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GAYNEWS

APRIL 2003

THE GAYNEWS SERVICE IS TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED.
WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY CAUSE,
& WILL RESUME OUR REGULAR COVERAGE AS SOON AS WE ARE ABLE.

**THANK-YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE & UNDERSTANDING**

17 November 2002

THORPE SETS RECORD STRAIGHT ON GAY RUMOUR.

By Rachel Browne
The Sun-Herald.

Ian Thorpe has broken his silence on the persistent question about his sexuality as well as a disturbing encounter with two obsessed fans.

The swimming champion told interviewer Monica Attard of ABC Radio's Sunday Profile that he was straight but found the gay rumours flattering.

"It is the most flattering thing that anyone can ever say because if someone wants to label you or claim you as part of a minority group, it means you must have some strength in your character or in what you do," he said.

Attard said she admired Thorpe's level-headed approach to fame and the scrutiny which goes hand-in-hand with being a high profile figure.

"Obviously fame and fortune have their hazards, one of which is becoming the subject of unfounded rumours," Attard said.

"As a young, good-looking, well-spoken man with an interest in fashion, Ian has had to deal with rumours about his sexuality and he was very upfront and frank when discussing it. He said, 'People will say what they like and the rumour mill will churn over and that just goes with the territory."'

Last month, the Olympic champion was forced to seek a personal apprehended
violence order against Taylor Martin, 27, and Vernon Ray Hopkins, 32, in Sutherland Local Court.

"He was deeply disturbed by the actions of the over-zealous fans," Attard said. "Their behaviour shook him to the core."

November 19 2002

GAY WIN IN TASMANIAN LOCAL ELECTIONS.

Hobart has its first openly gay alderman with the election of Matt Hinz to the Hobart City Council.

Former University of Tasmania Sexuality Officer, and Green campaign worker, Matt becomes the capital city's first openly gay elected representative.

Tasmania's first openly gay local government representative, Paul
Thomas, also a Green, has retired from representing the largely rural council area of Huon and did not contest the latest election.

Meanwhile long-time anti-gay campaigner, George Brookes, has failed to be re-elected to the Launceston City Council.

Mr Brookes came to prominence as a vitriolic opponent of gay law reform during his time as a state Upper House member.

Mr Brookes lost his Upper House seat three weeks after gay law reform in 1997 in an unprecedented landslide against a sitting member.

Clearly confused and angry about being dumped from the Launceston City Council, Mr Brookes labelled voters "ungrateful".

For more information contact TGLRG on 0409-010-668.

22 November 2002

BENT ON CHANGE.

By Craig Johnstone
The Courier-Mail

The National Party is altering its stance on homosexuals. Tolerance is in... up to a point, writes Craig Johnstone.

JUST after 12.30pm on November 6, Attorney-General Rod Welford rose in Parliament to introduce a piece of legislation which has caused much more angst among his political opponents than he or Premier Peter Beattie could have hoped for.

The proposed anti-discrimination laws were introduced without the normal community consultation, and, despite the best efforts of the Government's
ubiquitous spin doctors to soften its impact, the legislation has enraged many private schools and religious institutions.

Beattie has had to apologise to church leaders over his failure to consult them about the effect of the new laws, which would prevent schools discriminating against staff on the basis of sexuality or marital status.

In other words, gay teachers or those in de facto relationships could not be legally barred from teaching in such schools on the basis of their sexuality or living arrangements.

Work is now progressing on a compromise whereby Christian schools would be able to assert their right to uphold their faiths and the Government could not be accused of caving in to the religious lobby.

But if Beattie has had to contemplate the error of his ways, his discomfort over the legislation does not come close to that being felt in the National
Party.

The Bill has caused each National in the Parliament to take a good hard look at themselves and their constituents, because it forces the party to decide whether it wants to break from the tried and true political tactics of the past.

The Shadow Cabinet meeting on Monday was, by some accounts, a vigorous affair, with some arguing against the legislation from a moral standpoint and others worrying about its effect on the Nationals' support base.

There was talk of the importance of "bible belt'' seats and complaints about the power the religious lobby still holds over the party.

Those in the room with strong religious convictions tried to argue the Nationals needed to take a hard moral stance on gays in schools.

In the end, however, the decision was taken to argue against the legislation on the basis that it took away freedom of choice for parents.

In other words, individual views on homosexuality or sex before marriage should not be central to the debate.

Opposition Leader Mike Horan initially supported the legislation but, after
reading the details and talking to private school organisations, he
rejected the Bill in its present form. He obviously believes he is on a political winner with his about-face.

It allows him to get some traction in a policy area where the Nationals have always sounded strongest - moral values. But do the benefits of opposing what the Government plans to do outweigh the political problems it presents Horan?

The first problem with his new stance is that the Liberal Party is
supporting the legislation, thereby highlighting yet another policy difference between the two camps and all but ruling out the prospect of any
workable coalition by the next election.

Another, smaller, problem is that, having announced tentative support for
the laws, Horan now appears a captive of the private and Catholic schools lobby.

Yet his biggest problem is also the most subtle. It may sound incredible to anyone who remembers the rigidly anti-gay bent of the Bjelke-Petersen government, but Horan and his party are making a serious attempt to argue against this legislation using democratic, not moral, principles.

That is, their opposition to the proposed new laws is based on them limiting the freedom of parents to decide who should teach their children,
rather than on their recognition of homosexual rights. This is creating more angst within the party than is immediately apparent.

It has led to the extraordinary comments by the party's deputy leader Vaughan Johnson, who confessed this week he had changed his tune about homosexuality and did not have a problem with people in de facto
relationships teaching.

Is this the same Vaughan Johnson who, in 1999, said in relation to
homosexuals: ``If we are going to condone this type of behaviour, well you may as well close down the whole place -- the whole place and go and live in an environment of filth and smut and dirt and everything else''?

Indeed it is, but that was then, this is now. Johnson's softened attitude towards gays is part of a profound change in the way the Nationals want to present themselves to voters.

Johnson says he has met parents of homosexual and lesbian children and was struck by the ``hurt and angst'' they had to experience. It taught him that politicians have "got to be tolerant and more understanding''.

"I don't condone that behaviour, but certainly, now I'm very tolerant of it,'' he said.

Johnson is not alone in his sudden shift in attitude. FORMER premier Russell Cooper, who once declared gays would never be tolerated in Queensland, acknowledged in The Courier-Mail, in 1996, that a lot of homosexual people were "fine people with good minds''.

Nationals member for Callide, Jeff Seeney, admitted yesterday that the party "has used homosexuality as a political issue over a number of years. "There is a perception that the National Party is full of rabid anti-homosexuals,'' he said. "What we have to do in this debate is move away from that by arguing this legislation is about freedom of choice.''

The agnostic Seeney said many of his colleagues were "driven by their
religious convictions'' to oppose the legislation.

"I don't think anyone with religious convictions can take a view (on the legislation) that is not based on those convictions,'' he said. However, he insists his rejection of the Bill is based on freedom of choice.

"Parents have a right to choose the type of education they want for their children irrespective of whether the religion is riddled with hypocrisy or anything else, and some of them are in my view,'' he said. "It is a question of freedom of choice.''

His colleague, Marc Rowell, who said, in 1995, that if God "had meant us to be homosexual, He would have equipped us differently'' is now more circumspect about the issue.

"Whatever a person does in his own bedroom, that's his choice. But if people don't want that person teaching their children why can't they have that right?'' he said.

Rowell says he has no problem with much of the legislation, such as its
protection of mothers breastfeeding in public, but insists the Government's intent is to push through a law that most of his constituents disagree with by lumping it in with measures few oppose, like public breastfeeding.

The Nationals are wary that the legislation has the potential to drive a
wedge between party members with different religious views.

"Whatever any member does in relation to this, they are going to get constituents passionately opposed to what they did,'' said Seeney.

The party's member for Maroochydore, Fiona Simpson, said the legislation showed the Beattie Government gave "radical gay rights'' a high priority. If Simpson appears less tolerant than her colleagues, it is perhaps because her views on religious freedom are strong.

She believes the legislation, as it stands, is a jackboot that will force schools to run the legal gauntlet. "They will need to justify their faith and values each time they are in conflict with issues to do with who they employ,'' she said.

Just how deep the Nationals' new-found tolerance for the gay lifestyle runs is hard to say. Just as difficult to discern is whether the party's
organisational wing agrees with the parliamentary members on the issue.

But Johnson's change of heart shows that it pays to keep an open mind on
where the Nationals stand these days.