elfinblaze

- When I was in high school, Brian Greig was the only openly gay politician I knew of. Today he's writing in The Guardian, reflecting on those times, and how little has changed:
History teaches us that wishing gay rights issues would just go away always backfires, and suppressing this issue will only serve to make it a key focus in the election.

- I love this article: Superman and the Damage Done.
Grace is a word that I have used a number of times here, and I have meant that in multiple ways, both as a description of physical movement and as a way of behaving. Superman can be firm, but is always polite, and he does not hold his powers as a cudgel above others... unless it's Zack Snyder's Superman.

Now I'm thinking of the DC trinity in spiritual terms. If Superman is grace, Batman is sacrifice, and Wonder Woman is mercy. At least, that's how I think of them.

I'm pretending the current cinematic "Znyder-verse" doesn't exist, LA LA LA!

- This is so cool: Altas of the DC Comics Universe.

- Of all the comic book TV shows I do watch, I wasn't going to catch Lucifer because it sounded boring. Then I saw the trailer. It looks fun. And ridiculous. Thus fun. The fact that it's pissing off conservative Christians is an even better reason for me to check it out. Maybe at a fitting time like Christmas. [/bitter lapsed Catholic]

- I have not, however, seen Constantine, mainly because FUCKING GOYER!!

- From Bill Shorten's speech:
The Labor leader also argues that legalising same sex marriage sends a message of inclusion to younger Australians. “We are proud of you, for who you are. You belong.”
Everyone needs to hear that, not just young people. Thank you, Bill Shorten.
(The pictures I re-posted to my tumblr will tell you exactly what the government thinks of this bill.)

- But I completely agree with this too:
Parliament passed the Same‑Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws—General Law Reform) Act 2008... that gave same-sex couples the same legal status as straight de facto couples... It could just as easily have been 'An Act to get those rowdy gays off our backs without us actually having to legislate for marriage equality...'. Of course it was still a huge achievement, but as is typical for Australia on these matters it was the kind of victory that left a lot of people tapping their watches and going 'yeah, well, about time, isn't it' rather than leaping into the air in celebration.

That's the thing about all these announcements of support and progress from politicians. They never leave me wanting to shout for joy. I only ever want to roll my eyes and go, "yeah, I'll believe it when I see it", or "well, that was half a step forward." No jubilation. Just a vague sort of despair tinging everything.

If you've been keeping up with the debates about the Sochi games, you might have heard the current Olympics being compared to the Olympics in Berlin, Germany, in 1936, when the Nazi party had already instituted laws hostile to a minority of people. At the time the Olympic Committee decided that they had too much money on the line to consider a minority of people a significant factor in moving or cancelling the games. If you've been reading the news, I'm sure you've seen people bring up the comparison now, and I'm sure you've seen people argue that it's a comparison that's inappropriate and over the top and Nazi analogies are never appropriate, etc.

I'm not Jewish, but I am German and I am queer, and from this perspective I can see both sides of the argument. I go back and forth on whether it's an appropriate analogy to make. The discussion in my head goes something like this:

- Yes, it's an appropriate analogy to make because the state has sanctioned the targeted imprisonment of minority populations in both cases.

- No, it's not an appropriate analogy to make because Russia doesn't have concentration camps that exterminate huge numbers of people (as far as we know).

- But in 1936 there were no exterminations yet either, those only started after Crystal Night in 1938, institutionalised when WWII began in 1939 and the camps got too crowded. And Russia does have hard labour prisons akin to the "work camps" of Nazi Germany before WWII. Just look at what the members of Pussy Riot endured. So the imprisonment aspect is still applicable.

- But you're not Jewish, so it's not your horror to claim.

- No, but gay people were killed by the Nazis too (among many other groups), and they are important too.

- But Nazi analogies just make you look hysterical.

- Is it hysterical if it's scarily similar? Isn't it better to remember where these mind sets can lead us?

So currently I'm leaning towards appropriate analogy.

On a related note: Meet the 7 openly LGBTI athletes going to Sochi.

Oh wow.

First this deleted scene hits the internet, and now this:

NSW upper house backs gay marriage.
The [New South Wales] upper house has passed a motion calling on the federal government to allow gay marriage... Greens MP Cate Faehrmann's private members' motion passed 22 votes to 16 in the Legislative Council, with both major parties allowing a conscience vote. NSW has now joined Tasmania and the ACT in having a parliamentary chamber call for the 1961 commonwealth Marriage Act to be amended to allow same-sex marriage.

It's only symbolic, with no legal impact, but sometimes the symbolic means everything.

And this is exactly what I needed this week. ^_^

Regarding the Australian election: I have no idea what's going on, and I think a lot of people feel the same. For all I know, the next step could be Tony and Julia wrestling on the floor of the lower house, and whoever loses has to lick the blood off the carpet.

If Tony Abbott wins... *sigh* Three possibilities: 1) Move to New Zealand. 2) Secede. Make your bedroom its own nation. 3) Avoid thinking about it, watch porn, dye your hair purple, and eat copious amounts of chocolate.

Actually dying my hair purple and eating chocolate is always on my list of possible options, and in a progression from Plan A to Plan B, and onwards, it's usually around Plan W. Plan X can be summed up by the words: EXTERMINATE THEM ALL! Plan Y involves building a rocket and flying to Jupiter, and Plan Z is jumping into the Void. These are the kind of things I plot out while I'm on the bus home from work.

To distract you all from the above clusterfuck:

- “At seventeen I was engaged to a man I had never met.”. This is a beautiful story. One woman's true story of an arranged marriage into a culture she had little experience with. (Also, Part 2, and Part 3.)

- This is one of the most amazing pictures I've ever seen (contains artistic nudity). It's by Andreas Smetana.

And finally, note to self: Do not lean on your screws. It hurts.

This is the picture that everyone is loving today: The new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, with the leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott.

( cut for size )

And I'd like to join in the chorus: now that we red-heads are in charge of the country, the first thing I'm going to do is ban is the word "ranga", because comparing someone to an ape (orangutan) because of something they can't help, like their hair colour, is neither complimentary nor funny.

Yeah, I realise that sounds cranky, but I really, really hate that word.