Tag: Australian Marriage Equality

ECAJ & Marriage Equality

From: Michael Barnett
Date: 16 February 2016 at 22:06
Subject: ECAJ & Marriage Equality
To: Peter Wertheim <PWertheim@ecaj.org.au>, Robert Goot <president@ecaj.org.au>

Hi Peter, Robert,
 
I see the ECAJ are keen to discuss “LGBT equality” for it’s ideological purposes:
 
http://www.ecaj.org.au/2016/open-letter-to-the-anti-israel-left
 
Ordinarily this use of LGBTI people would not bother me but given Australia doesn’t have LGBTI equality and given your organisation exists to promote the welfare (eg equality) of Australians, it seems you’re taking a liberty with the liberties LGBTI Australians don’t yet have.
 
Allow me to remind you of your platform:
 

This Council:
1.1 NOTES that it is the vision of the ECAJ to create and support a community in which all Australians, including all Jewish Australians:
(a) feel valued and their cultural differences are respected;
(b) have a fair opportunity to meet their material and other needs; and
(c) are equally empowered as citizens to participate in and contribute to all facets of life in the wider community;

Right now I’m not feeling especially valued, not do I have fair opportunity to meet my needs, and am not empowered to participate in or contribute to all facets of life in the wider community.  I am sure I speak for others too.
 
On this particular ground, I’d really like your organisation to sign its name to marriage equality so LGBTI people in Australia can have equal rights, similarly to those of the people you are so proud to show off in your open letter.
 
To this end, Australian Marriage Equality have provided a simple mechanism to facilitate your addition to their list of over 800 supporters:
 
http://www.australianmarriageequality.org/non-profit-support
 
It would also be an ideal opportunity for the ECAJ to follow in the footsteps of Bialik College, a proud supporter of marriage equality.
 
How soon can you arrange this support?
 
Regards,
Michael.
0417-595-541.

Bialik College first Australian school to support Marriage Equality

MEDIA RELEASE
Bialik College first Australian school to support Marriage Equality
February 16 2016

Adding its name to an impressive list of over 800 supporters, Bialik College takes pride of place as the first Australian K-12 school to support marriage equality.

20160216 Bialik College support for marriage equality

As a member of the Safe Schools Coalition, Bialik College is showing genuine leadership and vision by supporting marriage equality.  The school clearly understands that giving children equal opportunities in life enables them to achieve their full potential.

Michael Barnett, convenor of Aleph Melbourne, reflects on this significant moment:

“As a former student of Bialik College, I am exceedingly proud of my first high school today.  They have come a long way since I attended in the early 1980s.  I would have had an easier time at school, experienced less bullying and felt less isolated if the school had told me it was ok to love boys and that I could even marry a man when I grew up.  That validation would have made a huge difference to me, particularly at that formative stage of my life”.

Every current and future student at Bialik can now know that when they attend school, their friendships and relationships will be equally valued within their school community and that gender identity, sexual orientation and intersex status will not be a barrier to full inclusion.

This is a proud moment for the Jewish community in Australia.  It also brings Australia one step closer to removing the hurtful and pointless discrimination in the Marriage Act.

All Jewish schools, and those beyond the Jewish community, must step up to the mark, in the name of equality and for the best outcomes for their students, and similarly add their name to the Australian Marriage Equality list of academic supporters.

Further comment available from Aleph Melbourne convenor Michael Barnett on 0417-595-541.

ENDS

Community anger over abstained vote | Star Observer

Community anger over abstained vote | Star Observer

Posted on 11 January 2013

Melbourne Ports MP Michael Danby (pictured) continues to come under fire from marriage equality advocates and constituents for abstaining on last year’s gay marriage vote in the federal Parliament.

The Melbourne Ports electorate includes the suburbs of Southbank, South Melbourne, Albert Park, Balaclava, parts of Caulfield and St Kilda, where the annual Pride March is held.

The Labor MP was one of 10 Lower House members who did not vote on September 19. The marriage equality bill, introduced by Labor MP Stephen Jones, was voted down 98 to 42. Melbourne Ports resident Darren Tyrrell told the Star Observer he and his partner were very disappointed in Danby’s decision.

“I don’t think he wants to stick his neck out on it,” he said.

When Tyrrell met with Danby to discuss gay marriage last year, he said the MP was sympathetic but non-committal.

“He told us the Catholic Church had been lobbying him really hard, probably more than anyone else,” Tyrrell said.

“I’m disappointed because I always thought he was a politician who stood up for human rights, he stands up for people’s human rights overseas but he doesn’t do it in his own electorate.

“I think it’s a bit gutless to be honest.”

A spokesman for the Australian Marriage Equality Victorian branch said they would be working with Melbourne Ports residents to highlight Danby’s decision.

“Michael Danby has betrayed the voters of Melbourne Ports by saying he supports marriage equality but then not voting for it when he had the chance,” he said.

“Worse still, Danby’s abstention sends a negative message to other MPs who will look at him and think ‘if he can get away with not voting for this in such a progressive electorate then so can I’.” Some residents have taken to social media to highlight Danby’s move

Melbourne Ports resident Tony Pitman started a Facebook page called ‘Melbourne Ports residents for marriage equality’ late last year, hoping to stir some change.

“I think most people in the electorate had the impression that Michael Danby was a supporter of LGBT rights, so when he chose to abstain on the marriage equality vote, there was a lot of disappointment and anger,” Pitman said.

“Through the Facebook page, we hope to funnel that frustration into something constructive; organising campaigns to convince Michael Danby to vote yes next time around.”

Danby’s office did not comment in time for publication.

INFO: melbourneportsmarriage@gmail.com

This post was written by:

– who has written 134 posts on Star Observer.

Clarifying the authority of the ECAJ « mikeybear

Clarifying the authority of the ECAJ « mikeybear.

Professor Sidney Bloch shows support for Marriage Equality

Emeritus Professor Sidney Bloch

Emeritus Professor Sidney Bloch (Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne) had the following to say in August 2011 on allowing same-sex couples the right to marriage:

“Scientific knowledge of the mind is expanding all the time. In the past, psychiatry viewed homosexuality as a mental illness. Knowledge of sexuality has improved markedly and we now recognise that homosexuality is not an illness to be cured. Moreover, there is a growing body of research suggesting that gay and lesbian people can experience benefits to their mental health and well-being if their relationships are given the same social and legal recognition as heterosexual relationships. From a mental health standpoint, the benefits of marriage should be made available to all couples regardless of the gender of the partners.”

Australian Marriage Equality: Quotable Quotes

Research into the health and well-being consequences of denying same-sex attracted people the right to marry can be found at the Doctors for Marriage Equality web site.

77 multi-faith clergy call for marriage equality | AME

77 multi-faith clergy call for marriage equality | AME.

Jewish rabbis supporting marriage equality include:

  1. Rabbi Shoshana Kaminsky, Adelaide.
  2. Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, Senior Rabbi, New South Wales.
  3. Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black, Victoria.
  4. Rabbi Paul Jacobson, New South Wales.
  5. Rabbi Jacki Ninio, New South Wales.

Clergy & Equality Advocates find common ground on gay marriage | Australian Marriage Equality

Clergy & Equality Advocates find common ground on gay marriage | Australian Marriage Equality.

MEDIA RELEASE: Loree Rudd must apologise for ‘Gay Gestapo’ comment / Gay Holocaust victims outraged and horrified

AUSTRALIAN MARRIAGE EQUALITY

Media Release
Thursday July 14th 2011
 
LOREE RUDD MUST APOLOGISE FOR ‘GAY GESTAPO’ COMMENT
GAY HOLOCAUST VICTIMS OUTRAGED AND HORRIFIED
 
Australia’s marriage equality advocates have asked for an apology from Loree Rudd, sister for former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, following her statement that marriage equality is being pushed by “a global gay gestapo”.
 
Australian Marriage Equality National Convener, Alex Greenwich, said Ms Rudd’s statement has no place in mature public debate and will incite hatred against supporters of equality.
 
“We call on those who oppose equality to condemn Ms Rudd’s outburst, and for Ms Rudd herself to withdraw her comments and apologise for them”, Mr Greenwich said.
 
“Ms Rudd has set back her cause by comparing supporters of civil rights to an organisation that was responsible for mass murder, including the mass murder of homosexuals.” 
 
Loree Rudd’s comments were also criticised by gay Australians affected by the Holocaust.
 
Holocaust survivor, Mr Frederick Weisinger, who lives in Sydney and who wrote a moving submission supporting marriage equality to a 2009 Senate inquiry into the issue said:
 
“I spent three years in a concentration camp as a child, and I am horrified by this comparison between the Gestapo and ordinary citizens like me who just want to be treated equally.”
 
“Before she makes such offensive comments, Ms Rudd should read about the horrors perpetrated by the Gestapo, particularly how it hounded, persecuted and killed homosexuals in large numbers.”
 
Marriage equality advocate, Jackie Striker-Phelps, who is the wife of former AMA President, Kerryn Striker-Phelps, was also outraged.
 
“During the Second World War, members of my family had their human rights taken away and were murdered at the hands of the Gestapo”, she said 
 
“To compare the work of today’s human right’s advocates to the atrocities of those monsters is a shocking indictment on anyone making these claims.” 
 
 
“I call them (marriage equality advocates) the global gay Gestapo: it is the lobbying movement that is brainwashing people, particularly the young in the community that this (homosexuality) is an optional extra in life,” she said
 
Mr Greenwich added, “there is nothing ‘optional’ about being gay, it is who we are”.
 
For more information contact Alex Greenwich on 0421 316 335.
Frederick Weisinger or Jackie Stricker-Phelps can be contacted through Alex Greenwich.