RED JOS

15 MAY 2010

18 NOVEMBER 2010

The following article was in The Southern Star Observer on 18 November 2010:

Alarming new Australian research to be launched on Friday shows verbal and physical abuse against same-sex attracted (SSA) youth is on the increase.

Writing Themselves In 3 — the third national report of sexuality, health and well-being of SSA and gender questioning young people — shows a marked jump in homophobic violence in Australian schools, with strong links to higher levels of self-harm and suicide in abused youth.

La Trobe university lead researcher Dr Lynne Hillier said since the last report in 2005, the most recent survey of 3134 young people showed a significant jump in homophobic abuse in schools.

“[Homophobic] violence isn’t going down in schools … really there’s evidence of young people reporting more homophobic violence,” Dr Hillier told the Star Observer.

“What we learned is … young people in schools they deemed homophobic were more likely to have self-harmed and they were more likely to have attempted suicide.

“So the idea of a school being supportive and young people feeling safe and in a supportive school … is incredibly important in all of this.”

The report follows last week’s news item about former Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar student Hannah Williams who was banned from brining her girlfriend Savannah Supski to the school formal this year.

The school argued the event was designed so students could bring male partners, and Supski’s age, rather than the girls sexuality was the reason behind the ban.

Dr Hillier said while the research showed a rise in the number of young people subjected to homophobic abuse, more students are revealing their sexuality than ever before.

“In the first [study], young people were a bit frightened, not knowing what to do, where to go,” she said. “But if you compare the voices from 1998 [the first study] to now, the young people [are] positioned in really good ways, from all of the groups and the internet, there’s so much more out there.

“I’ve never come across so many determined, strong, strident voices just saying who we are is okay and we want to be recognised … we didn’t have that before.”

Hillier’s research also showed that young participants who mentioned religious themes in their responses were also more likely to self harm.

Last week Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young announced the party would seek an examination of federal anti-discrimination laws.

“Reports that a female student was unable to take her same-sex partner to a school formal are concerning, particularly when our education system should be promoting acceptance and diversity in the school environment,” Hanson-Young said.

“We will introduce a motion into the Senate next week calling for an investigation into the weaknesses of our anti-discrimination laws across the country, and to look into ways we can protect the rights of our young people.”

8 FEBRUARY 2011

Article in The Age:

Young homosexuals are suffering more abuse than ever, particularly in schools.

JIMMY Yan was only 16 when he had his first real experience of homophobia. It happened two years ago at a highly sought-after government school in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, but he remembers it like it was yesterday.

At the time, Yan was in year 11, putting up posters in the school library, publicising a national day of action in support of gay marriage. A teacher approached, read the material, and spat out the words that still make him burn with indignation: ''You don't know what marriage is, faggot boy.''

The library was packed with students, many of whom heard the exchange and looked up in dismay. News of the teacher's comments quickly spread around the campus, and it wasn't long before students organised a snap rally outside his office, demanding an apology.

Hannah Williams (left) was banned from bringing her girlfriend, Savannah Supski, to the Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar school formal last year.

The teacher eventually resigned, but for a young bloke who was still coming to terms with his sexuality, the damage was done.

''I was shocked and outraged because you'd never think a teacher, who is meant to be a role model to young kids, would say something like that,'' says Yan.

''But unfortunately you get these characters everywhere. It doesn't just happen at backward religious schools - the most supposedly progressive ones are some of the most dangerous places for lesbian and gay youth. They can be real cesspools for bigotry, so whenever instances like this come up, they need to be taken seriously, they need to be dealt with and they need to be confronted.''

Few could argue with the sentiment, but research suggests that despite years of law reform, changing values and millions of dollars spent on pilot programs and initiatives, homophobic abuse against young people is getting worse, particularly in Australian schools.

A national study into the experiences of thousands of gay youth paints a startling picture. Based on a survey of 3134 people aged between 14 and 21, the La Trobe University study found that 79 per cent of students attracted to the same sex had been physically assaulted or verbally abused.

About one in four of of these cases took place in the home, by parents unable to cope with the fact their child was gay. But the majority of homophobic abuse - 80 per cent - occurred in schools, up from 69 per cent in 1998 when the study first began.

In one incident, a 17-year-old female student reported being ''beaten, stripped and left in a park at night'' by schoolyard bullies; in another, a 15-year-old girl had her hair cut in class. Her hair was then set on fire. One 20-year-old former student reported being the victim of at least 10 schoolyard bashings and an attempted rape, while another wrote of being put in hospital by her own parents: ''I got three broken ribs, a broken collarbone, a punctured lung, my jaw broken in two different places and seven of my teeth got punched out when my father found out I was a homosexual.''

La Trobe University expert Lynne Hillier, who co-wrote the Writing Themselves In report, says the findings should be a wake-up call for governments, educators and policy makers. Gay and bisexual youths are more likely to have a sexually transmitted infection, are less likely to use a condom and twice as likely to become pregnant compared with their heterosexual peers, partly because they tend to be sexually active earlier and partly because of a lack of relevant sex education.

Almost 70 per cent of participants were sexually active, with young women more likely to have sex than men. But among the women surveyed, one-fifth continued to have sex exclusively with men despite being attracted to other women. This reflects an attempt to suppress their feelings, or a belief that this is what society expected of them.

Perhaps the most worrying sign, however, is that about one in six people who had experienced homophobic bullying had attempted suicide at least once, while a further one in three had tried to harm themselves as they struggled to cope with the torment they felt. But the research also shows a strong correlation between the support offered to gay youth and their well-being.

''The message from the research is clear: where there are policies and support for same-sex-attracted young people, they are less likely to be abused, they're less likely to self-harm and they're less likely to attempt suicide,'' she says.

While some inroads have been made over the past decade in tackling homophobia, experts argue that there is still a long way to go. As the study shows, more than half the people surveyed said they attended schools with no social or support structures for gay students, and more than one in three described their schools as ''homophobic'' or ''very homophobic''.

The irony is that young people are more likely to disclose their sexuality now than they were 10 years ago, and the cultural values have certainly changed - just think of the public outcry last year when former Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar school girl Hannah Williams was banned from bringing her girlfriend Savannah Supski to her high school formal; or the ongoing federal push for same-sex marriage.

''But while more young people are more likely to be out and proud, the level of abuse has gone up - and schools as the place for that abuse has become more common,'' says Hillier. ''These are huge problems that really have to be owned up to and faced by schools if they care about the well-being of students. And it's an issue for governments, too. I don't think any government would want to think they could have higher rates of suicide in student populations because they didn't do enough to make kids feel safe.''

However, there have been some attempts to address this. The Victorian Education Department, for example, provides some guidance to teachers in its Supporting Sexual Diversity in Schools policy, while the Baillieu government recently announced a $4 million plan to develop suicide prevention strategies for the gay youth.

And last year, in an Australian first, a new Safe Schools Coalition of ''gay friendly'' schools was set up to promote tolerance of sexual diversity. Under the program, schools are encouraged to set up ''gay/straight student alliances'', share resources and provide teacher training that identifies, and seeks to stamp out, homophobia in the classroom.

Students and teachers get access to gay and lesbian health networks and are encouraged to create posters, newsletters or forums that promote sexual diversity in schools. The hope is that all students - gay or straight - are comfortable to be themselves.

When the program was launched by the Brumby government in the lead-up to last November's state election, 11 schools had signed up. Now, 22 public and private schools are on board - including Methodist Ladies College, the King David School and Northcote High School - and The Age understands about five more are considering joining.

Victoria's Education Minister, Martin Dixon, says he's yet to be briefed on the success of the program, and has refused to be drawn on whether the new government would continue to fund the scheme when its contract expires in July.

But Dixon, a former school principal, says the extent of youth homophobia is troubling, and agrees that the curriculum should be more inclusive of gay issues, and teachers better trained to identify and tackle homophobia. However, schools aren't the only ones responsible, he says.

''This is a community-wide problem. One of the key issues here is about respect for any minority group or any group of individuals, and what we're seeing is a loss of that respect throughout the community,'' says Dixon. ''We've seen increasing violence on the streets, more vandalism and crime and this is just another manifestation of that growing lack of respect for others. That's something that we want to tackle across the whole of government.''

While initiatives like the Safe Schools Coalition have the backing of the government, psychologists and gay groups, not everyone agrees with the concept. When the program was launched last year, Victoria's powerful Christian lobby warned that the program could ''normalise'' homosexuality in schools and ''promote homosexual or lesbian behaviour, rather than allowing children the time to work these things out for themselves''.

''Are they going to suggest that children who might be homosexual attend these schools?'' Rob Ward, the Victorian director of the Australian Christians Lobby, said at the time. ''Are we creating a homosexual ghetto?''

David Warner, principal of Eltham College of Education, one of the first schools to join the coalition, certainly doesn't think so. Last Sunday, for the first time, the college had a contingent of students, parents and teachers marching at the annual gay and lesbian pride march in St Kilda. Earlier this month it conducted a workshop to teach staff how to deal with homophobia in the classroom. Asked why his prestigious private school decided to join the coalition, Warner replies: ''All young people need to feel safe in school. They can't learn if they can't feel safe.''

A few kilometres down the road at Eltham High School, year 12 student Sean Miles couldn't agree more. Miles first ''came out'' in year 8, firstly to a few close friends, and eventually to his family. But he knows he's one of the lucky ones - Eltham High has long and proud history of being a gay-friendly school: students march at Pride every year, and according to principal Vincent Sicari, it's ''the sort of place where two boys could hold hands and no one would bat an eyelid''.

Miles reckons being educated in this sort of environment can make a huge difference. ''I have some friends from other schools in the region, and they didn't come out until after they left because they would have felt like the odd one out, they might have been subject to bullying, or they were just afraid,'' he says. ''I'm very thankful I'm at this school, because of how comfortable it feels to be gay here.''

Other schools have also sniffed the wind. Two years ago, Melbourne High School student Jordan Boulter and a friend convinced teachers to allow them to set up a gay support group at the school, known as SOFA (the Same-sex attracted, Other, Friends of, Alliance). Boulter was questioning his sexuality at the time, so the idea was to start a group for other like-minded students to chat, seek advice, get health resources and condoms, or listen to guest speakers.

''It was my second year at Melbourne High School when we started the group,'' says Boulter, who graduated last year. ''I had found the first year really difficult because I never felt like I was ''one of the boys'' so having this group was really helpful. I could meet like-minded people, learn about [homosexuality] and I began to feel more confident and comfortable. To be able to come out to my peers at school like that was really beneficial, and I earned a lot of respect for it.''

Anne Mitchell, director of Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria, says programs like the Safe Schools Coalition are critical, and disagrees with suggestions that they ''encourage'' homosexual behaviour among young people. ''This isn't about gay recruiting,'' she says. ''This is a serious health problem.''

Recent events also suggest the consequences of inaction can be fatal. Last year in the US, school officials were forced to rethink their efforts against bullying after a spate of teen suicides was linked to anti-gay harassment. One was the death of Tyler Clementi, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate allegedly posted on the internet video of him having sex with another man. In the UK, a 15-year-old student from South Wales, Jonathan Reynolds, lay in front of train after being called a ''faggot'' and a ''poof'' at school.

Australia may not have had the spate of tragic cases seen in the US, but experts agree more needs to be done, and the report makes a range of recommendations: introduce police programs that liaise with the gay community and make it easier for young people to report homophobic abuse.

Schools should have specific policies on gay bullying, including protection for gay students; a rethink of sex education to include more information about homosexuality; and better training for teachers and health professionals.

''But what we're really talking about here is social change,'' says La Trobe's Lynne Hillier. ''And social change never happens without a struggle.''

12 FEBRUARY 2011

Article in the Sydney Morning Herald:

A SENIOR Anglican bishop calls it "appalling" and a gay and lesbian rights group condemns it as "deeply offensive", but the Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, backs a NSW law that allows private schools to expel gay students simply for being gay.

Through a spokesman, Mr Hatzistergos, described the 30-year-old law as necessary "to maintain a sometimes delicate balance between protecting individuals from unlawful discrimination while allowing people to practise their own beliefs".

A relic of the Wran era when homosexuality was still a crime, the law exempts private schools from any obligation to enrol or deal fairly with students who are homosexual. An expulsion requires neither disruption, harassment nor even the flaunting of sexuality. Being homosexual is enough.

Introducing the little-known law in the early 1980s, the then attorney-general Paul Landa told Parliament: "The facts of political life require acceptance of the claim of churches to conduct autonomous educational institutions with a special character and faith commitment."

But the churches are now divided. The Anglican bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, told the Herald: "I don't think our schools would want to use it."

The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney declined to distance itself from the legislation. A spokeswoman said: "The focus for our schools has always been on supporting our students regardless of the circumstances."

Political support may also be fracturing. "It is an unusual provision in this day and age," the shadow attorney-general, Greg Smith, told the Herald.

He cannot speak for his party, only himself. "I personally think it is something that should be reviewed, looked at with a view to perhaps changing it. Times have changed."

The chief executive of ACON, Nicolas Parkhill, condemned the law as "deeply offensive, patently unethical and damaging to our society on multiple levels. Recent research shows that young same-sex-attracted people are up to 14 times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers and that 80 per cent of the verbal or physical abuse they experience occurs in schools.

"Allowing religious schools to reinforce this negative experience by giving them the right to expel the victims of homophobic attitudes is incomprehensible."

Although "not untroubled" by the legislation himself, the chief executive of Christian Schools Australia, Stephen O'Doherty, told the Herald the 130-plus low-fee schools in his association saw no reason to ditch the law. Many of the schools regard unrepentant gay students as "disruptive to the religious teaching of the school", he explained. "What we seek to do is to be able to take appropriate action which may include expulsion."

Brigadier Jim Wallace of the Australian Christian Lobby has no qualms about the law. The head of the influential Christian pressure group said a church school should have the right to expel any openly gay child.

"But I would expect any church that found itself in that situation to do that in the most loving way that it could for the child and to reduce absolutely any negative affects.

"I think that you explain: this is a Christian school, that unless the child is prepared to accept that it is chaste, that it is searching for alternatives as well, that the school may decide that it might be better for the child as well that he goes somewhere else. I think it's a loving response."

13 FEBRUARY 2011

Article in the Sunday Age:

THE Baillieu government is preparing to restore unlimited rights to religious organisations to discriminate against gays and lesbians, single mothers and people who hold different spiritual beliefs.

Attorney-General Robert Clark is drawing up amendments, to be introduced to Parliament in May or June, to curb Victoria's anti-discrimination laws as part of the Coalition's election promises to conservative religious groups.

The amendments will scrap Labor's reforms, which take effect in August, that give wider investigative powers to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission and restrict the rights of faith-based organisations to refuse employment and services to people they believe may undermine their beliefs.

Under the Labor reforms, for instance, a religious welfare agency that refuses to serve a same-sex couple must prove how this action conformed to its faith, or a Catholic school that refused to employ a single mother as a receptionist must show why the job was important to following the school's faith.

But this so-called ''inherent requirements'' test would soon be scrapped, Mr Clark said in an interview with The Sunday Age.

The Attorney-General said Labor's reforms must be wound back because they were a direct attack on faith-based schools and parents who wanted a religious education for their children. ''We made very clear election commitments and so the issues have been well canvassed,'' he said.

''The 2010 legislation is a far-reaching attack on the freedom of faith-based organisations and freedom of religion and belief. The amendments will restore tolerance and a sense of the fair go. Faith-based organisations and political organisations should be free to engage staff that uphold their values.''

The government's move has angered the Victorian Independent Education Union, which has signalled a campaign to fight the granting of unlimited discrimination rights to religious groups. ''This is a very backward step for the state,'' said Debra James, general secretary of the union. ''I think it's appalling.''

Sarah Rogan, co-convener of the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, said the Baillieu government's move was disappointing. ''The existing discrimination is concerning because it separates people based on sexual orientation and gender identity from the rest of the community.''

The Labor reforms were the culmination of an extended public consultation period, including a parliamentary inquiry. The Law Institute of Victoria, community legal advocates and the commission recommended narrowing religious groups' discrimination rights. The Labor reforms were criticised, however, for not narrowing the rights enough, with religious groups welcoming the compromise.

But Rob Ward, the Victorian director of the Australian Christian Lobby, now says the group is keen to see the end of the Labor reforms. He said the mindset of the commission was ''troubling''. ''While we've had a good relationship with commissioner Helen Szoke, they don't seem to be favourably inclined towards freedom of religion and association.''

Shadow attorney-general Martin Pakula said the opposition would look at the government's amendments but it did not want to see Victoria go back to a time when discrimination was acceptable.

14 FEBRUARY 2011

Letters in The Age newspaper:

THE Baillieu government is preparing to restore unlimited rights to religious organisations to discriminate against gays and lesbians, single mothers and people who hold different spiritual beliefs (''Religious groups to regain bias rights'', The Sunday Age, 13/2).

Maybe it is timely to remind both the government and the Victorian people that the vast majority of the money used by religious groups to deliver education, health and welfare services is funded by taxpayers via subsidies and contracts from federal and state governments.

Only a very small proportion of religious organisations' income is generated from within their own communities. It should be a contractual condition that any service or program funded by the taxpayer should comply with the same laws and guidelines that apply to other organisations, including recruitment practices. No exceptions.

If religious groups find the funding conditions unacceptable, they can either find another source of money or let someone else deliver the service.

REPORTS that the Victorian government is planning to restore an unfettered right to religious organisations to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity before new equal opportunity laws have even come into force are confounding and more than a little dangerous.

Given its pre-election mental health commitment of $4 million to combat suicide among same-sex-attracted and transgender young people, it is clear the government understands the risk faced by these young people. However, this latest proposal demonstrates it has failed to grasp the overwhelming evidence that discrimination and harassment are often the root of the problem - especially among younger people.

Perhaps this move is not so surprising given that the state's new protector of human rights, Attorney-General Robert Clark, described homosexuality in 1995 as "foolish", "destructive" and more harmful than smoking.

SO CHURCHES want to be able to discriminate against those people who do not conform to their opinions and behaviours, they want to block the provision of services by other organisations to the people that they have already discriminated against, they undoubtedly still want a seat at the table where social policy is made, and finally they want to keep their tax-free status because of the good work they do.

Politics is a dirty business, religion passes narrow-mindedness off for truth, and when the two combine both become worse. Which century are we living in?

I PRESUME, Premier, that atheists will have the right to deny employment to, or otherwise discriminate against, anyone who acknowledges their belief in a religion.

16 FEBRUARY 2011

Editorial in The Age:

VICTORIA'S Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, and the acts of Parliament from which it derives its moral and legal force, are integral to this state's enviable democracy. That does not mean the commission should never be reviewed, but it does place an onus on advocates of change - particularly those who want to strip away some of the powers - to make the case that what they propose will do more good than harm. The Baillieu government's plans to restore certain discrimination rights to religious organisations do not pass that test.

State Attorney-General Robert Clark has signalled that one of his early legislative priorities will be to seek to overturn reforms by the previous government that enhanced the protection against discrimination of individuals in their dealings with religious groups as employers and service providers. The Labor reforms, introduced last year after extensive community consultation, contained two important advances: they gave wider investigative powers to the commission, and they placed restrictions on the rights of churches and other ''faith-based organisations'' to discriminate against people on the basis of such things as their sexuality, politics or beliefs. It would be a retrograde step to wind back either reform.

Any worthwhile human rights regime requires more than the prosecution of breaches, and the Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission's most valuable task is to help prevent discrimination in the first place, by educating institutions on ways to break down the systemic causes of inequality. It would be short-sighted of the Government to now fashion a system capable of doing little more than reacting to individual complaints of discrimination.

The Coalition's plan to reinstate ''permanent exceptions'' from anti-discrimination laws for religious groups is still more concerning. Under the Labor changes, for example, a Catholic school wanting to refuse to employ a single mother as a receptionist is required to justify the decision and show why it may be considered fair and reasonable. The new government is wrong to suggest that that is a violation of freedom of religion; rather, it is a sensible recognition of the fact that such freedoms sometimes conflict with other rights, such as the right to equality.

The Coalition should rethink its proposals to disturb the careful balance found in Victoria's human rights and anti-discrimination laws.

Letters in The Age - 16 February 2011:

THE Baillieu government has decided to amend the charter of rights by making it lawful for churches to discriminate against gays and lesbians, divorcees, and single parents by refusing to employ them. This attacks the Australian commitment to a fair go for all.

The proposed ''reform'', apart from subverting a fair go by legalising discrimination, will spread hurt and pain. Schools will continue to be to be sites of ugly homophobic bullying and violence, in part because in some church schools it's acceptable to engage in discrimination.

No government does us any service when it fails to uphold the rule of law.

IF RELIGIOUS groups want special status in Australian law that allows them to discriminate, then maybe the discussion ought to be about redefining their privileged role in society.

Rights and responsibilities go hand in hand. Religious groups must be brought up to date on responsibilities shirked for centuries, that all other institutions and corporations fulfil: taxes. The activist group GetUp! did the sums: benefits and subsidies granted to religious groups amount to more than $30 billion yearly. Perhaps we could earmark some savings to cover the flood rebuilding?(printed in bold by web page editor!)

Furthermore, the Australian government pays for religious organisations such as the Salvation Army, Anglicare and CatholicCare to provide social support and care for the community.

However, under new legislation, these organisations are legally protected in refusing care and services to gay people, single mothers, divorcees, adulterers or people of other faiths.

Is it appropriate for the government to allow these groups tax exemption, subsidise their selective social welfare while allowing their employment and care processes to disregard human rights and social equality? God's law for some, Australian law for others?

THE Ugandan parliament has before it legislation that will make homosexuality a crime punishable by death. The Baillieu government in Victoria is proposing legislation that will allow churches, schools, welfare bodies and others (many of them publicly funded) to freely and openly discriminate against gay people with the full backing and support of the law.

While not as draconian as the Ugandan legislation, Baillieu's proposed laws come from the same place - an uneducated, prejudiced, Dark Ages school of thought.

Many countries around the world are celebrating living in the light and open mindedness of the 21st century. Ted Baillieu's legislation will drag Victoria back to the very place that so many fought for decades to leave.

23 MARCH 2011

This article was in MCV by a guest columnist:

One of the little known opponents of marriage equality in Australia is the retailers’ union – or the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Union (SDA).

The SDA – or “Shoppies Union” – is the largest trade union in Australia. It controls the largest voting bloc at Labor Party National Conferences, where major policies are decided.

It claims to represent every worker in the retail industry, including those at Coles, Woolies, Kmart, Target, Big W, David Jones, Myer and Bunnings. It also speaks for butchers, bakers, cleaners, hairdressers, call centre workers – and many more.

The union’s National Secretary – Joe de Bruyn – sits on Labor’s National Executive, which has a large say in determining candidates in federal elections.

Speaking on ABC Radio National in November last year, De Bruyn said Prime Minister Julia Gillard should have “killed off” the issue of same-sex marriage. Traditional marriage must be preserved, he said, “because this has been the way that it has been in the existence of the human race."

It would be easy for an outsider to conclude that Joe de Bruyn is simply representing the views of SDA members. But they would be wrong. Many SDA members are young people working at their local supermarket – and as last year’s Galaxy poll showed, 80 per cent of young people support marriage equality.

The union is seriously out of touch with its members. And it’s beginning to show. Facebook groups have popped up damning the SDA’s stance on marriage equality. SDA members marched in recent Equal Love rallies and spoke about the need for an internal revolt. And in Brisbane last month, a meeting was held by disgruntled members to start mobilising for change.

What can you do? If you’re a member of the SDA, speak to your store delegate. Stand for a delegate position. Vote in elections. If you’re not an SDA member, spread the word. Join the Facebook group “SDA members for same-sex marriage”. Contact me to stay updated with what’s happening.

8 MAY 2011

The following two articles were in the Sunday Age:

EYE-CATCHING and well-intentioned, an AFL effort to denounce homophobia 12 months ago ended in a mess.

''Obviously there were a few people that probably ruined a lot of the good work that was done, and the good feel,'' Richmond's Daniel Jackson, an AFL Players Association delegate, said last week.

Jackson was referring to now retired Jason Akermanis, who was the AFLPA's odd choice as tabloid newspaper messenger last year.

The editorial Akermanis penned for the Herald Sun about gay players and football appeared under an unforgettable ''Stay in the Closet'' headline.

Prior to this, an array of players and coaches had joined an inspired, even if largely symbolic, campaign advocating a contrasting message.

To mark the annual International Day Against Homophobia, players and coaches displayed colourful placards with slogans championing diversity and painted the picture of an accepting sporting scene.

Robert Murphy, a Western Bulldogs teammate of Akermanis last year and a playing member of the AFLPA's executive, is still shaking his head at the unfortunate incident.

This year, Murphy is joining Jackson and Carlton's Nick Duigan as ambassadors for headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation that assists people aged from 12 to 25 needing mental health, alcohol, drug, education or employment support.

Being a front man for the international day next week through headspace, Murphy said, was an attempt at ''clearing up a bit of that water that was muddied last year''.

On May 17, the trio will attend an event for the day and judge a design competition with the theme ''In my eyes, homophobia is out of bounds''.

Duigan has played only six games for Carlton, but the mature-age recruit has a master's in psychology and has consulted at headspace occasionally.

His ambitions to work in mental health mean his engagement with headspace is more meaningful than a mere photo opportunity. Last Friday, at headspace's Balaclava outreach centre, he met 17-year-old Hannah Williams, who made headlines last year after Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School forbade her to take her girlfriend to the formal.

''I really think this partnership is about mental health,'' Duigan said.

''My main aim is to try to promote mental health awareness and mental health care treatment for young people … my message would be that discrimination on any front is not acceptable, and accepting people for who they are and who they want to be should be promoted.'' Murphy and Jackson have less defined roles at headspace than Duigan, but both are committed to making regular contributions.

''I really feel quite strongly about this - young people and their anxieties and sexuality,'' Murphy said.

Ms Williams, who is enjoying school life more at Swinburne Secondary College, is convinced footballers such as Murphy, Jackson and Duigan can help.

''I've heard that a lot of guys believe that it's a lot easier for girls to come out because there are a lot of celebrity girls who are lesbian,'' she said. ''Guys tend to stay in the closet for a lot longer and normally don't choose to come out unless something happens.''

In the fallout from Akermanis's column last year, former NRL star Ian Roberts - still the only male footballer from Australia's dominant codes to come out - was among the qualified voices that responded.

Roberts told weekly gay and lesbian news magazine SX that ''there are kids out there in the suburbs who are killing themselves because of comments like that''. His point was backed by studies showing that young gay Australians are four times more likely to commit suicide than their heterosexual counterparts due to sexuality issues.

A trio of senior footballers is hardly a stampede of volunteers from a player body of more than 700. But the AFLPA, while slightly gun-shy after last year's events, is now more focused on championing actions rather than words.

8 MAY 2011

ONE of Premier Ted Baillieu's newly elected MPs, Geoff Shaw, has deeply offended a young gay man by suggesting that his desire to love who he wanted was as illegitimate as a dangerous driver wanting to speed or a child molester wanting to molest.

Mr Shaw, the member for Frankston, is active in his pentecostal church, Peninsula City. In his maiden speech to Parliament, Mr Shaw acknowledged ''the original owner of the land on which we stand - God, the Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Bible''.

In early April, tertiary student Jakob Quilligan emailed Mr Shaw, his local member, to object to the government's new anti-discrimination legislation.

The legislation, tabled last week, will renew the exemption that religious organisations have to discriminate on grounds of religion, sexuality, marital status and gender, even in their commercial businesses, hospitals and schools.

In his letter, Mr Quilligan told Mr Shaw that churches should not be allowed to ''impose their beliefs on others … in non-religious/mainstream or secular settings''. ''I'm 20 in a week. I'm able to vote. I want to work, live and love freely during the course of my life, and I want to do that without thinking that I can't,'' he wrote.

Mr Shaw replied the same day, quoting Mr Quilligan's line back at him and adding: ''What if I loved driving 150kms per hour in residential areas?

''What if there was a convicted sex offender who stated that, or a child molester? Can they still do what they want? Under your statement the answer is yes. What if one wanted to get drunk, take drugs, steal and murder? What if one loved this? Can they also do what they want without thinking that they can't?''

He reminded Mr Quilligan that welfare organisations like the Salvation Army, Red Cross and Brotherhood of St Laurence all had Christian backgrounds, as did many hospitals, and that ''nearly all'' private schools were ''either Christian or Catholic''.

''Are you wanting to put your values on these establishments just as you argue that you don't want there [sic] values?''

Mr Quilligan told The Sunday Age that he '' went cold'' when he saw Mr Shaw's email. ''His response took what I said completely out of context, and I felt a bit dirty being compared to what he mentioned … I kind of didn't expect a response like that from a local member. Regardless of what party you come from it's just astounding,'' he said.

Mr Quilligan, a health sciences student, said he was concerned that when he graduated, he might have problems getting a job as a nurse or a paramedic if the organisation had a religious background, because of the Coalition's laws.

Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner Dr Helen Szoke described the comparisons in Mr Shaw's email as ''wrong and potentially dangerous''. She said: ''In Victoria, homosexuality is legal, and those other things are not.''

Dr Szoke urged Mr Shaw and others with his beliefs to be careful about what they said because same-sex-attracted young people fared worse on almost every indicator of health and well-being than their peers.

''According to several Australian studies, same-sex-attracted young people are three times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual young people, and rural same-sex-attracted young people are six times more likely to attempt suicide than the population as a whole,'' Dr Szoke said.

Sue Hackney, the co-ordinator of Way Out, a support group for same-sex-attracted young people in rural areas, said Mr Quilligan had been a member for about three years. She said language like Mr Shaw's was part of the ''oppression'' that young gay and lesbian people faced.

Mr Shaw did not respond to calls or an email on Friday. There is no mention of his religious beliefs in his biography on the Liberal Party website. Shortly after the election, Mr Shaw was asked by The Australian newspaper if he harboured ministerial ambitions. He replied: ''Absolutely. I'm not doing it to sit on the backbenches, let me tell you.''

A spokeswoman for Mr Baillieu yesterday refused to comment when asked if Mr Shaw's remarks were appropriate. ''The Coalition government shares the same concerns as Jakob Quilligan regarding higher rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide attempts amongst young, same-sex-attracted people,'' she said.

''That is why the Coalition provided $4 million over four years in this week's budget to deliver preventative support and early intervention services targeted at same-sex-attracted and gender-questioning people aged 10 to 25 years who are at risk.''

15 MAY 2011

The following report was in the Sunday Age:

Police intervened in a clash between gay protesters and christian preachers in Adelaide yesterday.

About 150 people rallied outside the South Australian Parliament to protest against homophobia.

There was violence after members of the "christian street church" crashed the rally, bearing signs proclaiming that god hates sinners.

15 MAY 2011

The following letters were in the Sunday Age:

GEOFF Shaw lives in a fantasy world of gods and demons to which only a select few have access. That is fine, it is his life to waste.

What is not fine is carrying this private agenda into the public sphere. The harm he supports and creates with his crass, ignorant proclamations should see him removed from politics.

MP GEOFF Shaw's analogies are infantile and offensive. Wasn't I naive to think that in our modern liberal society we should tolerate diversity. It's a pity that political parties don't give basic intelligence/empathy tests to those that want to represent them.

MR SHAW's shameful remarks are a blight on his parliamentary position. It is upsetting that such divisive false judgment is in the mind of our local member.

IN THE same way as the Muslim faith has the right to demand that everybody MUST take off their shoes before entering a mosque (the Equal Opportunity Commissioner included!), so should the Catholic Church be allowed to forbid the performance of abortions in health facilities that it owns. Similarly, the institutions of the Catholic faith (or any other faiths that consider homosexuality as a sin) should not be expected to bless a homosexual union.

That gay man is completely free to have a homosexual relationship if this is what he wants, but why should he expect Geoff Shaw to agree with him that such a relationship is perfectly OK? Doesn't Geoff Shaw have the right to believe that a gay relationship is not quite compatible with the tenets of his faith?

JAKOB Quilligan had a point: no organisation, be it religious or otherwise, should be granted legislative powers to discriminate, especially when a lot of those organisations benefit from the public purse, ergo, have a duty to all citizens of Victoria. For Geoff Shaw to dismiss Quilligan's points of debate and then liken his sexuality to child molesters is deplorable and unbecoming of a member of parliament.

Furthermore, I find his supposed Christian values the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus Christ. He befriended people from all walks of life. He urged his followers to ''love one another as I have done''. You, sir, clearly have not done so. The last I checked, homophobia is not a true Christian value.

THE homophobic email sent by MP Geoff Shaw to one of his constituents should, at the very least, be cause for a public reprimand from Ted Baillieu.

Coming as it did, in the same fortnight that Baillieu's pro-discrimination laws are due to be tabled in parliament, I would say the chances of this happening are remote indeed.

ACCORDING to the logic of Liberal MP Geoff Shaw, it would be perfectly reasonable for a gay employer to sack a conservative Christian like himself. In fact, it should be fine for any employer to dismiss a member of any minority if it contradicts their beliefs.

What Mr Shaw fails to mention is that regular church-going Christians such as himself are a minority group. In fact, less than 10 per cent of people attend church regularly.

What is frequently over-looked in the anti-gay rhetoric of conservative Christians is their seemingly pathological historical hatred of homosexuality. As laws became more secular, the churches incited the state to do their persecution for them. People were being hanged in Australia for ''sodomy'' until the 1860s.

Geoff Shaw and Attorney-General Robert Clark are continuing this tradition of vilification by conservative Christians. The onus is on the Premier to step up and reign in these cold-hearted men. If Ted Baillieu really intends to govern for all Victorians, he must withdraw this anti-gay bill from parliament.

5 NOVEMBER 2011

Article in The Age:

A man thrown out of the members pavilion at Flemington on Thursday for wearing a red jacket has lodged a complaint against the Victorian Racing Club for discrimination on the grounds of his homosexuality.

Jason Bradley yesterday lodged a complaint with the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission on behalf of himself and his friend Jesse Price, who was wearing a pink jacket on Oaks Day. The pair, who had passes to the members area, had been in a bar on the ground floor for about an hour on Thursday and were on their second drink of the day when they were approached at about 2pm by a female VRC security officer.

''She complimented us on our outfits, and said we were very on-trend and then said we'd probably be more comfortable in the general area,'' Mr Bradley told The Saturday Age yesterday.

Four male VRC officials stood behind the woman as she made her approach, monitoring the situation, according to Mr Bradley. He asked if he and his friend were being asked to leave, she said yes, and he said they would go as soon as they had finished their drinks, which they did.

Mr Bradley insisted they were in no way being rowdy.

''At the time we were laughing about how ridiculous it was to be kicked out of the members area in this day and age for wearing colourful clothing on what is supposed to be the big fashion day, especially as we'd been complimented by a number of women in there on our outfits. But on reflection it became obvious to us that this was quite a serious matter,'' Mr Bradley said.

In his submission to the commission Mr Bradley wrote that ''having checked the rules and feeling that we did comply, we felt pretty confident that the complaint was made because we were clearly identifiable as gay''.

However, the VRC has responded to the charge with reference to its dress code, which states that ''brightly coloured suits'' are not acceptable attire for men in the members area. However, ''tailored slacks, sports coat or blazer, plus tie and dress shoes'' are acceptable. Mr Bradley is seeking an apology from the VRC.

19 FEBRUARY 2012

Homophobia in sport is a given - despite the best efforts of certain activists and despite the best efforts of some gay sportspeople - swimmers and a few others, but when it comes to AFL, one of the most homoerotic sports there is, kissing on the field, embracing, hugging, jumping on each other, homophobia is boundless.

And a possible reason is that many who play these sports are closet gays but are too scared to declare themselves to homophobic administrators because then their footy days are over!

We also know that footy - if not sport in general - in Victoria is a religion, and we know that religious institutions do not pay tax, but to have the revelation that AFL does not pay tax and is therefore officially a religion is another outrage for the taxpayers of this country and state. Time for ALL religions, including AFL to be taxed as businesses in the same way!

The following article was published in the Fairfax media:

THE head of the AFL, Andrew Demetriou, ought to take his colleague Jeff Kennett out to lunch.

Along with his credit card, Mr Demetriou might want to take a notepad. If events this week are any guide, he could learn a lot from Mr Kennett.

Earlier this week, Mr Kennett was on radio talking about depression. As chairman of the national anti-depression outfit beyondblue, and after a long stint as president of the Hawthorn Football Club, he is adept at using his high media profile to destigmatise depression and suicide.

The interview took an unexpected turn. While talking about depression in professional footballers, Mr Kennett went on to say that approximately 5 per cent of professional AFL footballers are gay, and the fact that none of them were publicly ''out'' was a major cause for concern because having to hide their sexual orientation - particularly in the goldfish bowl of AFL football - was highly detrimental to their mental health.

Mr Kennett's track record with gay issues has been troubled - he ended up at loggerheads with his previous chief executive, Dawn O'Neil, over comments about gay parenting - but his 5 per cent figure is a reasonable assumption. Research undertaken by beyondblue shows that in men aged 25 and under, some 10 per cent will identify as same-sex attracted. Given that half of the 800-odd professional AFL footballers are aged under 25, that would suggest about 40 players are gay in that age group alone. The research also tells us AFL is regarded as the most homophobic of all the football codes.

Naturally, Mr Kennett's comments were later put to Andrew Demetriou, who, as luck would have it, was already well and truly in diversity mode at a function spruiking the AFL's credentials in respect towards women.

Mr Demetriou assured the media that the AFL was ''ahead of the game'' when it came to ensuring the code was inclusive of gay men, not only because discrimination based on sexual orientation was now included in the AFL anti-vilification code, but also due to the fact that all footballers have seen a video of gay Olympic swimmer Daniel Kowalski talking about his own experience in coming out.

Who's he trying to kid? The cold hard reality is that the AFL has as little to do with the gay community as it possibly can. The rule change that Mr Demetriou referred to only occurred after some 18 months of intensive lobbying by the gay community, and when finally sexual orientation was included in the anti-vilification section of the AFL rules, it was 10 years after the same provision was placed in Victoria's Equal Opportunity Act.

And while it's useful for footballers to watch a video on what it is like to be an elite gay swimmer, surely that pulls up well short of the kind of education we can reasonably expect the AFL to give its players.

The AFL has also conveniently forgotten to mention that it is paid more than $400,000 a year from the Australian Sports Commission to make the code more inclusive.

Truth is, there are no ''out'' gay AFL footballers because they refuse to self-identify in an environment that they perceive to be toxic. The responsibility for this rests squarely on the shoulders of the administrators. Not the players. Not the fans. Not the umpires. Not the coaches.

The drivel that is put forward from the AFL about coming out being ''a personal choice'' is precisely that. For the AFL to say that all their gay players are ''choosing'' to remain in the closet is ridiculous.

It beggars belief that a gay AFL footballer would not want his partner to be involved in events like the Brownlows. Not because they are looking to be activists, but because they want to be able to be honest with everyone around them. Why does the AFL not get that? Further, the AFL as administrators refuse to make any effort to help their gay players, not because they lack the resources - the AFL earns hundreds of millions of dollars a year and pays no income tax - but simply because they don't want to.

And they don't want to because, despite the lip service, diversity and inclusion is not regarded as core business.

If the AFL wanted to, it could transform the issue of homophobia in football in a heartbeat.

When the AFL Players Association ran a ground-breaking project for the International Day Against Homophobia two years ago, the AFL took notice and was getting ready to run a diversity round to highlight the value of inclusion in sport. Then along came Jason Akermanis with his infamous ''Stay in the closet'' newspaper column, and the wheels fell off. As a result, the AFL decided, again, to put gay in the too-hard basket.

While the AFL refuses to address the issue of homophobia in the code, it's never going to get any better. It's not an unreasonable expectation for the AFL to do equality equally. Now would be a good time to start.

Rob Mitchell is a member of the Victorian Department of Sport governance and inclusion project.

8 APRIL 2012

Article in the Sunday Age newspaper:

DRIVING home from a date with another man, David Lograsso was tormented by a recurring thought: ''I'll be going to hell for this.''

As a born-again Christian, he ''knew'' that being gay was wicked, sinful and wrong. Desperate to change, the 27-year-old vowed to exert more self-control. To pray even harder. To do whatever it took to become straight.

Lograsso was undergoing three ''conversion'' programs in Melbourne, lured by claims that he could rid himself of his homosexuality.

There are five such programs in Melbourne and at least 10 interstate. Modelled on America's ''ex-gay'' groups, all have fundamentalist Christian roots. Many view homosexuality as an illness that can be cured - an approach some describe as ''pray away the gay''.

Religious groups, particularly in the US, have been using them since the 1970s to try to turn gay men and women straight. But most Australians would be shocked, former group leaders say, to learn these programs exist here in 2012; that they're ''not just a crazy American thing''.

Lograsso found his three programs on the internet. Two were support groups - Living Waters and Roundabout Ministries - and the third, Mosaic Ministries, involved prayer sessions and counselling. He also attended a weekend retreat in Sydney run by Liberty Christian Ministries.

The Sunday Age understands that none of these programs are run by accredited psychologists or psychiatrists. Critics, including medical professionals, say they can and do cause severe psychological harm.

Returning from his date, Lograsso began dreading his next Living Waters meeting, especially the ''accountability sessions'' that left him feeling shamed. Each week, the 10 participants were required to confess to the group how many times they had masturbated, watched pornography or fantasised about other men. Having seen what happens to other ''fallen'' members, he knew what to expect: everyone in the room would surround him, bow their heads and pray.

He also feared telling his peers at Roundabout Ministries, where ''you get [reprimanded] if you even exchange your number with another guy''. But it was the reaction of his counsellor at Mosaic Ministries, Carol Hardy, he was most anxious about.

Her attempts to attribute his homosexuality to his father - whom Lograsso describes as affectionate and loving - had upset and disturbed him. ''Carol kept examining my childhood and asking if I'd been abused,'' he says. ''There are all these things that are supposed to have made you gay; you're supposed to have been abused or raped or have a father who doesn't care about you. I ended up really confused and thinking, 'Was I actually abused? Have I blocked it out?' It plants ideas in your head.''

As his car neared home, he fleetingly fantasised about having a relationship with the man he'd just kissed - ''Someone to hold my hand'' - then he cursed his ''naive'' dream.

Lograsso was in crisis. Anxious and depressed, he'd spend entire weekends in his bedroom. His self-esteem was in pieces and his faith was crumbling. ''I kept thinking, 'God must not love me because he's not answering my prayers','' he says.

At his worst, he considered suicide.

Helen Kelly, producer of a new documentary about ''ex-gay'' therapy called The Cure, says her research uncovered many participants of ''reparative'' programs struggling with depression and self-harm. ''These groups never take responsibility for the fact that some people who've been through them commit suicide,'' she says. ''They're not registered and they have no duty of care.''

While some group leaders describe themselves as ''counsellors'' or ''therapists'', such titles require no training and critics say many do not have the expertise to counsel emotionally vulnerable people.

As a young gay man, Paul Martin spent two years in the early 1990s with Exodus and Living Waters in Melbourne. After quitting, he became a psychologist and has treated many former reparative therapy participants.

''I've worked with maximum security prisoners in Pentridge, yet the people who've been through ex-gay programs are some of the most psychologically damaged people I've seen in my life,'' Martin says.

''I have a client who went through 35 years of these programs … One of the most crushing moments was when he said, in tears, 'I've just realised that I've never known what it's like to love or be loved'.''

Martin is especially critical of groups that point to the disproportionate rates of depression and anxiety among gay people. ''The irony is that they're actually creating the terrible emotional damage that leads to these statistics,'' he says.

Three years ago, Lograsso realised the programs were not working. He quit the groups, came out to his family and embraced his sexuality.

The turning point was a simple realisation: of the 40 or so men he'd met in the three programs, none had become heterosexual. There was, however, a group leader - a married father - who claimed the program worked for him. ''But he was camper than any queen at Mardi Gras,'' Lograsso says. ''He kept telling me, 'You can change'; then he'd tell me that when a muscly delivery man turned up to his house, his mind started racing.

''In the end, I'm like, 'These are your success stories? These are your poster boys?'''

He now attends a support group for gay Christians called Freedom2b and is a convener of Young Bucks, a secular social group. He's in a new relationship and is close to his parents. He says his faith is stronger than ever. He is also at pains not to attack those who run the ex-gay groups. They're not bad people, he insists, just misguided.

The three groups that Lograsso attended - and similar Melbourne groups EnCourage and Exodus Asia Pacific - all refused multiple requests for interviews, or to provide evidence or examples of their effectiveness. None are explicitly linked to or funded by specific churches except for Mosaic Ministries, which is attached to the Destiny Church in Dingley. None appear to be driven by profit; relying only on donations or token fees.

And most insist they don't run ''ex-gay'' or ''conversion'' programs. They claim they help those with ''unwanted same-sex attraction''. Haydn Sennitt, the pastoral care worker at Sydney's Liberty Christian Ministries, said in an email: ''We do not offer 'fixes' or 'cures' for homosexuality but we do believe that it can be healed over time.''

This is merely semantics, according to Kelly, who found 15 such groups in Australia when making her film. Only the Sydney representative of Living Waters agreed to be interviewed on camera. ''You can get into a never-ending debate with these groups about what they do,'' she says. ''But when push comes to shove, they're saying that if you have same-sex attraction, you can't be a Christian. So your same-sex attraction becomes 'unwanted' and then you put yourself through one of their programs.''

In an email, former Roundabout Ministries leader Adrian Rowse said his group was aimed at young men with a variety of sexual problems. At times, many members expressed a wish to rid themselves of same-sex attractions. ''I can see how someone new to the group may have felt that this was an aim,'' he wrote, ''[but] I have never promised anyone that they can be 'free' of homosexuality.''

While local ''reparative'' programs generally avoid attention, their American counterparts have been hampered by the public renouncements of dozens of former leaders and participants. Exodus International, one of the world's biggest ex-gay groups, was established in 1976. Three years later it was rocked when two of its founders left to be with each other. In 2000, Exodus chairman John Paulk was ousted by the board after being seen in a gay bar. Five years ago, current president Alan Chambers appeared uncomfortable when confronted with claims he took nine months to consummate his marriage.

''There was a learning curve,'' said Chambers, who has admitted ongoing same-sex attraction. ''It had nothing to do with the struggle with homosexuality … It had everything to do with, 'I'm not quite sure how this all works'.''

In a statement, the Australian Psychological Society said that ''reparative therapists have not produced any rigorous scientific research to substantiate their claims of cure … APS recommends that ethical practitioners refrain from attempts to change individuals' sexual orientation''.

Recalling the attempts of Exodus and Living Waters to turn him straight, Paul Martin laughs. Men, he says, were taught how to speak in a monotone and walk ''without swishing'' while women were encouraged to ''wear the Laura Ashley look''. Gay fantasies were to be suppressed by envisioning a stop sign. Both programs involved workbooks and prayer sessions.

Martin also helped lead an Exodus group but after a life-changing trip to Thailand in the mid-'90s, he decided to leave. Nervously, he told his co-leader, Wendy Lawson - who stunned him by revealing she was quitting too.

Lawson, who married her long-term girlfriend in Britain in 2007, tells The Sunday Age she was suicidal during her Exodus years, living in ''constant fear'' and feeling like an ''abomination''. Since accepting her sexuality, she says, ''life is one of fulfilment and satisfaction''.

Like most who enter reparative therapy, Lawson and Martin were, at the time, conservative Christians. ''There's usually a fundamentalist, Pentecostal or evangelical background,'' says Rachel Goff, a Monash University researcher who studied ex-gay participants for a thesis. She found the vast majority were men. ''They place their Christian identity above all other aspects of their identity, including their sexuality.''

Damien Christie entered reparative therapy in Melbourne in 2006 after splitting with his long-term boyfriend. Having recently joined a Pentecostal Church, he sought help from Carol Hardy at Mosaic Ministries.

Hardy, he says, seized on the sexual abuse he suffered as a child, blaming it for his ''sickness''. In a prayer session, she pleaded for the ''spirit of Jezebel'' to leave him, suggesting he may have been cursed in the womb. Ashamed, Christie spiralled into alcoholism.

''I would drink to pass out,'' he says, his voice cracking. ''I acted out sexually, I was doing drugs and my self-worth was destroyed. I had no sense of self-love or care.'' He even attempted suicide.

Yet his faith remained. In 2010, he confronted Hardy in her Dingley office, telling her he believed that Jesus loved and accepted him. ''She banged her Bible down on her desk and said, 'You do know what this says about being gay, don't you?''' Christie says. ''She just wouldn't take any responsibility for the damage and hurt her counselling had done to me.'' Hardy has refused to comment.

Christie and Lograsso, who are friends, say they're sharing their story to help others. Both urge gay Christians to contact Freedom2b, a support group co-founded by former Pentecostal leader and ex-gay therapy critic Anthony Venn-Brown, who detailed his own struggle with such therapies in his 2004 memoir A Life of Unlearning.

But they also see this as a public declaration of self-acceptance. ''I'm not some broken person,'' Lograsso says, a flash of anger crossing his face. ''I don't need to become straight. I'm now living a life I never dreamed I could have. This is freedom.''

10 APRIL 2012

Article from Care2 by email:

A new study indicates that those who are homophobic may secretly harbor self-hatred over their own same-sex desires.

“Individuals who identify as straight but in psychological tests show a strong attraction to the same sex may be threatened by gays and lesbians because homosexuals remind them of similar tendencies within themselves,” explains Netta Weinstein, a lecturer at the University of Essex and the study’s lead author.

“In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this internal conflict outward,” adds co-author Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester who helped direct the research.

The research report, issued by researchers from the University of Rochester, the University of Essex, England, and the University of California in Santa Barbara, suggests that repressed same-sex desires due to negative reinforcement through authoritarian parenting are prominent factors in developing intense feelings of loathing and even hatred of gay people which may in later life lead to hostility towards those who are gay or perceived to be gay.

The paper drew evidence from four separate experiments conducted in the United States and in Germany. Each study involved an average of 160 college students and provided empirical evidence that corroborates longstanding psychoanalytic theories that intense negative feelings toward gay and lesbian people can stem from repressed same-sex desires.

In order to investigate the difference between how participants identified and what their implicit sexual attractions were, researchers carried out a number of experiments. In one such investigation, researchers charted the differences between respondents’ self-identifying statements and how they reacted during a split-second timed task where they were shown words and pictures and asked to label them as “gay” or “straight” while a computer tracked their response times. A faster association of “me” and “gay” and a slower association of “me” and “straight” indicated implicit homosexuality.

Researchers also used a series of questionnaires to assess whether respondents had a controlling upbringing. For example they were asked whether during their childhood they felt free to express their individuality or whether they felt pressured to conform. They were also asked questions relating to homophobia in the household, assessing whether respondents agreed with statements like “My dad avoids gay men whenever possible.”

Researchers then sort to gauge participants’ own levels of homophobia, again both explicit and implicit. Researchers used another series of questionnaires and a second round of quick-fire associations designed to track the amount of aggressive responses the word “gay” elicited when applied to themselves and to others.

The trials revealed a clear pattern: where participants had supportive and accepting parents they were more likely to be in touch with their implicit sexual orientation. However, when participants came from strict anti-gay homes they were less likely to be aware of their implicit sexual orientation. Additionally, participants who identified as being more heterosexual than their implicit scores were more likely to be hostile to gay people. This discrepancy between self-identification and unconscious responses predicted a variety of homophobic behaviors including hostility toward gay people, endorsement of anti-gay politics, and discriminatory bias.

There were of course limitations to these findings given that all participants were college-age students. Researchers now want to test whether these results are similar in other age groups and whether attitudes may change overtime.

In their report the study’s authors also suggest this pattern may be the reason why prominent anti-gay figures have later been caught engaging in or having engaged in same-sex sexual activities, citing examples such as evangelical preacher Ted Haggard who vocally opposed gay marriage (and still does) but found himself the center of scandal in 2006.

The study’s authors caution that while we may find this hypocrisy amusing, homophobia stemming from self-hatred may also at least partly contribute to cases like the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard.

11 APRIL 2012

Article from Care2 by email:

In a devastating blow to the ex-gay industry, the author of the only known study offering evidence it is possible to change sexual orientation has retracted his findings. Reports Gabriel Arana in his article “My So-Called Ex-Gay Life” for The American Prospect (emphasis mine):

This spring, I visited Spitzer at his home in Princeton. He ambled toward the door in a walker. Frail but sharp-witted, Spitzer suffers from Parkinson’s disease. “It’s a bummer,” he said.

Spitzer was drawn to the topic of ex-gay therapy because it was controversial–”I was always attracted to controversy”–but was troubled by how the study was received. He did not want to suggest that gay people should pursue ex-gay therapy. His goal was to determine whether the counterfactual–the claim that no one had ever changed his or her sexual orientation through therapy–was true.

I asked about the criticisms leveled at him. “In retrospect, I have to admit I think the critiques are largely correct,” he said. “The findings can be considered evidence for what those who have undergone ex-gay therapy say about it, but nothing more.” He said he spoke with the editor of the Archives of Sexual Behavior about writing a retraction, but the editor declined. (Repeated attempts to contact the journal went unanswered.)

Spitzer said that he was proud of having been instrumental in removing homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. Now 80 and retired, he was afraid that the 2001 study would tarnish his legacy and perhaps hurt others. He said that failed attempts to rid oneself of homosexual attractions “can be quite harmful.” He has, though, no doubts about the 1973 fight over the classification of homosexuality.

“Had there been no Bob Spitzer, homosexuality would still have eventually been removed from the list of psychiatric disorders,” he said. “But it wouldn’t have happened in 1973.” Spitzer was growing tired and asked how many more questions I had. Nothing, I responded, unless you have something to add.

He did. Would I print a retraction of his 2001 study, “so I don’t have to worry about it anymore”?

Dr. Robert Spitzer, who was also instrumental in removing homosexuality from the list of mental disorders, became a god-send to the ex-gay movement when he released the results of his 200-participant study in the well respected Archives of Sexual Behavior in 2001 that claimed to demonstrate that sexual orientation change was possible.

Even though Spitzer’s findings were criticized for the study’s lack of rigour (namely that it relied on what participants said about their results and did not track whether their reported change lasted for an extended period), this single study has hung around in the gay rights versus “change is possible” debate like the proverbial albatross. However, with the publication of Gabriel Arana’s investigation into the ex-gay phenomenon, based on his own past experiences, and an interview with Spitzer in which Spitzer formally asks to retract the study’s findings, that mooring must surely now crumble.

I urge readers who have the time to click over to read Arana’s full expose wherein he details his time undergoing “ex-gay therapy” at the hands of the prominent Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, a clinical psychologist in California who was then president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), the country’s largest organization for practitioners of ex-gay therapy, and the media’s complicity in publicizing the ex-gay lie without properly assessing the reliability of the results they were reporting on.

15 APRIL 2012

These letters in the Sunday Age were in response to the 8 APRIL article above re curing gays:

SEXUALITY is an important part of human existence and vital for our sense of wellbeing. So it is tragic to read of the imposition of moral judgment on what is to be considered ''good'' or ''bad'' sexuality, and of the attempts to alter people through dubious means (''Ministries preying on gay shame'', 8/4).

Variations in sexuality occur as a spectrum of human behaviour and cannot be considered abnormal in themselves. It has been a long battle for Judaeo-Christian religion to come to terms with sexuality in general, not to mention homosexuality. The latter has become a soft target for attack by religious institutions, with vulnerable gay people being scapegoated.

No reputable group of health professionals could condone the methods described in your article. These would have the likely destructive consequences of lowering self-esteem even further and leaving people conflicted and full of self-loathing. We condemn the use of the terms ''healing'' and ''support'' in describing such an approach. We also call for the proper evaluation of the outcomes and effects of such programs upon participants.

I TOO have been through a ministry such as that described in last week's article. For 14 months I went through weekly counselling to be ''cured'' of my homosexuality. My faith in God has been strong since teenage years but I was gay and the two were deemed incompatible. At times I was depressed, angry, close to suicidal. I married, hoping this would ''cure'' me. Then, a year ago I separated from my wife and came out as a gay man who also has faith in God. I live in a small country town and it is difficult to meet up with gay guys at all, let alone those with a faith. But my friends have been amazingly understanding and accepting.

I do not regret coming out. It has been an exceedingly positive experience because I now accept who and what I am - a gay guy who is loved by God and who is learning to love and accept himself - rather than one crushed by shame, accusation and the impossibility of change. We used to try to change left-handed people. Now we let them be what they are. The time has come for the church to affirm gays for what they are: created in the image of God like anyone else.

THANKS to Michael Lallo for his article about the groups attempting to cure religious believers of same-sex attraction. The myth (or lie) that sexual orientation is a matter of choice or ''something you catch'' and therefore curable has been exposed many times, most recently in the book Being Gay, Being Christian: You Can Be Both by Dr Stuart Edser, a Newcastle psychologist. To try to change a person's sexual orientation, no matter what it is, risks great psychological damage. Organisations such as Exodus, Living Waters, EnCourage and Mosaic Ministries are doing more harm than good.

MICHAEL Lallo suggests that ''ministries are preying on gay shame'', based on the feeling of people who have tried to change [their homosexual tendencies] and failed.

Does the same premise stand for those who have tried to give up alcohol or illegal drugs and failed, for the thief who wants to reform or the paedophile? Are they damaged by those who try to help but fail?

What about the ones who succeed? Is it wrong to try to help someone out of their ''shame'' of an addiction? Of course not, because the people who seek help know that what they are doing is wrong. Guess what? So do those homosexuals who try to leave their sexual addiction behind. Some do, some don't, but they all deserve the right to try.

HOW horrific to know this is going on in Australia - I thought these conversion camps only happened in the US.

I feel so much sadness and intense anger that society (driven by misguided religious beliefs) places pressure on men to attend these types of programs. Maybe there needs to be a reprogramming course for this minority group of extreme homophobes, to really uncover what's driving their hatred and fear. I wonder whether they would be open to the concept of being converted?

PERHAPS the saddest aspect of this situation is that concerned Christians principally rely on the Book of Leviticus as the basis for their anti-homosexual stance.

This is a book of religious and public health rules. Among its teachings, it mandates animal sacrifices to atone for sins, and says anyone who curses their ''mother or father shall be put to death'' (neither of which are acceptable to modern society). Of course, Jesus' commandment to love thy neighbour supplants these rules. It is sad that otherwise compassionate Christians find homosexuality abhorrent based on Leviticus!

PERHAPS we should rename The Sunday Age as The New Age.

The Age, known for preaching tolerance and respect to all minorities, puts Christianity front page on Easter Sunday with an article about Christian ministries preying on gay shame.

Instead of showing respect on Christians' special day, The Sunday Age relates the "hell of a message" the church has for practising homosexuals and the damage this does to their self-acceptance and freedom. This is followed up with an article about feminist porn which, unlike mainstream porn that apparently carries a harmful message of women "holding out", advocates women pursuing sex. Just the sort of thing we want to read on Easter Sunday.

Not really a resurrection message, but I was pleased to spot something that at first glance looked like one: "Easter is about rebirth, but would we really want to be born again?" Clearly the level of tolerance and respect for the Christian message is at an all-time low in this publication and only fit for trivialising, ridicule and contempt.

15 APRIL 2012

Mannie and Kendall Present: LESBIAN AND GAY SOLIDARITY ACTIVISMS

RED JOS: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM

Mannie's blogs may be accessed by clicking on to the following links:

MannieBlog (from 1 August 2003 to 31 December 2005)

Activist Kicks Backs - Blognow archive re-housed - 2005-2009

RED JOS BLOGSPOT (from January 2009 onwards)

This page created on 29 AUGUST 2010 and updated 15 OCTOBER 2016

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