You Know You’re in Newtown…
Jun 18th, 2008 by Ben
The first, front page article in the June edition of the South Sydney Herald:
Anti-homophobia rally closes Gloria Jeans
Despite the Rudd Government promising to remove all forms of anti-gay discrimination, about 100 people turned up for the International Day Against Homophobia rally in Newtown on Friday May 16.
The rally started outside Gloria Jeans, in response to the company’s support for Mercy Ministries which separates female couples and promotes male control of female bodies. Rather than engage with their critics, Gloria Jeans shut for the night, and activists wondered if they could chase it out of Newtown like they did McDonald’s.
Who runs this newspaper? A second year Arts student?
Amateur night.
Interestingly, it turns out that Dorothy McRae-McMahon is a co-editor.
The article also uses the acronym GLBTIQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual, Intersex/Intergender, and Queer/Questioning). Maybe I’m just a bigot, but that’s ridiculous. Someone should throw “Christian/Questioning” in there to see what happens.
In related news, I had a conversation with an obviously gay bloke at a shop in Newtown this arvo. For no real reason, he was talking about people he doesn’t like and he said he hates Christians. He told me he used to be Christian but he doesn’t like it when they try to tell you what’s right. He said he hates Bible bashers.
He then paused and told me “no offence” if I was Christian. I said I was and that I was used to it. He said, “Oh, gosh! Same with homos! Maybe we should team up or something!”
Awesome.
no offence ben… but i hate Christians too!
I am a Christian, but I’ll admit I dislike what some people who claim to be Christians do. They are right to protest against Gloria Jeans supporting abusive ‘treatment’ centres such as Mercy Ministries.
Hi Beth,
I know how you feel, I think. Christians do stupid and evil things sometimes, like everyone else.
All I know about Mercy Ministries is what I read in the SMH, which may or may not be true. It does sound like they did some unhelpful things though.
I guess I was really just pointing out how this ‘article’ in the newspaper uses phrases like, “promotes male control of female bodies”, which is really an editorial comment, an opinion, rather than ‘news’. And saying “Rather than engage with their critics, GJ shut for the night” is pretty unfair. They sell coffee - it’s not up to them to ‘engage’ with their critics at their coffee stores.
I certainly support people’s right to protest against what they think is unjust. I hope non-Christians afford Christians the same when something happens that we don’t agree with, rather than telling us to keep our faith out of politics.
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I don’t understand her use of the word “Despite”.
Wow! What was McDonalds’ policy on who should control female bodies? Couldn’t have been good otherwise they might still be in Newtown…