BGA

Is no news better than lesbian news

Here I sit… a little bit bored and a bit miffed. Whilst looking for some interesting, world changing breaking news in the lesbian world to report on I discovered this.

If you go to google news and type in lesbian here is what you get….

40 stories relating to a woman in America who was ejected from a federal building for security for wearing a lesbian.com t shirt…

29 stories relating to Lindsay Lohan’s denial of any previous lesbian relationship with Courteney Semel

And 9 stories about the New Zealand justice system changing terminology from foreman to foreperson…

enough said…

Gay Marriage becomes a Hallmark Holiday!

That’s right Hallmark is releasing a set of four cards specifically designed for gay marriages, commitment ceremonies etc. Proving yet again that a pink dollar is a lucrative dollar. This comes on the back of hallmark last year releasing coming out cards. (I know I wasn’t going to get one of those from my mother when I came out). Anyway this all got me thinking so far the four cards released are well rather neutral with sayings such as “two hearts one promise”. Surely Hallmark could do better.

So here are a couple I have come up with a bit of an aussie twist…

Roses are red,

Violets are blue

This weddings not legal

But I love you..

If two stand shoulder to shoulder against the Rudd’s,

Happy together, the Rudd’s themselves are helpless

Against them while they stand so.

Let all thy joys be as the month of May,

And all thy days be as a marriage day

 If only it was that we weren’t gay.

Channel 9 Seeking Gay Newlyweds??

Channel 9 is on the hunt in their new show ‘Here come the Newlyweds’ for yet another token gay or lesbian couple. Ignoring the tokenistic gesture of yet another reality tv show to be inclusive and include a minority group ( see previous posts).

Something else is fishy in this.

Now channel 9 will have to be looking for a gay or lesbian couple who have either married overseas (hmm maybe they could get Portia and Ellen) or they will be out to redefine the governments anti gay marriage stance. If the show seeks a gay or lesbian couple who have entered into a civil partnership, channel 9 and channel 9 alone will be seeking to classify that as marriage.  Marriage is not the same as a civil partnership. Well I guess in channel 9s case it may be… along as it’s a ratings spinner!

Going for Gay Gold

Okay, enough of the slander, propaganda and perpetual rants.

This post i shall be positive.

Its time to get your arm chairs ready and your loud and proud cheering voice out, as Aussie Olympic Driver Matt Mitcham takes to the pool this Monday.

Out and proud Matt came out in a big way earlier this year and is being heralded as the only gay in the Aussie village in Beijing.( although Im not exactly sure how true that statement is).He is competing in the 3m springboard preliminaries on Monday, followed by the mens 10 metre later on in the week.

The Great Closet of the Beijing Games

As our Olympians compete in Beijing this week they should remember not take one thing with them. A DVD of the critically acclaimed film directed by Chinese born Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain. It along with a host of other films directed towards a gay and lesbian audience are banned in China.

In addition to this whilst Aussies sit back and watch countries rarely heard of compete in sports rarely seen on TV. It is important to note that some 80 countries competing in these games still have laws banning homosexuality.

Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Sudan, Somalia, Mauritania, Yemen, all have laws which hold the death penalty as punishment for a homosexual act. While other countries have varying degrees of laws banning homosexuality with punishments including fines, years of hard labour and gaol time.

So whilst we cheer on our Aussie Olympians at the Beijing games maybe we should spare a thought for our gay and lesbian counterparts not as fortunate to have the freedoms and rights we have in this lucky country.

Pink is the New Black!

Is Pink the New Black?

This week David Jones announced that pink is the new black and how right they were.  Especially when considering pink is the colour commonly associated with gay and lesbian community. If pink is indeed the new black then i want to crawl back into my nice alternative lifestyle and attempt to remain being one out of ten… not one out of five or one out of 3… those ratios suck!

Gone are the days when everyone got excited about Brittney Spears kissing Madonna at the MTV awards as a one off thing. We now have fledgling dykes everywhere from the Tyra Banks parade that is Next Top Model (since when did we care about clothes let alone showing off the latest in couture fashion) to Jess Origliasso from The Veronicas being spotted at the Bank on a Wednesday to Lindsay Lohan shacking up with a female DJ Samantha Ronson. Not to mention the constant tyrade of reality TV shows each with there own token dyke (think survivor, biggest loser, big brother etc ).

The music business is in on the mainstream dykism. No longer are we analysing the lyrics of Missy Higgins song Scar attempting to conclude whether or not it has a lesbian connotation. Instead blaring out of top 40 radio stations across the globe is Katy Perry singing a pro hetero song on kissing a girl, with lyrics like..

I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chap stick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don’t mean I’m in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it 

I mean is this a song promoting women’s pride? a celebration of the achievement of acceptance for gays and lesbians? or is she out to impress her boyfriend.

The love does dare not speak its name is now not only being spoken it is being screamed, popularised, celebritised and made mainstream…. and with equal rights for the lesbian community becoming more and more aligned with our hetero counterparts, we have less to struggle for and have less to fight for… but does this mean we should become more normalised, boring and mainstream. Bring back the controversy, and sensationalism

 It was far more interesting!

Pub or Protest

Protest or Pub….

This Sunday marks the 4^th annual (I’m not sure that 4 years is really something to brag about, but hey!) National Day of Action March for Same Sex Marriage. The march starting at Taylor’s Square is designed to show Rudd that the gay community isn’t in favour of him regurgitating Howard’s “marriage is a union between a man and a women” stance.

A few things irk me about this so called National Day of Action (apart from the fact that I have had flyer’s for it shoved down my throat since June.) Firstly if it is truly a national day of action then why is it not being held on the same day across the country? With Brisbane protesting on the 10^th,  Canberra on 2^nd  and Perth on the 9^th. It’s not really a national day of action more like several different days of action in several different cities.

Secondly 500  people at a protest is not exactly strong numbers, I reckon more people will venture through the doors of ARQ over the weekend than are contemplating attending  this protest.

I’m not saying that I agree with Rudd’s Howard rhetoric, I just think that maybe there are better ways, than a measly annual protest with poor attendance that’s not even really national to get our message across.