QBits

Controversial safe sex campaign returns in Queensland

A safe sex campaign that was pulled down after complaints from Christians and then reinstated will return in the Australian state of Queensland from this month

12 August 2012| By Andrew Potts

A controversial safe-sex campaign targeting gay men has returned in the Australian state of Queensland a year after it was removed from billboards and bus shelters following an orchestrated campaign against it by Christian activists.

The Rip & Roll campaign resulted in 222 complaints, making it the most complained about advertisement in Australia in 2011, after the far-right Australian Christian Lobby urged its members to complain about it.

Advertising company Adshel initially removed the campaign’s posters, which showed two clothed men embracing and a condom packet, from billboards and bus shelters but reinstated them after a public backlash in support of the campaign, with 90,000 people joining a Facebook page in support of the campaign.

‘Healthy Communities is proud to continue a 28 year tradition of promoting safe sex and condom use among gay men, our target population, based on peer education and a sex positive approach,’ Queensland Association for Healthy Communities executive director Paul Martin said.

‘Campaigns that promote fear, guilt or blame only serve to turn gay men off safe sex messages, while campaigns that validate the lives of gay men and allow them to enjoy sex, safely, are the most effective.’

Posters for the campaign will appear in 35 bus shelters around inner-city Brisbane from August 12 and on billboards in Surfers Paradise, Townsville, Cairns, Capalaba and Albion.

Healthy Communities expects more complaints from the Australian Christian Lobby but is confident the campaign can go ahead following a ruling by the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau in support of last year’s campaign.

‘The Board is strongly in favor of the important health message this advertisement portrays and considered that whilst some members of the community would prefer not to see this issue advertised, the public health message overrides any social sensitivity,’ the Bureau found.

‘The Board noted that the advertisement does not contain any nudity and considered that the image of the two men hugging was not sexualized and that the advertisement is very subtle in its handling of the issue of safe sex. The Board considered that the overall tone of the advertisement is clearly that of a medical issue and not of a sexual issue.’

Healthy Communities is Queensland’s only LGBT community health organization and is going forward with the campaign despite being stripped of $2.5 million in funding from the new conservative Queensland state government.

The organization is seeking other sources of fundraising but has already had to make a number of staff redundant.

Queensland ‘downgrades’ civil partnerships and will ban gay surrogacy

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by Stephen Gray
22 June 2012, 10:38am

Queensland’s parliament approved the amendments to the Civil Partnerships Act last night (Photo: Sardaka)

The Australian state of Queensland will remove gay couples’ ability to have children through surrogacy and downgrade civil partnerships to the class of ‘registered relationships’, after a debate in Parliament last night.

The Legislative Assembly in Brisbane agreed to extensively alter the provisions of the Civil Partnerships Act 2011, which came into force in February this year after control of the house swung to the right.

The system, introduced in the final months of the last state government, will be renamed and the option of an official ceremony revoked so it bears less resemblance to marriage.

The conservative Liberal National Party took control of the Parliament from the Labor Party in March in the worst election result for a sitting government in Queensland history.

Leader Campbell Newman had said shortly before the March election his party would “not be making any changes” to the surrogacy law. The Surrogacy Act 2010 allows gay couples, single people and new de-facto couples to have children, so long as a surrogate is not paid.

But Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie announced last night that single people and gay couples will no longer be able to have children through a surrogate when the LNP repeals those sections of the Act.

When asked why people were not told about this move before the election, Mr Newman told the Brisbane Times despite his statement to the contrary, it had always been a party policy commitment and added: “No one asked.”

Mr Newman said the move by the party, which now controls 78 of the 89 seats in Parliament, to heavily amend the civil partnerships system actually showed it was “prepared to reach a sensible compromise that retains rights”.

The Act delivered many of the same rights and obligations as marriage to gay couples, except adoption rights, and was unanimously opposed by the now-ruling Liberal National Party.

Katter’s Australian Party held its two seats in the March election, which it had gained by defections from the LNP.

The smaller party had wanted to ban gay couples from any form of registered relationship last night, a move Mr Newman said “would cause pain and suffering” and “a lot of trauma to many innocent people” who had entered into civil partnerships.

Australian Marriage Equality Convener Alex Greenwich said: “Same-sex couples throughout Queensland will be deeply insulted by the fact that yet again their relationships have been downgraded and demeaned by their own government.”

Civil union history in Queensland

Sixteen gay and lesbian couples make history with first civil unions in Queensland, Australia

26 February 2012 | By Jack Arthur Smith

Last Friday marked the first civil unions between same-sex couples in Queensland history after sixteen gay and lesbian partners tied the knot to the cheers and congratulations of friends, family and members of the public.

Flanked by supporters, each couple lined up outside the Office of Births, Deaths and Marriages to officially have their relationship legally recognised. One particularly eager couple arrived at 5am.

According to reports, as each pair left the office with their certificate, they were met with tears of joy from their loved ones and even onlookers and office workers from the surrounding buildings expressed their support through cheers and applause.

One gay couple, Dave Mildren and Collin Dubery, who have been together for 21 years, expressed their delight that they could finally prove and justify their relationship in a legal and official sense.

Talking to press, the couple explained how “it’s a vindication of the way the rest of the country views us. It’s wonderful to have a legal recognition of our relationship, the reason being that for the first time we are confident that we don’t have to prove our relationship.

“Our neighbours recognise our relationship, our siblings recognise our relationship, our friends recognise our relationship, our parents recognise it, and now finally the State will recognise it too.”

On hand to witness the joyful time was Brisbane MP Grace Grace, a key figure in the push for civil unions in the state, who congratulated the couples on their special day:

“Being here with the first couple to register for their ceremony and to see how happy they are, you just know that this was the right legislation and it’s an historic day for Queensland.”

Queensland changes ‘gay panic’ law

Legal loophole citing homosexual advance as a defence of murder will be changed

25 January 2012 | By Anna Leach

Father Paul Kelly of St Mary's Church, Maryborough, Queensland

A legal loophole that made ‘he was coming on to me’ a legitimate defence of murder, is being changed in the state of Queensland, Australia in a response to a petition with 25,000 signatures.

The Queensland government announced that they would change the state’s criminal code to remove doubts about how and when defence involving a sexual advance can be used, following the decision by a committee set up to consider the matter.

At the end of December catholic priest Father Paul Kelly started the petition after a murder on his church’s grounds. His petition received a huge boost in signatures after being retweeted by Stephen Fry.

Father Kelly told Gay Star News he was ‘cautiously happy’ but still had concerns, believing the law may need ‘more safeguards’. The committee’s report has not been released so Father Kelly said he was unclear what the decision and recommendations are.

Father Kelly said it was ‘a victory for common sense’ but is worried the announcement is only ‘a partial solution’. He is concerned that this defence could still be raised to a jury, which could tap into prejudices. ‘The issue is still alive and pressing,’ he said.

With the announcement of the change in law Queensland Attorney General Paul Lucas said: ‘We made it crystal clear from day one that the Queensland Government does not believe that anyone should be able to use a claim of non-violent homosexual advance to reduce a conviction from murder to manslaughter.’

‘The committee has completed its review and based on the recommendations of legal expert and retired Court of Appeal Judge John Jerrard, we will be amending to law to ensure the intent of the partial defence provisions are clear.’

Lucas said the committee was not unanimous but the ultimate recommendation was for a change in the law. Following the announcement, Father Kelly sent a letter to the Attorney General raising his concerns and asking them to release the committee’s report.