GLBT Issues

October 15, 2001-Heaven

I just got a call from Shelley. She’s the leader of the PFLAG chapter (Parents, Family, & Friends of Lesbians & Gays) where we spoke on Saturday. She wanted to know more about how we ran our meetings and our chapter in Akron. She’s a volunteer for the AIDS Council in Brisbane and PFLAG was a spin-off of her work there. She seems to be a one-woman show. In the course of our conversation, I learned many things that made me think the group we spoke to must have been left with a feeling of pity for the poor Americans who have it so hard. I realized just how far behind we are in GLBT equality. Shelley’s son is a police officer. He’s out and a member of the police GLBT organization at work. He works in Brisbane, which, if you recall, is in Queensland: not the most open and accepting part of the country. Gays are allowed to serve openly in the military. If they’re diagnosed with HIV they’re honorably discharged. There’s no way a person can be fired or thrown out of housing for being gay. I asked if there was special legislation for this protection. She said that it was just a basic right of every citizen.

Have I died and gone to GLBT heaven? What the hell is wrong with us in the States? Why should we need ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) and hate crimes legislation? I guess the answer is in the ranks of the Falwells, Robertsons, and Phelpps. They don’t have a strong fundamentalist political movement here yet. It’s still very small and without power or influence. It will grow as it has all over the world, but at least Australia will have the policies in place before the right wingers gain the same control over politics they have in the U.S. Then the Aussies will be fighting to retain the way their laws have been interpreted instead of fighting to establish new laws. Our Constitution does speak to the equality issue, but we ended up making a laundry list of exactly who is to be treated equal. It’s very hard to get on that list. I hope the Australians don’t have to start itemizing the classes for whom equality pertains as we did.

An article in the paper today reported that a court just ruled that a marriage is valid between a woman and a female to male transsexual. The man who had always perceived himself as being male had been living as a man since 1994 and started hormone treatment in 1995. His birth certificate was changed from female to male in 1998. He has not had surgery to construct male genitalia. He was married to a woman in 1996 and they have a baby through IVF. Family Court ruled that the definition of “man” should be “based on contemporary thinking and not on outdated ideologies.” Wow! Are all you GLBT’s ready to apply for residency?

Hell

David is speaking to the Mormon group on Sunday night and I just got a call from the man who is organizing it. They want a resume of our family to include in their program. That sounds appropriate since it’s an awards dinner for Traditional Family Values. They haven’t a clue as to what they’re getting into. Before the dinner we’re having tea with several people at one of their homes. At tea will be Dr. John Herron who is a medical doctor as well as a senator. He is the minister for aboriginal affairs and president of the Conservative Party. I don’t know if that really means conservative, as we know it. Here the liberal party is conservative and the labor party is liberal. Dr. Herron is a member of the Church of England. Mr. Young will be there too. He’s an advisor to John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia and a member of the Salvation Army. Mr. Glen, a lecturer in economics, is an advisor to John Huntsman, who, I am told, owns the chemical industry in America. He’s a Mormon. I was assured that all of the people are religious. Did I ask? They were gracious in inquiring about food restrictions. At least they have a clue about that. David called back to see if he could email the information instead of faxing it since the Temple doesn’t have a fax. They asked if we’d like one. David thinks that the offer of a fax and perhaps the invitation to speak might be withdrawn once they get the resume. We’ll see. I know this is in total opposition to GLBT policy I wrote about above. It will be interesting to see how it evolves.

Paradise

On our walk home from lunch, we saw some people looking up at a tree. There was a lot of bird commotion going on so we too looked up. There were three colorful birds just yammering away. David thinks they were lorakeets. We watched for a while before it struck me that it was kind of amazing. This really is paradise. As we continued on, I kept glancing to my left. There was really nothing to see beyond the apartment buildings. That’s the point. We are living at the end of the world. Beyond the buildings is the Pacific. What a wonder! We stopped at the bottle shop in our building to get some wine to bring to a birthday lunch tomorrow, went upstairs, and settled down on our balcony to gaze at the pool and read.

Toby