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Bullying Tactics and Billy Porter

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orfeo
 
Joined in 2007
December 4, 2007, 13:20

Unfortunately for many uninformed Christians they have come up with the equation homosexuality=immorality/promiscuity. All their assumptions of gay men and lesbians are based on that belief.


We know this is not the case…….and its up to us to declare it and live it.


Good to have you active in our forum Jason.


Last night on ABC there was a documentary about AIDS prevention and how Australia basically led the world (and still does) in cutting the number of HIV infections.


There was a lot of footage from the period when AIDS first became known about (c.1983-1986). Some of the comments members of the public made about gays were pretty astonishing. For instance, apparently we rape and murder small children.



Myfanwe
 
Joined in 2007
December 4, 2007, 13:30

Last night on ABC there was a documentary about AIDS prevention and how Australia basically led the world (and still does) in cutting the number of HIV infections.


There was a lot of footage from the period when AIDS first became known about (c.1983-1986). Some of the comments members of the public made about gays were pretty astonishing. For instance, apparently we rape and murder small children.


I watched that documentary, and it was a bit shocking to hear some of those comments from young people back then, but things have changed in the younger generation of today. My kids were actually very open and encouraging when I came out to them in 2005.


The young people in that documentary were the young people of my own generation and it’s amazing to think how much has changed just in the space of 30 years or so.


Very few people now, believe that HIV/AIDS is the ‘gay plague’ as it was seen as back then.


Blessings,



Anthony Venn-Brown
 
Joined in 2005
December 4, 2007, 17:17

yep I saw some of it…….I was with a couple……one is HIV+ and the other not…..so it got to a point where it had to be trurned off.


they were dark days……..before I came out though.


Australia has been one of the few countries who successfully thwarted a tragedy. We had to make some pretty unpopular decsions about education, needle sharing, condoms, engaging the gay community etc etc…..but in the end it payed off.


If Africa and other countries had followed the same things then they would be in a much better place. part of the problem in other countries was their fear and/or hatred of gay men.



Dove Snuggler
 
Joined in 2007
December 4, 2007, 22:19

I have been working with people living with HIV for over 2 years and I found the documentary ‘Rampant’ revealed things for me I’d never heard from the people themselves. When the fear was so great among hospital workers at St Vincent’s in the 1980’s that they pushed food bowls across the floor of the ward with brooms rather than go too close to AIDS, I wonder what our boys felt like then?


I also have a much better appreciation of Bill Bowtell and Neal Blewett and their work in preventing a large scale epidemic in Australia, spurred on by their simple needle exchange programs for drug users. Australia now has 0.1% people living with HIV/AIDS. The USA has 0.7% due to the fact the right wing turned treatment into a circus. That’s 7 times higher than Australia affecting 2.1 million people. South Africa has 10.8%, 1 in 10 people, with a shocking 29% among pregnant women. God forbid! Can you believe that? Thailand only has 1.4%, India 0.9% and Vietnam 0.5%. (Figures from WHO and AVERT).


Did you see the South African documentary on SBS Saturday night (21 Up) – one of those programs tracking kids at 7, 14, 21, 28, 35 etc. At 21 three were already dead from AIDS.


Australia has been privileged in a world sense, but the gay community particularly has been shaken by its own experiences. I thank God there is only one Fred Nile … because in Rampant it was quite evident that Fred single-handedly isolated the gay community in Sydney from church and faith. What did he say? Man lying with man is an abomination and abominations are things that God hates…


Hey Fred? Never eaten a prawn or a lobster? They were called abominations in the Old Testament too. Does God still hate them? I sure don’t and I don’t hate gays either. In fact I am one. I think you owe it to the gays of Australia to tell them God really loves them, however I doubt that any of them will trust you now. Only God is big enough to undo your hate campaign and I’m at a loss to know how?


Thank God Fred didn’t manage to stop the legalising of gay sex in NSW in 1984, the legalising of needle exchange programs and the continuation of Mardi Gras (despite his annual prayer for rain to ruin the parade). If there’d been more Fred’s, our HIV rate would be at least 7 times greater like the USA.


The organisation I work with has experienced a significant increase in the number of deaths of people with HIV these past 6 months. These 30 men and 1 or 2 women were aged between 30 and 60 years of age and left this world far too early. The most recent was buried last Friday. Many PLWHA no longer have a trace of faith and that’s my heartfelt challenge. How can people who have witnessed the hypocrisy of today’s churches (and Fred Nile) ever find faith again? The miracle is that they can.


I want to be the kind of person that can help that miracle come true. Yet I feel so small for the task…


Kit



jenaz
 
Joined in 2007
December 5, 2007, 06:35

one only has to read your posts Kit to know that you are already part of that miracle.



magsdee
Disabled
Joined in 2006
December 5, 2007, 10:21

Yes you are Kit and Yowee and anyone else on here that is helping people rediscover that God loves them, especially those effected by aids. I’d be a mess with people who are ill and dying, they wouldnt see it but I would fall apart at home. I admire anyone who can do that sort of work, actually any sort of work that brings breakthrough and those continuing and running with the flame. We all need each other.



Myfanwe
 
Joined in 2007
December 5, 2007, 22:12

Kit,


What an amazing post. I am lost for words. It is terribly sad and tragic when someone loses their faith completely and it seems somehow more tragic when the Church is behind that happening.


I pray that you will be able to affect that miracle of helping people find their faith again.


Blessings,



Dove Snuggler
 
Joined in 2007
December 6, 2007, 19:23

Dear Jenaz, Magsdee and Maggie B


Thank you so much for your encouragement. I’m sure there are many wonderful people scattered throughout the community who spread love at a personal level (one to one) … and I’d believe that is where the miracle is most felt. (Jenaz, some of your posts prove this can also be a church in the suburbs – they are obviously not all homophobic).


I still need to do my part and I’ve reassessed the basis of my own passion. I think many in the GLBTIQ community value justice, freedom, dignity and acceptance. Unfortunately we can sometimes be disheartened when hurt, anger, sadness or low self-image get the better of us.


The question I need to ask myself is whether my passion stems from an inner strength or whether it is fueled by hurt and anger. Perhaps all my passion can spread some comfort and love despite its origin but I’m persuaded I need to rely on my inner strength to be part of the miracle.


I hope this makes sense.


Kit



magsdee
Disabled
Joined in 2006
December 7, 2007, 09:18

The fact that anger and hurt is where our action of help and compassion stems from, isnt a bad thing, we have redirected those emotions into a good thing, a positive.

It was displeasure, anger and hurt that the weak or people in general were being mistreated that put Jesus on the earth (apart from other very significant things) and many times we see Jesus ticked off at the way certain people were treated, His ministry was fueled by His passion for God and completeing what he was assigned to do, salvage us human beings (I guess where salvation comes from) and whatever God was passionate about he was too, so God mustve been ticked off as well (old testament (prophetic books)full of times he had had enough) but he also used that in a positive way to gather us.

So knowing that, God must really love us since Jesus was as if God was on earth and all Jesus preached was truth and grace, he blasted the religious and sticklers for the letter of the law (still had compassion for them tho) and stood by everyone else. If only we could all be like him.


So after all that digressing lol nothing wrong with strong emotion being directed in a positive way, in a way which causes you to help others but in the meantime still have compassion and grace towards those who are the mistreaters, since I always feel they really dont understand the implications of what they are doing or are very mislead.( i dont mean this to sound arrogant in any way)



Craig_Maynard
 
Joined in 2007
January 27, 2008, 00:36

I second that… yeah Kit… your heart of gold will shine for many many years. Thank you.


Craig.


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