The Adventures of QueerPenguin

Mixed Blessings

Apologies for the delay in posting, I've been having a noice extended weekend in the Blue Mountains. I understand now why some gay men choose to live in Katoomba. Its main street and cafes are indeed colourful, gay and merry, especially the one I saw with the cute little rainbow flag in the corner.

Anyways, three days away from the world and lots of mini-developments.

The GOOD: The Gallop ALP government defies predictions to convincingly win the WA election, ensuring WA won't become the first place since Nicaragua to wind back rights for queers and same-sex couples.

Aussie version of Queer Eye axed after only 3 episodes. I already know I'm being a bit mean-spirited here but I can't help the giggles. This might - might - force Ten to stop treating its viewers with such contempt, whipping up a cheap rip-off of a barely credible product instead of giving us the quality original Aussie concepts we've come to know and love from the Tenster. You know. Like The Resort.


The BAD: J Ho ain't going anywhere.


The MAKES ME MAD AND HIT MY HEAD WITH MY HAND: Anne Summers exposes Pope Tony's machinations behind the abandoned son re-discovery. I'm quietly smug about my theory being right that Akerman's first-page "scoop" was in fact under order from Liberal HQ. For a brief moment I thought journalists were meant to be independent researchers focused on uncovering the truth, not political mouth-pieces kept in a wardrobe and brought out and dusted whenever the Libs need a fresh marketing angle on one of their new evil agendas. My mistake.

Finally, Fred Nile's got a bee in his bonnet about Steve Price and John Laws having to apologise for their on-air gay-bashing, pursuant to the "draconian" Homosexual Vilification Act. I'm not too sure which parts of "pillow-biter", "pompous little pansy", "piss off pansy" or "piss off poof" Fred finds "light-hearted", but I am sure Fred is smart enough to know that such phrases can indeed ignite the spark for bashers to take to the streets, just as they make it so much harder for younger queer people to come out and a little bit easier to think about suicide. Fred just wants to pretend that we should all have a good laugh about it, just as the poor "Baptists, Catholics, Pope and Irish people" have to put up with jokes about them. The main difference is that these days there are not increasing incidents of "Catholic-bashing" or "Irish-bashing". Maybe there was in Kings Cross circa 1894, but these days, Fred, it is the fags who get bashed because they hear what people like you, Laws and Price say. It's not a joke.

posted by Sam @ Monday, February 28, 2005