Bigot

Please help get science and reason in gossip mags. #equality #StopAVN

The ACL (Australian Christian Lobby) has recently started a campaign to get their followers and supporters to get Margaret Court nominated and voted in as a National Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia.  Women’s Day, one of the most popular gossip mags here in Australia, has a website with a short-list of 100 nominees where you can vote.

In an attempt to counter this, we’d like to try to get as many people as possible to vote instead for Professor Ian Frazer (#32 in the list), the inventor of the Gardasil vaccine.  Reasons why you should support him are given below the jump. Continue reading →

So much for “tradition”. #equality.

As of the 1st of February, the laws that restrict Australians from getting married overseas will be revoked.  These laws, introduced by lil johnny howard in 2004, not only made changes to the definition of marriage, specifically adding lines that would discriminate against homosexual, transgender, and nongendered people, but it also would not allow Certificate For Intent to be issues to GLBT Australians who were overseas.

The CFI is a sheet of paper that certifies that the person does not already have a legally recognised partner and is free to marry.  Since 2004, thanks to the changes added by phil ruddock and lil jonny howard, LGBT people cannot receive these.  Without these, they cannot marry.  Well, could not.  They will be able to once again after February 1st. Continue reading →

A quick thought on the #MTRsues case.

I was reading an article in The Age which states that Melinda Tankard Reist has threatened a libel lawsuit against a blogger, and one section of the article jumped out at me as being quite odd and, quite frankly, wrong.  Seeing as my comment was a bit more than I could fit on twitter (thought I can fit it on facebook), I’ve decided to write this very short blog article to put up my thoughts.

“While Tankard Reist has not gone so far as to issue court proceedings yet, she complains social media has intensified the level of vituperation against outspoken figures such as herself.

”Things have gone too far, people think they can just trash you,” she said yesterday. ”Why does being a blogger exempt you from the laws of defamation?”” Continue reading →

Blinkered views halting the equality.

I was on my way in to the office this morning when a friend of mine retweeted this from Mike Stuchbery. The article is from a Doctor in Toowoomba Queensland, and it’s his opinions of gay marriage. It sent me in to a rage, I responded but I’m not sure if any of my replies are going to be approved so I’ve decided to quote the article and my responses here as well. They’re short and designed to be comments on an article, so for the most part there’s no real references.

The article shows very clearly the blinkered views of life and reality that is stopping equality from happening. It is stopping people from seeing their own blindingly obvious bigotry and errors in ways of thinking. I know none of the people who need to read this will, which is a shame really. Continue reading →

Christians choosing hate over love.

Clover Moore has recently made changes to a same sex adoption bill that will allow religious adoption agencies to continue to discriminate against homosexual couples and refuse them service for no reason other than their sexuality.

At the moment in Australia, only the ACT and Western Australia allow same sex couples to adopt.  NSW is currently in the process of amending the state laws in an attempt to bring NSW in to that list as well.  Unfortunately, religious groups are showing their bigotry and “christian love” again in their forcing of certain exemptions as well as their opposition to the bill.  Continue reading →

Bigotry and homophobia in politics (@wendy4senate & @h2oaquarium). #ausvotes

I’ve made my position clear in the past where I stand on gay marriage and adoption, in that I’m in full support of both.  I’ve argued my view that the arguments against gay marriage are not about giving homosexual people special rights, but about removing special restrictions on them so they have the same rights.

In the last few days the twitter and blogosphere has gone crazy about some comments made by a Queensland Family First candidate, Wendy Francis on twitter and in her blog (both of which have now been removed as you can see from that story), but personally I feel those attacking her are attacking the wrong person. Continue reading →

Creationism to be taught in Queensland classrooms.

The thin edge of the wedge (the name of the strategy being actively used by the anti-reality, anti-science, and pro-creationism thinkignorancetank The Discovery Institute) has left its mark in the Queensland department of education.  Creationism has wormed its way in to Queensland classrooms.

On a positive note, the mythology of creationism hasn’t found its way in to science classes as it has in numerous states in America, but the fact it found its way in at all is still bad.  In Queensland it will be taught in History class under the subject of “controversial issues”. Continue reading →

ANZ Obstetricians to back female ritualistic mutilation.

This is just horrific.  The Royal Australian New Zealand College of Obstetricians is about to discuss backing the mutilation of women according to 2000 year old goat herder’s barbaric magical rituals.

Their “justification” for this (and I use the term lightly, there is no justification for such horrific non-consensual barbarism) is that it will minimise back-yard amateur illegal procedures which leaves girls scarred for life.

Not that this will be any better.  It’s a horrific thing to do to young girls.  It often leaves women without the ability to feel sexual pleasure and is just another way to demean and put them down further.  Along with the burka and other such bullshit this is just segregation and discrimination.  It’s bigoted sexism that should have been wiped out in the west decades ago, rather than being supported. Continue reading →

Wowzers trying to stop science again.

Earlier today I tweeted about a breakthrough by some Australian scientists after they created the first ever artificial life.  It’s the world’s first fully synthetic cell, controlled by man-made DNA.  But that’s not what this post is about.  No.  It only took a few hours, but the wowzers are already out in force trying to put a premature end to this breakthrough and once again slow down science.

The reasons they’re using to try and stop it are their completely unfounded fears, and completely fictitious invisible friends.  Continue reading →

SouthPark creators threatened for depicting bear suit.

(Note: Scroll down and read the update to this post after “Additional” to read about the episode 201 censorship / bleeping).

If I understand this story correctly, the creators of South Park, for episode 200, decided to include the Prophet Mohammed in the episode.  This was done, clearly, to take the piss out of all the fundamentalists who get so upset when ever he’s pictured.  Surely I don’t need to remind everyone of the Danish cartoon “scandal”?

To take the piss out of the censorship “required”, they have him covered throughout the entire episode.  First by a large “censored” sign, then in a U-Haul trailer, and finally a bear mascott costume.  So it’s not even him being depicted in South Park cartoon style, but actually just a word/trailer/bear costume they’ve labelled “Mohammed”.

The scary thing is, despite taking this extra step away from it actually being anything like Mohammed, some fundies have actually gotten upset.  What … the … fuck?  I mean, seriously? Continue reading →