Christian Democrats were also infuriated that Council had allowed a PFLAG DVD into a library in Penrith and had already unsuccessfully campaigned for it's removal.

Penrith Mayor John Thain's response was to tell the CDP that Penrith Council would not exclude any group on the basis of race or sexuality and that should Mardi Gras wish to hold events in Penrith in future, Council would be happy to provide assistance again.

However as an act of compromise, Council suggested that the Christian Democrats provide a DVD of their own.

A campaign to block the inclusion of the DVDs was quickly organised after the Fursts prematurely trumpeted their success to the Penrith Press, with a letter writing campaign and Councillors being lobbied by the Blue Mountains branch of Community Action Against Homophobia and Australia's leading ex-ex-gay Anthony Venn Brown.

The Pink Broad published two articles on the issue through the month of August but the story was largely ignored by most other gay news media in Australia.

The result was that the DVD was withheld while being assessed by library staff for harmful or offensive content.

Penrith Mayor John Thain told Venn-Brown in August that he himself had tried to vet the DVD for offensive content before it went to libraries but found it so mind numbing that he had to switch it off after 40 minutes.

As a result of the incident Penrith area libraries are reviewing their policies concerning donations of material from the public.

Community Action Against Homophobia Blue Mountains also organised a community forum on the issue of Ex-Gay ministries in Australia, held in Penrith on the 22nd of September, with Venn-Brown and representatives of a number of religious denominations present, including the Rev Russell Davies of the Uniting Church and the Rev Karl Hand of the Metropolitan Community Church.

The forum was covered by the Penrith Press in a second article which corrected some of the misinformation put forward by the Furths in the first article and which outlined some of the inhumane treatment that Ex-Gay participants are expected to put themselves through.

The Press also published a letter from a local PFLAG mother objecting to the DVD in the intervening period.

On hearing of the Mayor's decision, Bryn Hutchinson of CAAH Blue Mountains said, 'In the end the DVD provided us with an opportunity to show that there are far more people and churches in Penrith that are open and supportive of sexual diversity than fundamentalists would like to pretend. I think this also illustrates that queer people on the ground can respectfully take on those who are either misguided or bigoted and win.'

'CAAH BM upholds [the right to] freedom of speech, but this has to be balanced against the responsibility of the library and council to fulfill it's equity and diversity policies and to provide quality material in it's collection.'

The Rev Karl Hand, also co-convenor of CAAH BM said, 'Young people who are trying to come to terms with their sexuality do not need the added confusion of false and ideologically driven misinformation' and warned that, 'the Ex-Gay movement is promulgating material that is not only scientifically bankrupt but also psychologically damaging.'

Venn Brown, who put Mayor Thain in contact with people who have been through ex-gay programs themselves, called the decision 'an extremely encouraging result' and said that, 'when people in religious circles say that they believe homosexuality is immoral they are always speaking from a position of ignorance. They have no knowledge of sexual orientation from a scientific or psychological perspective.'

He said such people rarely knew any gay or lesbian people themselves but that Ex-Gay proponents like Sy Rogers should know better and are disseminating false information.

The Fursts are yet to react to the Mayor's decision.

However the same program contained in the DVD is also being reproduced, repackaged and distributed for sale on video in Australia by Christian City Church Oxford Falls, and is being sold online through Koorong.com.au, an Australian based born again christian internet retailer.

Koorong have stores in cities and towns all over Australia, in all states except for the Northern Territory.

It unknown whether the video is on the shelves in these stores but it could easily be ordered in.

The Pink Broad has been unable to obtain a copy of the video, however if the content included in it matches some of the more extreme statements that Sy Rogers has made on homosexuality on the internet and in other publications, there could be legal avenues under Australia's anti-vilification laws to deal with Christian City Church for reproducing and distributing it for sale here.

In the meantime CAAH BM and the Metropolitan Community Church have staged a protest at the launch of the Christian Democrats state election campaign for Penrith/Mulgoa to highlight the anti-gay policies of the party and it's candidate for Penrith, Andrew Green, illustrating that not all Christians share the CDP's narrow view of homosexuality.

Also speaking at the launch were the Rev Fred Nile and the CDP' State Director Phil Lamb.

Burns working with fred nile to turn back the clock

Controversial gay activist Gary Burns is campaigning in support of a Christian Democrats initiative to raise the age of consent in New South Wales to 18.

The Rev Fred Nile is hoping to capitalise on the Government's Milton Orkopolis scandal to raise the age of consent to 18 for both heterosexuals and homosexuals after failing to stop the removal of laws that set the age of consent for gay males two years higher than for heterosexuals in 2003.

Since then Nile has attacked the Greens for their work in achieving the amendment of this discriminatory legislation by writing that any election win for the Greens would be "Good news for paedophiles" in election material at the last Federal election.

In a press release issued last week, Burns wrote "as a gay man, I support Fred Nile's consistent message that paedophile activity in this state must be reigned in", with Nile writing that "having the age of consent at 16 grants a paedophile a ready made defence."

Other states set the age of consent at 18, but the limit of 16 in New South Wales is still higher than that in many European democracies.

Burns said "Reverend Nile and the gay community disagree on most issues but when it comes to protecting children we link arm and arm" but later contradicted this, saying "I'm not seeking support from the gay community. They have never supported me in the past and they won't support me now."

Burns claims the bill will not criminalise the relationships of people in their late teens to early twenties who have partners between the ages of 16 and 18, however there is no guarantee of this, and it would be up to the disgression of police and prosecutors whether or not to act when discovering such a relationship, meaning that such young people could be treated as sexual predators should a more conservative government take office in NSW.

Police might also become involved if homophobic parents were to make a complaint about their son's partner.

Raising the age of consent to 18 could also set back the campaign to remove religious exemptions that allow religious schools to expel gay or lesbian students as schools could argue that homosexual behaviour would be illegal for the vast majority of their students anyway.

Burns and Nile both claim current laws provide a loophole for paedophiles, despite the removal of the "mistaken age" defence with the redrawing of the legislation in 2003.

Previously a court finding that a perpetrator believed a victim was over the age of consent could have acquited some defendants but this loophole has now been closed for over three years, meaning under age sex is a crime whether the perpetrator is aware of the victim's age or not, with Virginia Judge, the member for Strathfield writing in the Catholic Weekly in 2003 that the new laws "provided far more protection for young vulnerable people" than the laws that existed before.

Burns avoided commenting directly on what he thought Nile's motives were in campaigning against reforms in this area in the past and said that he couldn't answer the question "Can Fred Nile be trusted".

Burns and Nile were due to hold a joint press conference last Wednesday in the Domain.

In related news the Liberal and Labor parties joined forces to block debate on the Greens long awaited amendment to the NSW Anti-Discrimination act that would have blocked religious groups from discriminating against GLBTI people, pregnant teens, the disabled and those that have differing views to them in employment and schooling.

Because of this the bill cannot be debated or voted on until after the NSW election early next year.

The Greens have pledged to take the policy to the next election and may be able to force the Government's hand should they win the balance of power.

The Greens are likely to increase their numbers in the Legislative Council and have been tipped as good chances for the inner city seats of Marrickville and Balmain.

They are also expected to poll well in the Clover Moore held seat of Sydney.

Sbs airs more brethren allegations

SBS's Dateline current affairs program has aired further allegations about the activities of the controversial Exclusive Brethren sect.

Investigations by the ABC's Four Corners and the Sydney Morning Herald and Age newspapers had already revealed allegations of cover ups of child sexual abuse within the group, with excommunicated members accusing Bruce Hales, the Brethren's Australian based world leader, of financially controlling members and avoidance of local and international money transference and taxation laws.

The group has also been accused of ignoring Family Court orders by denying visitation rights granted to parents outside the group and of controlling the sex lives of adult members being punished under the group's internal disciplining system.

This comes on top of Brethren members involvement in deceptive election campaigning around the world despite not being allowed to vote, particularly in Australia and New Zealand, with a New Zealand private detective revealing that Brethren had paid him to spy on Prime Minister Helen Clark and her husband and the group running smear campaigns against the Australian and New Zealand Greens parties in state and federal elections.

The Brethren leadership continues to claim that their election interventions are the spontaneous actions of individual members despite members risking life long separation from their families and friends for even tiny infractions of the rules that govern their daily lives.

Ex-Brethren Ngaire Thomas told Dateline that she had discovered that Brethren members were being encouraged to break some of the rules governing the group's use of technology provided they rented equipment from leader Bruce Hales through the Brethren's "National Office Assist" , run out of the same office as his office equipment supply business.

Brethren businesses are also being encouraged to have their accounting and book keeping done through National Office Assist, allowing Hales and the Brethren leadership to keep tabs on members' finances.

The leadership receive millions of dollars in untaxed donations from Brethren members all over the world each year.

Having access to the books of Brethren owned businesses would allow the leadership to know what proportion of income was or was not being donated.

Ngaire Thomas told Dateline she believed the leadership was making "billions" of dollars through the scheme.

The Brethren continue to receive millions of dollars from state and federal governments in Australia for their private schools and have been given the right to refuse unions from their work places under Federal and South Australian industrial relations laws.

Greens Senator Bob Brown told Dateline that the group have already registered 30 businesses as exempted from union inspections.

South african government says 'we do'

South Africa has become the first country on the African continent to grant same sex couples legal recognition with a newly passed Civil Unions Bill.

The bill was passed 230 to 41 with three abstentions. ANC MPs voted unanimously in favour of the bill.

All African Christian Democratic Party MPs voted against the bill while some in the opposition Democratic Alliance objected because the bill separated heterosexual and homosexual relationships, preferring the country's Marriage Act to be amended to allow full recognition of gay relationships as marriages.

South Africa's 1996 post apartheid constitution is one of only two in the world that specifically mentions sexual orientation (the other is Fiji, though that clause is under threat) and the country's Constitutional Court ruled earlier this year that the Government had to act to address the problem or it would be found to be acting unconstitutionally.

The bill will soon pass through the National Council of Provinces before being signed into law by President Thabo Mbeki.

The passing of the legislation came despite last ditch attempts by African Christian groups to deter Government MPs through a series of mass protests.

Like in many western nations the justification for the campaign was to 'protect' the institution of marriage.

Thousands rallied in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.

The Anglican and Catholic churches were highly involved throughout the campaign to block the reforms as well as the Afrikaans Dutch Reformed Church.

Their failure comes as a particular blow to African Anglicans who have threatened to split the church over the issue of gay unions and ordination from it's more progressive UK and North American wings.

Australia's Archbishop Peter Jensen has sided with the African churches.

However South Africa's own Archbishop, Njongonkulu Ndungane has been more conciliatory on gay issues, saying that the Civil Unions Bill did not threaten marriage because they were not marriages, and is supportive of gay clergy and same sex couples adopting.

But his is a lonely dissenting voice in a continent where homosexual acts carry harsh prison sentences in most of it's member states.

In contrast, the 17.5 million strong Anglican Church in Nigeria is staunchly anti-gay, and as the biggest Anglican community in Africa, it is also the most influential.

The bill must become law by December 1st or breach the Constitutional Court's decision.