Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 16:48:34 +1000 From: leto@rabbit.com.au (Brendon Wickham) Subject: (Australia) Brother Sister News - 28/11/96 BROTHER SISTER - QUEER NEWS FROM DOWNUNDER Issue #120 - 28/11/96 Including: 1. AIDS cash not for lesbians 2. Tasty raid news suppressed 3. WA teacher calls for legislation 4. Pagaent participation grows 5. Police hound gay cop This and previous postings are archived for the QRD. Point your URL to http://werple.net.au/~leto/news - or go through the Pacific Region of the QRD at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/world/pacific/ =3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+= =3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+ AIDS CASH NOT FOR LESBIANS *As World AIDS Day focuses community attention on people living with HIV/AIDS, lesbians are protesting that not enough is being done for women.* Sonja Ristov, an HIV-positive lesbian activist and the first woman to be elected Positive Representative on the Victorian AIDS Council (VAC), claims that "AIDS Councils are not taking on women's issues". While "lesbians need to explore what safe sex means", Ristov argues that the need for women's education, advocacy and outreach is commonly overlooked. The failure to recognise HIV as a lesbian health issue is evident at the level of basic data collection. While everyone tested for HIV at the VAC is asked to indicate how they choose to identify, lesbians have two categories available to them on the standard form: woman and other. While discussion of risk practices, rather than risk groups, is now favoured, Ristov maintains that lesbian- specific data and research are vital and empowering for health workers and lesbians alike. In the absence of statistics, Ristov offers anecdotal evidence that attests to the importance of HIV as a lesbian health issue. She counts forty HIV-positive lesbians among her friends and recalls that lesbians comprised half of the members of a positive women support group she attended in Sydney. There are about 1000 HIV- positive women in Australia. The ways in which lesbians acquire the virus, while ultimately unimportant, include injecting drug use, rape, sex with men and artificial insemination. Recorded cases of woman to woman sexual transmission are rare and under-researched. Indeed, Ristov states that while scientists have determined the viral load in semen, they have not done so for vaginal secretions. In this sense, the risks remain unknown. Ristov is concerned that many lesbians disregard HIV as a lesbian health issue, or see it as an issue for SM dykes only: the notion that "lipstick will keep me safe". Aware of the efforts of venues to distribute "lesbian party packs" containing a dam, gloves, a condom and lube, Ristov would like to see a similar initiative in Victoria "if the Victorian AIDS Council would put those together as lesbian specific". Such a pack is not currently produced in Victoria, priority having been given to the men's party pack. Ristov explains: "as soon as we brought up dental dams the boys started saying 'we want them, we use them for rimming'... so, [they] add it to the boys' cost and then it becomes prohibitive." Ristov praises the work of People Living With HIV/AIDS, particularly in the area of appropriate treatments for women with HIV. She favours a coalition between Positive Women, women's health centres and projects focussed on people living with HIV/AIDS. Unfortunately, she sees little evidence to suggest that this is currently occurring: "women's health centres are really good, but it's a difficult one again because they're not supported by the AIDS Councils. They don't even get any funding or information". In the United States, the Centre for Disease Control has published its first report on lesbians and HIV some fifteen years after the first appearance of the virus. Although a significant first step, its late appearance is representative of the various ways in which HIV has been neglected as a lesbian health issue. In response, Ristov offers that "it's so hard for straight men in white coats to imagine what two women can do in bed without a dick". The First National Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual Health Conference, titled Health In Difference, recently held in Sydney, provided a forum to advance a lesbian health agenda and have HIV recognised as a lesbian health issue. Philomena Horsley, Co-ordinator of Positive Women (Victoria), notes that "the real struggle in general is to have lesbian health accepted as a legitimate issue, to take it from the invisible into the visible in terms of the health agenda and to recognise that health issues for lesbians are incredibly broad and they include a whole range of areas where people think there are no issues. HIV is one of those areas." When Cindy Crawford was interviewed in 1993, she confidently asserted that lesbian sex was the safest sex. Horsley believes that many lesbians would argue similarly today. "Comments like Cindy Crawford's are not helpful when we're looking at the reality of lesbian sex lives. She's to be forgiven, and lesbians are to be forgiven, for thinking that it's otherwise because there is almost no research in the world that really looks at that as an issue because everybody believes the myth, for different reasons, that lesbian sex is automatically safe sex and that's not the case." Jodie Joyce TASTY RAID NEWS SUPPRESSED *The Victorian Police have succeeded in obtaining a suppression order to stop The Age newspaper reporting any further on the Tasty raid settlement negotiations.* Represented by the Victorian Government Solicitors, Victoria Police officers defending claims arising from the raid on the Tasty nightclub on August 7, 1994, have successfully applied to the Supreme Court of Victoria for a blanket suppression Order. Wayne Morgan, Lecturer in Human Rights Law at Melbourne University, explains that such an Order effectively means that "no details of the case about the Tasty raid, and no details about the negotiations, can be published". To do so would invite a contempt charge. It is understood that the Order was sought following disclosure, on the ABC's Triple J and in an article which appeared in The Age newspaper, of settlement offers made by the Victorian Government Solicitors. The details of the case and subsequent negotiations have, until now, been available for public scrutiny, the Order removes the incident from public view. Morgan states: "It is certainly unusual for such a blanket suppression Order to be issued, particularly in a case like this. I think that gay men and lesbians in Victoria have a right to know about the conduct of the police and the conduct in this case and I think we really have to question whether the interests of justice are really served by this suppression Order". Jodie Joyce WA TEACHER CALLS FOR LEGISLATION *A terminally-ill gay teacher who suffered a nervous breakdown and tried to commit suicide as a result of a campaign of vilification in the workplace, claims the WA Government has condoned discrimination against homosexual people by refusing to enact legislation to discourage it.* The teacher, 32-year-old Perry Greenland, took the Department of Education to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission last Friday and obtained what he described as "a satisfactory outcome". Greenland claims he was subjected to constant vilification from a female colleague about his sexuality from 1994, his first year at the school. The female teacher hurled abuse at him in front of other teachers and staff on a regular basis, screaming: "You're filthy and disgusting! You make me sick!" He claims: "Every time I had contact with her she became more and more abusive and irrational. I went to the principal twice and he said he'd look into it, but nothing changed." Greenland said he had kept his private life to himself, but was outed by another teacher who knew him prior to his arrival at the school. He had been teaching for seven years prior to voluntarily transferring to North Perth and claims to have always enjoyed a professional and cordial relationship with his colleagues. Greenland said that he no support from other staff, "It just seems to be entrenched in the school culture that these things happen and you put up with it. "The school gave the message that it was all right. If we had anti-discrimination legislation I would have gone for it straight away." Although he attempted to avoid his abusive colleague, the campaign of harassment and vilification continued to the point where he began to suffer severe depression and stress-related illness. Greenland has been living with a terminal illness for ten years, which he says is not HIV/AIDS. Greenland eventually went to the headmaster who he says, "(He) just saw it as an argument. His solution was for us both to see a counsellor-and I'm glad we did now because it meant everything that happened was recorded." =46ollowing his resignation, Greenland suffered severe depression and attempted suicide by injecting himself with a massive dose of insulin. He spent both Christmas and New Year recovering from the attempt in a psychiatric unit. Greenland claims he was not the only homosexual teacher at the school who had been subjected to verbal abuse from the same woman. North Perth Primary had a number of gay and lesbian employees at the time, as well as a number of children with gay parents, he said. Gay and Lesbian Equality spokesperson Brian Greig said that the case demonstrated that discrimination against gay men and lesbians in WA was real and happening all the time. "It makes a mockery of the Government's claim that they cannot see the need for reform." Greig said that while Greenland was able to seek redress through the IRC, most discrimination could only be dealt with by legislating specifically to outlaw it. He was uncertain about a need for anti-vilification legislation along the lines of that enacted in New South Wales. "I have mixed feelings about anti-vilification laws. I'm not opposed to them,but if they were to be introduced they must be backed up by anti-discrimination laws and education." Gavin McGuren PAGEANT PARTICIPATION GROWS *A contingent of gays and lesbians and their friends and families received a warm reception from most of the 50,000 strong crowd which lined the streets of Hobart's central business district on Saturday to see this year's Hobart Christmas Pageant.* A gay and lesbian contingent has marched in the pageant since 1992, but this is the first time there had been participation by the group Parents, Family and =46riends of Gays and Lesbians. Organisers of the Hobart Christmas Pageant, which is the largest street parade in Tasmania, were reluctant to include a lesbian and gay float when the idea was first put forward in 1992. =46ollowing complaints from Christian groups, sponsors of the lesbian and gay contingent were ordered not to display the words "gay " or "lesbian". Participants ignored the rule but were permitted to enter the parade in future years because of the enthusiasm of the crowd and because of support from members of the Hobart City Council which auspices the parade. POLICE HOUND GAY COP *A senior police officer has accused Victoria Police of an anti-gay harassment campaign against him.* Senior Sergeant David Trueman, former head of the Northcote police station, claims he has been falsely accused of p=E6dophilia. In the past, Trueman had helped promote the force as gay and lesbian friendly to the public. Not long afterwards he was facing the accusations which an internal investigation found were unproven. He is still facing disciplinary action for offences he said should have only led to a rebuke from a superior. Trueman is a part of a gay and lesbian police group that were highly publicised in a colour spread for the Herald Sun . Trueman this week told newspapers "Too many times in the past, gay and lesbian members have quietly left the police force because it was too overwhelming to stand up to the them. The internal investigation was linked to his involvement in a business which cared for Thai students. Trueman is now seeking to have his case heard before the Equal Opportunity Commission. He believes that certain members of the force equate homosexuality with p=E6dophilia and that despite being told the investigation had not found any evidence of p=E6dophilia, the department kept up the harassment. =3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+= =3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+ BOTTOM LINE Smartarse by Jeffrey Smart THE BIGGEST SIZE QUEEN The 1990s have become Victoria's epoch of the Big Thing, the Decade of the Size Queen. Our Premier has Big Hair and a Substantial Jawline. He has given us the new and Very Big Exhibition Centre, a Big Car Race and an Enormous Casino. In an era when everything is getting bigger-except for public spending on health and education-most of the state is munching on steroids and bulking up. Big investments, high fliers (and rollers), big entertainment (Sunset Blvd and the Three Tenors), big privatisation, Big Deal! Gay Melbourne has not been immune. 50% of the community (the male half) can now boast its own monument to bigness; Precinct 3182. Precinct 3182 is not one venue, but four: a pub, a bar and cinema, a sauna (including the Equal Opportunity Commission endorsed gay-men-only gym), and a club. The venues are clustered around a quiet St Kilda cul de sac, and opened for business last week. I don't usually hang around men-only spaces; it's not that I disagree with them in principle, it's just that they hold little appeal for me. Being unaccustomed to such venues, what, I want to know, are the rules for gadding about in a masculine universe? Is girly behaviour allowed? Should anyone exhibiting the least sign of nelliness be instantly expelled? I ran into one of Melbourne's finest drag artistes, Ms Stella Constellation (without the frock, of course), giving Precinct the once over. Although undoubtedly male, Ms Stella's alter ego was sporting a glamorous set of false, pink fingernails. Ought not this sort of outfit be banned, I wondered? If it's men-only ought we not be required to wear footy shorts, thongs and singlets? Aside from these delicate questions of etiquette, Precinct 3182 is a startling experience. The theme rooms, which can be hired and come with access to room service and seven channels of porn, are an interesting experiment. You can hire Surfside, which has fishing net and a surfboard stuck to the walls, or Rawhide, a cowboy extravaganza with ropes, wooden posts and a guitar. The maze is an extraordinary comment in black partition walls, vinyl mats, and lube dispensers. The Laneway Club is one of the more interesting elements of Precinct 3182. A cavernous space at the back has been filled with remnants of our public transport history-a red rattler carriage, an old bus-and is sure to provide generations of horny Melburnians with an adventure playground of sexual possibilities. Precinct 3182 is a surprisingly big development. It has so many services, nooks and crannies that I could well imagine men wandering for days within its bowels, never needing to surface into the real world. From beauty therapists to a gift shop, Precinct 3182 has just about everything a homosexual might need; except for comfy dyke companionship and the odd gaming machine. Precinct 3182 is the Chadstone, Northland, or Bay City Plaza of the gay male world; everything under (practically) the one roof. It's the Sizzler all-you-can-eat experience of homosexual venues. Take care in all those dark places! Jeffery Smart =3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+= =3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+=3D+ Brother Sister is a fortnightly newspaper published in Melbourne, VIC and Brisbane, QLD, Australia. I have selected the main news stories as well as items of interest. Overseas media who utilise any or all of the above material please credit Brother Sister as your source (and by-line if it is listed). Thank you. Brendon Wickham