Tag: GLBTIQ

Dr Adiva Sifris on Marriage Equality (Melb, Sat July 30, 2011)

Shira Melbourne

Communal lunch and guest speaker
” Marriage Equality”

Shira would like to invite you to a Communal Kiddush Lunch on July 30th, after our shul service (around 12pm) where we will hear from Dr Adiva Sifris, a senior lecturer at Monash University Law School. Dr Sifris is recognised as an expert in the area of Family Law, with a particular interest in same-sex parenting.  She recently co-edited a collection of essays entitled Current Trends in the Regulation of Same-Sex Relationships.

The talk aims to discuss some of the issues, and is particularly topical in light of the recent legalisation of same sex marriages in New York City. Shira would like this to be a completely inclusive event, where people from all walks of life are made welcome and feel comfortable.

Join us for the Shul Service, followed by lunch and the engaging talk.

TOPIC: “Marriage, shmarriage, and same sex-relationships”
WHAT: Lunch – traditional shabbat food – chulent, fish, sushi, veggie wraps, lots of salads and yummy desserts
WHERE:  222 Balaclava Road, Caulfield North (the Theodore Herzl Club)
WHEN:  Shabbat (Saturday) July 30th, approximately midday 12pm.
COST:  Adults $20, kids $10

Bookings are required for this event. Please book using paypal or a credit card on our website here. Alternatively payment can be made via direct transfer to the Shira bank account:

SHIRA HADASHA MELBOURNE
BSB: 013 445
ACCOUNT NUMBER  4978 30199

For any enquiries, please email carmella@shira.org.au
Thank you all, and we look forward to seeing you on July 30th!

Rudd’s sister: I will not apologise | Sunshine Coast Daily

Rudd’s sister: I will not apologise

16th July 2011

KEVIN Rudd’s sister has refused to apologise for describing a movement promoting same-sex marriage as a “global gay Gestapo”.

Loree Rudd, a divorced 60-year-old nurse who lives at Nambour, said she expected people would be offended by her opposition to gay marriage.

Homosexual lobby groups and the Anti-Defamation Commission have called for the Foreign Minister’s sister to apologise for her “anti-gay remark”.

“Some of the vitriol that was aimed at my comments was exactly what I was talking about,” Ms Rudd said.

“A lot of people, in fact thousands of people, who live very quietly are probably happy to have a discussion about issues like this (gay marriage).

“But why would they, because they get shot down in flames and called all kinds of dreadful names because they gave their opinion.

“That has been the trend … people back down and say not only that they retract their words but that they actually endorse the movement.

“That was the force of the intimidation I saw.

“That’s why I use the word Gestapo … (to describe) a force that intimidates and that people are afraid to stand up against.”

Ms Rudd spoke publicly this week against gay marriage and said she would quit Labor if it backed reform to marriage laws at the party’s national conference later this year.

She said her views were “very much based on a biblical tradition and a respect for the values and the institution that has served us well for so many years”.

Ms Rudd said her opinions had not been endorsed or opposed by her brother.

Four state ALP conferences have endorsed changes to legalise same-sex marriage.

NSW Labor last week refused to back the proposal and referred the issue to the national conference.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Ms Rudd’s brother have both said they did not support plans to change the marriage act.

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.

A Video Message to the Ultra-Orthodox: ‘It Gets Besser’ – The Shmooze – Forward.com

A Video Message to the Ultra-Orthodox: ‘It Gets Besser’ – The Shmooze – Forward.com.

Time to stop the in-fighting | AJN Letters

8 Jul 2011
The Australian Jewish News Melbourne edition

Time to stop the in-fighting

JUDAISM on gay marriage – yes or no – can wait; I’m fascinated with Peter Cohen’s implicit support for all things natural – “Could God be behind such a cruel joke?” ( AJN 24/06).

Science also points to genes that naturally predispose humans to anger or violence. If proven, the implications are many. Yet, since when does humankind decide right and wrong based on what the penguin fraternity are up to? Are we merely animals or something more?

As for his swipe at Orthodoxy, and praise for Progressives – let’s for a moment drop the term thrust upon traditional Jews by Reform 250 years ago to make everyone else look irredeemably anachronistic. Judaism was inherently progressive, inclusive, innovative and societally savvy. Just that we’ve seen less and less of this Judaism for oh – about 300 years (except, curiously, in the Sephardi world). What Judaism has neglected to explain is that Jewish laws are like formulae: the inputs to variables change with the times; only the formulae are rigid.

As Judaism gradually stops Woody Allening over slippery slopes and competing movements, we will again occupy ourselves as to how to keep members of the community “in”, rather than “bad” people “out” – and words like Orthodox and Progressive can all safely go the way of the dodo.

MICHAEL SASSOON
Bondi, NSW

With Passage of N.Y. Bill, Conservative Rabbis Are Pressed To Clarify Position on Gay Marriage – Forward.com

With Passage of N.Y. Bill, Conservative Rabbis Are Pressed To Clarify Position on Gay Marriage – Forward.com.