Ever wondered what life would be like if we were the dominant sexual orientation, not straights? Welcome to Earth Q, an alternate Earth to our own… ________________________________________________________________ Selenegrad Log: Commander Alicia Megaerastides, Verda 42, 513 Anno Matria: I was nauseated to see that excesence on the wall, and it didn’t take much searching on the camcord to see who was responsible. Sarjeant Maria Vasceles, as I thought. Right, she’s pulled her last Ortho stunt on this watch. I’m putting her in for a transfer. I took it down, of course. Hey, I’m no bigot, even if the insubordinate little holyjane will probably call me ...

What do the late lamented McGillicuddy Serious Party, the Jedi “faith”, Ceiling Cat and the Flying Spaghetti Monster have in common with one another, and what on earth do they have to do with LGBT rights? The above are all religious and political jokes, or in the case of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, thought experiments. The Jedis don’t really believe in the Force, except as a central plot element in the Star Wars fictional hexology, of which they are devout fanboys. The McGillicuddies stopped purportedly believing in the reincarnation of Bonnie Prince Geoffie in 2000, when they wound up. As for the Flying ...

After California’s welcome verdict in favour of same-sex marriage in that state, what happens now? The US Christian Right isn’t sure what to do. If it merely uses the citizens initiated referendum “bigot’s charter” again, and churns out yet another anti-SSM citizens referendum result, then it risks having that invalidated within the Californian Supreme Court, as happened with its predecessors. On the other hand, they could appeal to the US Supreme Court, which could either refuse to hear it, or strike it down, invalidating the lower court’s decision. However, there’s a fish hook in that particular strategy- what if there’s a ...

On May 15, 2008, California became the second US state (after Massachuesetts, 2004) to have its State Supreme Court strike down legislative and ‘citizens’ referendum barriers against same-sex marriage. In In RE Marriage Cases [2008],  the Supreme Court of California revisited its own earlier decision in  Lockyer versus City and County of San Francisco. Then, it had decided to freeze further San Fransisco recognise of same sex marriage licenses until the Supreme Court could determine the constitutionality of same-sex marriages in that particular state. Significantly for critics of the incremental approach to same-sex marriage which advocates that one should first insure that ...

As previously mentioned, Canada’s HIV/AIDS community welfare organisations are getting angry about the levels of public health cuts directed at prevention and support activities in their country. I also mentioned a new initiative entitled Increase AIDS Funding Canada, so here’s a peek at their activities. Now, surely it would stand to reason for any health economist that preventative funding is important in the context of HIV/AIDS through simply doing a cost/benefit analysis. In return for spending money on condoms and health promotion initiatives, the state is spared the consequent expense of paying for staff time, imported medication needs, medical equipment wear ...

In Australia, there’s a massive conservative Catholic frenzy going on over something called “World Youth Day.” Given New Zealand’s weak conservative Catholic influences, there hasn’t been as much hype here. World Youth Day was the creation of the late Pope John Paul II, and started in 1984. According to Wikipedia, the get-togethers have a fairly elastic definition of ‘youth’, involving younger conservative Catholics, parents, grandparents and priests, who talk to each other about Catholicism and doctrinal expectations of what it takes to be a “good” conservative Catholic, presumably not having sex, not using contraception if one does have sex, not having ...

 If Canada’s federal Tories and its social conservatives expected Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s threat to call a general election on the issue of the Income Tax Amendment Bill/Bill C-10 would silence its multiplying critics over the increasingly contentious federal tax credit withdrawal to media projects considered ‘against’ public policy, such hope was again proven forelorn this week. At the same time, a political opinion poll noted that there was once more a sharp reduction in Harper Tory leadership, and the Liberal Opposition only trails them by three points. It is by no means certain that the Harper Tories could win any ...

 Canada’s Liberals appear to have some high-calibre figures waiting in the wings during their period in the Opposition wilderness.  One such figure is former Junior Health Minister Carolyn Bennett, who has done excellent public health work in the past, and has been a supportive ally of Canada’s LGBT communities within her party. In a recent issue of Xtra, she’s quite scathing about the Harper federal Tories and their attacks on HIV/AIDS funding, although she also admits that the Liberals could have done better during Chretien and Martin’s terms as Prime Minister through the eighties and nineties. Given that Canada still experiences ...

Welcome to a quirky little tale that I dreamt up to background a rather striking faux movie review in IPC’s adult SF comic series Crisis, involving two battling red and black clad nuns, scalpels and mayhem. Enjoy… _______________________________________________________________ In the Belgian convent, Sister Gertrude yelled obscenities at the new management of her institution, where she alone had been hidden away, while all the other inmates over the years had either died from ‘medical mishaps’ or had been lobotomised, or finally released onto a reluctant world. In her constraints, he writhed as Dr Xuberon loaded his hypodermic.  In the background, Pope Sixtus VI looked ...

When it comes to empowering the developmentally disabled, one would think that organisations should put the welfare of their charges first, above sectarian employment preferences. Surely, in such circumstances, organisations should select and maintain employment on the basis of merit and carer qualifications. In the case of Canada’s evangelical/fundamentalist developmental disability carer’s group “Christian” Horizons, apparently not. Connie Heintz became an employee of Christian Horizons in 1995, before she came out in 2000. As this was in violation of a so-called morality and lifestyle contract, she was sacked in 2001. The Ontario Human Rights Commission found that Heintz was entitled to redress as ...

From the Kapiti Christian Centre, John Mills of Paekakariki was elected as president of the Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc, (SPCS). at its AGM (April 21). Mr Mills believes that “corruption in high places” is related to decriminalisation of sex work, family fragmentation and violence against women, drugs, “addiction to erotic media”, paedophilia, and other “vices”. Goodness- whatever happened to abortion and homosexuality?!! SPCS would still engage in “research and public education in many areas related to the promotion of community standards.”  He added that he also wanted the society “to continue to make the public aware that there were processes by which concerned ...

 Richard Green and K.Silem Mohammed (ed) The Undead and Philosophy: Chicken Soup for the Soulless:  Chicago: Open Court Press: 2006. How does the sudden emergence of gay zombies segue into general discussions about the undead in question? I pondered this as I perused this handy volume on the aforesaid fictional beasties. Insofar as ‘gay’ zombies are concerned, there is one major objection. By definition, zombies are homicidal nonsentient animated cannibalistic corpses, whose primary attribute is the consumption of human flesh for nutritional purposes. Even if that obstacle were overcome, things could get messy if the gay zombie simultaneously pursued dindins and sex ...

In a recent New Statesman, Brendan O’Neill discusses the worrying re-emergence of the neofascist British National Party in English politics, capped by Richard Barnbrook’s election victory. Once again, Barnbrook has changed his tune on LGBT politics incidentally. Now, he doesn’t disavow his past at the Royal Academy of the Arts and time spent alongside the late Derek Jarman and Tilda Swinton. However, he does dump heavily on Southwest Asian and African Muslim immigrants, accusing them of overloading housing, transportation, public health, education and the environment, as well as adverse contributions to criminal justice statistics. After thirteen years since its first local councillor ...

Welcome back to the near-future world of Decima, where the ‘gay gene’ has confered immunity to a devastating global pandemic that killed all of Earth’s heterosexual population… ————————————————————————————— It’s been three months since my world changed forever.  I sit here, looking at the trio of white pills within my dish, wondering what I should do next. Before the Decima Plague, life was easier, or so I kept telling myself. It got much easier when the Goff administration passed the last remaining obstacles to full gay equality, and most of the evangelical and Pentecostal churches finally recognised that was a lost cause. It meant I ...

Roger Payne is a name unknown to most New Zealanders outside Christchurch, the Christian Right or the National Opposition. However, this gentleman has caused recurrent headaches to the Opposition party hierarchy and Banks Peninsula electorate committees. Why has Payne caused so much pain for the Opposition? For several years, he pursued prolonged but futile litigation against his ex-wife, over the division and sale of the former family home in Karori, where he had been a MAF economist. Ultimately, the property was sold, and Payne was evicted. By then, he had relocated southward to Banks Peninsula, and stood unsuccessfully against erratic National ...

As regular readers of my Gaynz.Com Politics and Religion column and this blog are aware, I am opposed to any legal recognition of polygamy, given the abusive schismatic Mormonoids in British Columbia, Columbia and Arizona and their sexual abuse of female children as ‘plural wives.’ However, I have also often remarked that there should be one exception to that general rule, which is related to humanitarian refugee and asylum seeker considerations. When a refugee/asylum seeker, polygamous wives and children show up, humanitarian considerations must trump social norms related to spousal propriety. In Denmark, one such case has arisen. There is considerable controversy ...

Welcome back to the continuing saga of  Canada’s Income Tax Amendment Bill, otherwise known as Bill C-10. When we last left the True North, its federal Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, had threatened to call a snap election if the Senate Banking Committee didn’t return an intact C-10 to the House of Commons, declaring it a confidenece issue. Remember, the sticking point is a troublesome film and television tax credit provision clause which would be denied to offending film and television productions “against public policy” when it came to contravention of the Canadian Criminal Code, and ‘gratuitous’ erotic and violent imagery within ...

The “straight” lifestyle is exposed at last in a horrifyingly revealing publication from the good folks at Box Turtle Bulletin, with no holds barred!!! Heterosexuals are highly promiscuous, often engaging in numerous episodes of ’straight’ sex before they participate in strange rituals associated with highly polarised role playing activity.  Often, this involves the use of special clothing, which would qualify as fetish gear. Nearly one quarter of ’straight’ men have had more than twenty five partners!!! Nearly forty percent of ’straight’ men and one third of ’straight’ women engage in spanking and bondage activities, which indicates the spread of SM activity ...

After I’d penned a recent article on why New Zealand should repeal our own Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993, someone pointed out an article in the latest Economist magazine to me, cited at the end of this blog. But does it actually result in meaningful change? The article cites the impending closure of Berlin’s iconic Tempelhof airport, which had been opposed by preservationist groups who appealed to Berliners sense of history, given its role in ensuring the city’s survival during the Berlin airlift of 1948-49 after East German/Soviet encirclement.  Unfortunately, the initiative required one quarter of Berlin’s registered voters to succeed, and ...

According to this morning’s news, Tauranga National MP Bob Clarkson has announced his retirement from politics, again, at the next general election- which leaves that marginal electorate potentially recoupable by Winston Peters as a bolthole for New Zealand First, who previously held the seat for twelve years before he lost it to Clarkson at the last general election in 2005. Clarkson (68) said he was out of his comfort zone, and now realised Parliament was for more scholarly types than he was. He wanted to make way for a younger candidate, and Opposition Leader John Key said that a replacement candidate would ...