I realise that there was an apparent omission from my earlier descriptions of LGBT fare at the latest Wellington International Film Festival, although I think this one is so fabulous that it deserves a seperate entry of its own, in any case. Warwick Broadhead is a performance artist, currently settled on Waiheke Island, and noted for his fabulous outfits, which are reminiscent of the late, lamented Derek Jarman’s costumed extravaganzas of gay historical fare. Anyway, his biopic, Rubbings From A Live Man,  is a must-see at this year’s film festival. It deals with the performer’s life and times- from fifties suburban ...

In Vancouver, the formerly scheduled closing date for Insite, that province’s safe and supervised injecting room facility, has come and gone, due to its life extension by Justice Ian Pitfield of the British Columbian Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the ideologically driven Canadian federal government isn’t taking no for an answer, and despite British Columbian police, Vancouver Downtown Eastside small business, and provincial political support, the Harper administration still intends to take the case to the British Columbian Court of Appeal, and then probably all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court, the court of highest jurisdiction in that country. It’s a war of ...

Hardly has the ink dried on the right-wing Iemma administration’s attack on human rights, civil liberties, free speech and meaningful religious freedom in the name of Catholic-dominated “World Youth Day” when some dissident Catholics have announced that they don’t like the overkill involved either. Moreover, it has emerged that the institutional church negotiated with the Iemma administration for this prize. They include Catholic lawyer Frank Brennan, who condemned the new police powers as ghastly interference with civil liberties and against church teachings on human rights. While the institutional church supports the actions of the Iemma ALP state government, Father Brennan cited ...

 Pagan Kennedy: The First Man-Made Man: New York: Bloomsbury: 2008. As I’ve earlier provided a capsule biography of Michael Dillon, the first recorded female to male transsexual, I thought I’d focus on some more particular details involved in this biography of the world’s first transman. Michael lived an austere professional life, whether as a mechanic, or after he’d gone to Trinity College, and qualified as a doctor. When it came to relationships with others, it never got beyond dancing due to the painful skin grafts from his legs that were neccessary to create male genitalia. This may have served as an insurmountable obstacle ...

David Herkt and I have had one of our periodic spats between creative genius and technocrat about Chris Brickell’s landmark Mates and Lovers. Due to the significance of Chris’ book, I thought I’d take a more scholarly perspective in this second review of his work, given space and time availability in this format. How does Chris’ work compare to other national LGBT histories? As Chris himself has noted, once he started digging, he was deluged with intimate remembrances, ambiguous photographs and the minutae of court cases and medical journal reports and records. He was treading a well-worn path in terms of internation ...

In response to the New South Wales Iemma administration’s attack on civil liberties, human rights and free speech in the context of Catholic World Youth Day, potential protagonists remain defiant. Predictably, the Chaser boys remain their usual irreverent and rowdy selves, and their spokesperson, Julian Morrow, agreed with those who wanted the legislation repealed, and urged civil disobedience as a consquence. New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione defended the extra police powers granted, saying that they were neccessary to control events on the same scale as large sports and entertainment events, and that such conduct wouldn’t be tolerated at an AFL ...

In New South Wales, the ALP State Government has just engaged in an unprecedented attack on human rights, civil liberties and free speech. Why? Is it an international terrorist threat against a sensitive international target? Well, no. It’s July’s Catholic World Youth Day, due to be held in Sydney soon. Sometimes, I wonder if LGBT New Zealanders don’t have an overly romanticised view of our continental neighbour. True, Mardi Gras is a fabulous party, and Melbourne’s DNA is a highly informative and readable magazine. However, in terms of actual legislative progress, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory all have ...

May 15, Year of Our Lord 2196: Saint: Anthony Dahl Personal Log: At long last, our Theocracy of Redeemed America starship  Crusader is drawing closer to our new home, which Saint: Doctor Carlos has christened Oceania. Its primary, AUCHE- 03116BV, is almost an exact duplicate of our own Sun, and Oceania itself has landmasses in roughly the same configuration as the Damned Earth itself, which we left when our Hallowed Theocracy was overthrown almost two centuries ago. [There are things that I don’t dare write in the log. Bram. It’s forbidden even to speak his name. He was my lover before Prophet Avram ...

 Paisley Currah, Richard Juang and Shannon Price Minter (ed) Transgender Rights: Minneapolis: University of Minnesota: 2006. Most lesbian, gay and bisexual New Zealanders would agree with me that transgendered/fa’afafine/whakawahine folk have made notable contributions to our communities, and that they are integral elements of the diverse rainbow of our numbers. For example, Express’ commendably broad coverage of Agender’s latest conference in its latest issue is one such case in point. New Zealand can be proud that we are a trendsetter when it comes to transgender rights, such as recognising gender identity status as a continuum, or reading gender identity into gender when ...

Serendipitously, Australia and New Zealand both have news items related to different sides of the faith/state separation barrier. Let’s begin with the good news. Graham Capill isn’t going to be paroled. According to the Fairfax Stuff website portal, the Parole Board is unconvinced that he’s not still a risk to children. The article recounted the story of his conviction and nine year prison sentence for rape of three female children during his time as Christian Heritage Party leader. Those victims understandably thought that he might still present such a risk, and it is good to see that their input was treated ...

In Gay Times (UK) (May 2008), there are a couple of fascinating pieces on same-sex parenting in the United Kingdom, which deals with what will probably happen when our own Parliament eventually gets around to amending our Adoption Act 1955. In some areas, New Zealand is ahead of the United Kingdom. While I understood that lesbians were able to access private fertility services to have their own children in the United Kingdom, apparently this didn’t apply to the state-run National Health Service. As for New Zealand, fertility services are regulated by the Human Rights Act 1993 in New Zealand, which forbids ...

Thanks to a copy of the 37th Wellington International Film Festival programme, I can report that there are two excellent gay-themed documentaries available on two pioneering gay male figures in the creative arts screening this year. Celebrated Black British independent film-maker Isaac Julien has produced Derek, a beautiful and lyrical homage to the late Derek Jarman, who died from AIDS in 1994. This retrospective tribute celebrates his life through incorporating an interview, several extracts from his films, and the inimitable Tilda Swinton reminisces about her role as the muse to the pioneering British independent gay filmmaker as well as noting the ...

I’ve often felt slightly queasy about the Christian Right’s apparent obsession with reddening rearends for righteousness, and found a rather nauseating little subculture. It’s all about “Traditional Christian Marriage,” or so say its practitioners.  Look, while I find their polarised gender role-playing to be rather quaint, this is going too far. This, from one of their websites:  What is Christian Domestic Discipline?A domestic discipline marriage is one in which one partner in the marriage is given authority over the other and has the means to back the authority, usually by spanking.[Oh, I am surprised- C].A Christian Domestic Discipline marriage is one that ...

Who is that Masked Pope? No, not Joe Ratzinger aka Benedict XVI- I’m talking about the far more faaaaaaaabulous Pope Alice, a performance pontiff who landed on our planet several millenia ago, and will pope up at the forthcoming No to the Pope Coalition demo against her antithesis in Sydney during World Youth Day. Pope Alice says that she arrived on Earth from Metalluna, which I always thought was the name of a wartorn planet which exploded after a savage interplanetary war in This Island Earth, a fifties SF movie classic.  Be that as it may, the alien papess fell through ...

It seems to be the season for boundary testing across the Tasman, given the recent request from an Australian Muslim leader that Australia should contemplate legalisation of polygamous heterosexual marriages. In Sydney’s Lakemba suburb, Sheikh Khalil Chami of the Islamic Welfare Centre clarified that while he didn’t perform polygamous marriages himself, he knew other Australian immigrant sheikhs who did preside over such ceremonies, illegal though they are under Australian law. The Islamic Friendship Association agreed, although it should be noted that additional marriages are usually arranged by the husband, although he must ask the permission of his first wife, who usually ...

Courtesy of the GayTas website, I’ve now obtained a copy of the legal opinion that Tasmania may be able to legislate for same-sex marriage on its own- that is, if the ALP state government decides to let the Tasmanian Greens bill on the subject through the legislative process. The proposed bill provides a procedure whereby two women or two men, both legal adults (18), can enter into civil marriage, and establishes procedures for authorised celebrants and registration rather like civil unions and registered partnerships already do in New Zealand, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.  Make no mistake, this is a ...

From the United Kingdom comes news that conservative Catholic Labour MPs are not happy about the way that their opinions were summarily dealt with, inside the Brown administration. “Anti-Catholicism” is the accusation, but is it valid? Apparently, these conservative Catholic Labour MPs are up in arms about the ‘coercion’ of Catholic adoption agencies to assist prospective lesbian and gay adoptive parents, as well as the fact that most of their colleagues voted for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. They darkly warn that this may antagonise the “Catholic vote.” However, is there such a beast? According to some liberal and leftist ...