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 ...

A test [flash] on a commercial site promoting a sexual lubricant, but hey, it's one that had me on the floor laughing. I wished the passport control customs officer was like her instead of the tin pot Napoleon I encountered on my last visit to Britain.I'm apparently 86% French in bed: "For you, love making is a performance art. A form of highbrow expression every bit as rich, complex and meaningful as cinema, literature or ballet."Not a bad assessment, methinks.Oh, and play it a few times, the questions vary. ...

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 ...

I was getting a little morose, thinking after a dream Summer and Autumn, concert season had dried up.  I feared all that would be on offer over winter would be the likes of Westlife, Panic at The Disco (now apparently without an exclamation mark, which doesn’t help anything) or even, God forbid, the freaking Ten Tenors (isn’t one enough!?) Anyway, thanks to the awesomeness of Cheese on Toast and their pre-sale, I have two shiny tickets to see The Breeders in a courier bag on the way to my house.  The Breeders feature Kim Deal, formerly of the Pixies, who is perhaps one of ...

From the Sydney Morning Herald (via DubDotDash): "Scruffy New Zealander Jemaine Clement from the folk-parody group Flight Of The Conchords was approached by a girl at a party in Scotland, who invited him to a spit roast. She wanted to know if Bret McKenzie, his band mate, would also attend.Thinking she was referring to a barbecue, Jemaine said yes. Hey, they both liked meat. "She said, 'I wouldn't usually ask. I'm a lesbian,' and I thought, 'Why would that stop you asking for a barbecue?"' Soon after, Clement discovered a spit-roast was British slang for a threesome and ...

Here we are again for the 2008 edition of Rural Bachelor of the Year at the Hamilton Fieldays. I forgot it was on last year, but you can see the 2006 entries here.In 2007 the winner was a farm manager called Paul Slater (pictured), looking quite dishy.You don't have to be straight to enter, but I guess it helps. As long as you take me with you on the trip to the Cook Islands when you win. You can keep your chainsaw prize.Entries for this year close on 16 May. Entry form here. ...

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 ...

You may remember last year's screening of 9 Songs, which I blogged about. Now the NZ Broadcast Standards Authority has upheld a viewer complaint against the film - for not having sufficient warnings about its content beforehand. Not because it had bad sex, bad tits or bad music in it, mind you!From a professional point of view, I was intrigued to read in the BSA decision that the defendant was TelstraClear, the cable operator, and not the Rialto Channel, the actual broadcaster. Does this mean broadcast platforms will now be liable for content rather than the actual television ...

Here’s a question for you: Do all immigrants to New Zealand, or any country, share the same issues? I mean, do a multi-millionaire French immigrant and his American wife settling in Marlborough and running a vineyard have that much in common with an IT peon from Shanghai in Wellington? How much does either one share with a Samoan wife joining her husband and his family here in South Auckland? They all have to adjust, they all come from somewhere else, they’ll all feel a bit different here, for a while at least, but their social and material conditions are vastly ...

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 ...