MARTIN FERGUSON AND THE FEDERAL SEAT OF BATMAN

The results of the 2010 federal election were illuminating in many ways, not least of which was the fact that the Australian Labor Party (ALP) was losing support and popularity, the Coalition was not faring much better, and the Greens were the party that gained most in the election.

The Labor Party was only able to form government after it reached agreements with some independents and the Greens, who, for the first time, gained a seat in the lower house and gained the balance of power in the upper house, the Senate.

What this is leading up to is the fact that Batman, a long-time Labor-held seat in the northern suburbs of Melbourne had always had the biggest margin of any Labor seat in Australia. This all changed in the 2010 election when the Greens substantially reduced that margin and showed that with some more resources and some greater pressure, Martin Ferguson's stronghold could be at the end of its road.

Ferguson was for some years involved with the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) in New South Wales, after which he became the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). He left that to become the Labor federal member for Batman, a seat he has now held for many years.

To digress briefly, in 2011 the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) suddenly decided that there were some Jewish people who were gay, lesbian, transgender and HIV (GLTH) members of the Victorian communities, and decided to ask for submissions from them as to what they required of the JCCV to assist them as Jews who might be suffering from discrimination and other forms of abuse from the Jewish communities in Victoria.

The result of their request for submissions, to be assessed by a sub-committee in the JCCV (who were supposedly chosen for their connections to, and experience with, GLTH members of the Jewish communities in Victoria), was that they received a total of five submissions and this sub-committee then issued a report, at last naming members of this sub-committee which had demanded secrecy because they feared intimidation from GLTH people!!!!!

Back to Martin Ferguson, who, at the request of members of the ALP and Greens, was supposed to do a survey of his constituents to find out what their attitude to same-sex marriage was, and then to report back to parliament.

Now anybody can skew results to suit their agendas and Ferguson appears to have done just that.

A report issued during the week of 18 April 2012 which may or may not be a media release from Ferguson's office stated that Batman had bucked the trend by opposing changes to the Marriage Act.

Now here is the nitty gritty of the statement: Ferguson is not releasing the number of respondents or percentage breakdown of his survey.

Batman has a large GLTH community and those of us who live in this federal seat of Batman have by and large generally not encountered hostility, homophobia, unpleasantness or other manifestations of opposition.

We challenge Ferguson to produce the results of his survey and to show how much of the opposition he is quoted as talking about comes from religious groups opposed to homosexuality, not to mention same-sex marriages.

Ferguson's position on many issues is open to question, such as his support for nuclear energy, for uranium export, for brown coal export, and his own stand on same-sex relationships is an indication of his general conservatism on many issues.

Hopefully at the next election, Ferguson will no longer represent the voters of Batman and we will have someone in the federal parliament who is actually a political progressive.

Just don't hold your breath!!

JEWISH COMMUNITY COUNCIL OF VICTORIA HAS REVERTED TO ITS HOMOPHOBIC STANCE OF EARLIER IN 2011

The Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV), with much trumpeting of its "progressive" views, informed Victorian Jews that it had established a gay, lesbian, transgender (etc.) "Reference Group" to identify discrimination and vilification of GLTH Jews and with particular research into suicidal tendencies of young people in this community.

FIVE submissions were received by the JCCV when it asked people to make submissions to address the problems, and a report was issued by the JCCV.

There were no consultations, no discussions with any of the stake-holders to find out what problems there were, how to address the problems and who else to consult with.

Now here is the interesting outcome of this wasted exercise.

Firstly, members of this so-called "reference group" demanded anonymity before the report was issued. What were they afraid of???

The report was published on the JCCV web site with much fanfare in the gay media and elsewhere, and guess what??

There is NO TRACE of any GLTH issue on the JCCV web site.

This is homophobia writ large and one has to wonder what the committee of the JCCV was thinking when it established this "hole-in-the-corner" "reference group" and what was supposed to be some outcomes for the GLTH communities in Victoria.

One thing is certain - the Jewish Community Council of Victoria has established its homophobia firmly, once and for all.

How pathetic!!

JEFF KENNETT, JOHN SEARLE, BOTH WELL PAST THEIR USE-BY DATES - TIME TO RETIRE, EVEN IF NOT GRACEFULLY!!!!

Jeff Kennett has disgraced himself yet again with his beyondblue stories and his interview with David McCarthy at Joy Radio concerning Kennett's comments about gay families and the previous ones about paedophilia and homosexuality.

McCarthy's attempts to whitewash Kennett were also a disgrace and do Joy Radio no credit for hosting such a discussion.

Kennett ruined Victoria in the days when he was premier and he has done nothing since to alter the community's opinions about him. He closed hospitals, schools, railways, and performed all sorts of other disservices to the state and the country which caused the depressions and suicides which beyondblue is supposed to assist.

Gays, lesbians, transgenders, HIVs (GLTH) were never part of beyondblue's briefs as a previous CEO, Leonie Young, demonstrated when tasked with providing service modules for GLTH communities who might have had depression or suicidal ideation problems. Kennett's relationship with the organisation only aggravated an already troubled situation.

The other relic of a bygone day, another homophobe who is supposedly making overtures to the GLTH communities, has failed at the first hurdle. John Searle seems unable to establish any sort of contact or working relationship with Aleph, the Jewish Gay group, and there seems to be no evidence that Searle has any relationship with the Jewish Lesbian Group of Victoria either. So where does this leave him, with his "anonymous" GLTH "Reference Group" which is supposed to be responding to the submissions received at JCCV's request in August, for which it received "about six submissions"

How do you receive "about six"??? You either receive 4, or 5, or 6, or more!! But not Searle!!

Is it not time that GLTH members of our communities who happen to be Jewish or who happen to need assistance with depression or suicidal intentions found organisations which willingly provide assistance without any discriminatory problems such as those associated with organisations such as beyonblue and Jewish Community Council of Victoria (sic)?

JOHN SEARLE REFUSES TO DIVULGE NAMES OF HIS SELF-APPOINTED "GLTH REFERENCE GROUP!"

15 SEPTEMBER 2011

The following is correspondence between the president of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, John Searle, and myself in regard to the secretive members of the Searle-appointed gay, lesbian, transgender, HIV (GLTH) reference group:

JEWISH COMMUNITY COUNCIL'S SECRET AND CLOSETED GLTH REFERENCE GROUP!

From Mannie De Saxe:

Many members of the gay, lesbian, transgender, HIV (GLTH) communities have lived in closets for much of their adult lives. In addition, many GLTH people have been murdered, assaulted, vilified, discriminated against, been subjected to electro-shock treatment to attempt to change their homosexuality to heterosexuality, subjected to police attacks and imprisonment because of their sexual orientation. Many were also kicked out of their homes by families who were not prepared to have such children as part of their households. Jewish families guilty of this sort of abuse often went into self-imposed mourning at the loss of a child.

GLTH people in these situations are not prepared to be scrutinized by groups of people who are anonymous.

GLTH activists will not be pushed back into the closet by those who wish to remain in the closet themselves.

If members of the JCCV’s self-appointed members of a GLTH Reference Group wish to remain unidentified then they are in no position to scrutinize any documentation concerning the problems Jewish members of GLTH people are confronted by on a daily basis.

People who have nowhere to turn are often led in desperation to suicide and that is not a prospect we are willing to permit to continue.

It is in the interests of JCCV to ensure that a group of people who are involved in a reference group to widen the debate within the Victorian Jewish communities of the issues confronting Jewish gay, lesbian, transgender and HIV people on a daily basis are people who are not hiding their identities anonymously and ashamedly.

It is estimated that there are 40,000 people in Victoria who identify as Jewish. It should not be beyond the capabilities of a so-called Jewish Community Council of Victoria to find GLTH people willing to be members of a reference group.

If the JCCV organisation continues with this secrecy then the whole sham of the reference group set-up will need to be publicly exposed.

Mannie De Saxe


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 9/14/2011 5:02 PM, John Searle wrote:

Hi Mannie,

Sorry it took a few days to get back to you but things have been rather
hectic.

The GLBT members of the reference group have at this stage requested that
their identities remain undisclosed.

Accordingly, I am not in a position to advise you of their names. I am
sure you appreciate the need to respect their confidentiality.

Regards

John Searle


President

Jewish Community Council of Victoria

306 Hawthorn Road,

South Caulfield, Victoria 3162

Tel: Office - (03) 9225 7753

Tel: Mobile - 0412 251 344

Email: jsearle@vicbar.com.au

On 12/09/11 10:47 PM, "red-jos" wrote:

Mannie De Saxe

PO Box 1675

Preston South

Vic 3072

Please advise the names of the JCCV Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, HIV
(GLTH) Reference Group members.

Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, Melbourne

---

The President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) Dr Danny Lamm welcomed the announcement today by Attorney-General of Victoria, Robert Clark, of the appointment of Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) President John Searle as the new chairperson of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.


He said: “I am delighted that the President of one of the ECAJ’s major State constituent bodies has been honoured with such an important government appointment. John is admirably suited for this role, having committed years of communal service to human rights in a voluntary leadership position. He exemplifies the best of Jewish and societal values as a leader and a family man, and Victoria can expect from him total dedication to advancing the cause of human rights and equal opportunity.”

Dr Lamm also praised Victorian Attorney-General, Robert Clarke, and Premier Ted Baillieu and his Cabinet for the appointment. “They could not have placed their confidence in a better person”, Dr Lamm said. “John has devoted his communal life and much of his professional career as a barrister for the last 22 years towards combatting discrimination and promoting equal opportunity for all. The Victorian government has made an excellent choice.”

(Editor's note - the italics are mine to emphasise the fact that certain members of the Jewish communities believe that John Searle has "combatted discrimination and promoted equal opportunity for all" except if they happen to be gay, lesbian, transgender, HIV members of the Jewish communities!)

JEWISH COMMUNITY COUNCIL OF VICTORIA AND "GLBT REFERENCE GROUP"!

The following advertisement appeared on page 4 of the Melbourne edition of the Australian Jewish News on Friday 29 July 2011:

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The Jewish Community Council of Victoria established a GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender) Reference group to investigate issues surrounding vilification, discrimination and mental health concerns faced by members of Victoria’s Jewish GLBT community.

These are serious issues and to assist the JCCV in formulating its views it is now calling for relevant submissions.

It is expected that members of Victoria’s Jewish GLBT community will predominantly provide submissions. However, submissions from other community members are welcome. Submissions may detail relevant experiences, positive or negative in relation to matters of discrimination, vilification and/or mental health issues within the Jewish community or may raise other points of relevance.

We are particularly concerned about the impact which these issues may have upon suicide rates and submissions concerning this aspect are also sought.

Submissions may be particularised to address the following issues:

• your personal experience of instances of vilification
• your personal experience of episodes of discrimination
• any impact that GLBT issues have had upon your mental health

Submissions will be received on an entirely confidential basis but will only be considered if they are accompanied by the author’s name and contact details.
Submissions should be sent to:

The President
JCCV
306 Hawthorn Road
South Caulfield Victoria 3162
or alternatively via email to president@jccv.org.au

Submissions must be received by close of business on 31 August 2011.

Help is always available from the following:
Lifeline – 131 114
Gay & Lesbian Switchboard – 1800 184 527 / (03) 9663 2939
Jewish Care – 8517 5999 (business hours)

Now here is where things start to become very strange - when the President of the JCCV was approached to provide information about the so-called "GLBT Reference Group", he replied as follows:

"The GLBT members of the reference group have at this stage requested that
their identities remain undisclosed.
Accordingly, I am not in a position to advise you of their names. I am
sure you appreciate the need to respect their confidentiality."

The questions now have to be asked - are there people in this so-called group? Are they activists of any sort? What is their expertise to deal with and respond to submissions such as were asked for in this advertisement?

Is this merely an attempt on the part of the President of the JCCV to appear to be doing something about the problems besetting Jewish people who happen to be gay, lesbian, transgender or people with HIV (GLTH)?

If this is the case, then I suggest the whole exercise is a sham and there will be no outcome to this shoddy little exercise, failing the Jewish GLTH communities yet again!

JEWISH COMMUNITY COUNCIL OF VICTORIA (sic) REFERENCE GROUP GLBT REQUEST FOR SUBMISSIONS

SUBMISSION TO THE JEWISH COMMUNITY COUNCIL OF VICTORIA’S GAY, LESBIAN,BISEXUAL,TRANSGENDER (GLBT) REFERENCE GROUP TO INVESTIGATE ISSUES SURROUNDING VILIFICATION,DISCRIMINATION AND MENTAL HEALTH CONCERNS FACED BY MEMBERS OF VICTORIA’S JEWISH GLBT COMMUNITY

From Mannie De Saxe, (Member of Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, Melbourne)
PO Box 1675
Preston South
Vic 3072
Email: red-jos@red-jos.net
29 August 2011

This submission is divided into specific sections to address particular issues, but the main purpose is to show how homophobic many in the Australian Jewish communities are and to show that discrimination continues unabated while many people and groups in Australia and around the world are busy learning that homosexuality and heterosexuality are as related to each other as left-handed and right-handed are, as well as blue-eyed and brown-eyed.

1) Kitty Fischer
2) Parents of Jewish Lesbians and Gays UK
3) Jewish, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, HIV
4) Jewish leaders and homophobia
5) Lists of Australian and International people who are known to be Jewish and Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, HIV
6) Australian Jewish academics and homophobia
7) The Invention of the Jewish People by Shlomo Sand

The word homophobia is recent although its actions are centuries old. The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1990) defines homophobia as a hatred or fear of homosexuals. The most common term of abuse in Australia and used universally for any number of reasons but mostly to abuse homosexuals is the word “poofter”. This is vilification writ large and for those trying to come to terms with their sexuality it is so hurtful that many particularly young people find they cannot cope and commit or try to commit suicide.

This part of the tragedy of gay, lesbian, transgender and HIV (GLTH) members of our communities is one that is not sufficiently recorded because very often the causes of the suicide can not be pinned down to specific reasons.

Religious communities selectively quote sections of a book written by old men some thousands of years ago as having meaning in 2011 and as being their reasons for their hatred of homosexuals. However homosexuals are usually born to heterosexual people, so the words in that old book are totally irrelevant.

1) Kitty Fischer

The following item refers to a person who was Jewish but not lesbian. Her story is told by Konrad Kwiet in an interesting essay published in a book from Melbourne University Press some 10 or so years ago.

Kitty Fischer who died in 2001 was an Auschwitz child Holocaust survivor. Kitty arrived in Auschwitz with her parents and younger sister in 1944. They had been transported from their home in Czechoslovakia and on arrival at Auschwitz the parents were separated from their two daughters who never saw their parents again.

Kitty was in her early teens and her sister a few years younger and she told the story of their survival as being achieved by a man with a pink triangle which Kitty thought was another religion because the Jews wore their yellow stars. This man brought food to the two girls which helped them survive and when a working group was being put together to go to a clothing factory outside Auschwitz he persuaded them to say they were seamstresses and they were selected.

Kitty and her sister survived those last few months before they were liberated but she never found out what happened to the man with the pink triangle. They eventually managed to get to Australia where they lived until their deaths in the latter part of the last century and the beginning of this century.

When Kitty was living in Sydney during her last 15 or so years of life she remembered the man with the pink triangle by becoming involved with the care of gay men who were dying of AIDS. She also became a founding member of the Gay and Lesbian Holocaust Memorial Project, and when it was completed and its dedication took place in Green Park in Sydney’s Darlinghurst in 2001, Kitty was there in her wheelchair. This was the last event in which she was involved and she died of leukemia a few months later.

As someone who had suffered so terribly in her lifetime from discrimination, and hatred, Kitty understood that the GLTH communities were suffering from much the same prejudices and abuse that she had suffered as a young Jew living in German-occupied Europe during the Second World War. She did her best to reduce that discrimination as much as she was able within her limited resources. She will be long remembered.

http://

www.josken.net/sp-obit.htm

2) Parents of Jewish Lesbians and Gays UK

The stories below are from the United Kingdom but apply equally to Australia where many young people experienced similar horrors from their “loving” Jewish parents:
PARENTS OF JEWISH GAYS AND LESBIANS UK:
A Mother’s story (about 1998)

My daughter left home at 19 to (as I found out later) find herself! Some time later she came home for a weekend and asked if she could speak to me without her father being present. I guessed something was wrong and immediately asked if she was on drugs or was she pregnant? She denied both of these and I then asked her if she was gay.
By this time she was crying her eyes out and could only nod and asked how I had guessed. We fell into each others arms and both of us cried buckets. I told her that nothing had changed and that she was still our daughter and that we loved her very much.

After about 20 minutes, during which we just hugged and cried, she said she was so happy as I hadn't pushed her away or disowned her as many of her friends' parents had with their children. She then went out for a cigarette and to calm herself down and I went to tell her Dad! He just cried and asked me two questions:-
"Does that mean I won't be able to cuddle her anymore?" and "Does that mean I will never walk her down the aisle?"


From London Jewish News 19 June 1998

"The love learning to speak its name"

Katrin Levy hears of a group of parents trying to come to terms with the homosexuality of their children

What would you do if one of your children looked you in the face and told you he/she was gay? Some parents react with anger and throw their children out of the house. Others fight to come to terms with their feelings of embarrassment. "A gay child is the same person they were yesterday," says Myrna Julius, one of organisers behind a support group of Jewish Parents of Gays and Lesbians (JPGL). "The only difference is their sexual preference.

And this from a Melbourne Jew about the same issue:

Henry Herzog says in Galus Australis:
November 6, 2009
I really feel for those Jewish homosexuals who were brought up in orthodox homes but once they became aware of their sexuality, they were rejected by the parents and community. That is truly heartbreaking.

3) Jewish, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, HIV

Many Australians who are Jewish and gay, lesbian, transgender, HIV are on public record as a combination of these descriptors and their life stories are as interesting as their careers:
The following article was published in The Age newspaper on 8 January 2003:

Gay, Jewish and itinerant, an artist reflects

The Jewish Museum aims to represent diversity in a new exhibition, writes Suzanne Carbone.
He is a Jewish man without a home and knows isolation and loneliness. The fact that he is gay adds another element, but because he is an artist he can depict such feelings.

The Jewish Museum of Australia intends to share his experiences and will hold, for the first time, an exhibition to coincide with Midsumma - Melbourne's gay and lesbian festival.

The works by gay Jewish artist Sam Schoenbaum, 55, reflect his peripatetic life and pay tribute to gay Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

The St Kilda museum's director, Helen Light, is nervous about how the exhibition will be accepted and does not want to offend Orthodox Jews, but is adamant that the museum has to reflect community diversity.

"Homosexuality is not acceptable within Orthodox Judaism and yet there are a lot of Jews in our community who are gay," Dr Light said. "Our museum is about representing the community, not saying how people should live but how people do live."

The exhibition, Strangers & Sojourners, runs from January 21 to February 9.
The museum has held exhibitions by gay artists, but Schoenbaum's is the first dealing with homosexuality.
Schoenbaum, an internationally renowned abstract and conceptual artist, is based in Melbourne but has no fixed address or phone. He was born in a displaced person's camp in Austria in 1947 and moved to Melbourne in 1951. His art career took off when he was 27 and his works are now in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Jewish Museum of Australia.

Exhibition coordinator Eugene Barilo von Reisberg said both he and Schoenbaum were amazed and jubilant that the Jewish Museum agreed to present an exhibition in conjunction with Midsumma.

"I wanted to have the best gay Jewish artist that there is in Australia and Sam is the one because he is a respected and professional artist," said Mr von Reisberg, manager of the Charles Nodrum Gallery, which is supporting the exhibition.
Schoenbaum's work has imagery of pink triangles, suggesting persecution of gays.
The exhibition was not welcomed yesterday by Rabbi Yitzhak Groner of the Yeshivah Centre, who said: "I am totally against it."

But Rabbi Philip Heilbrunn, of the St Kilda Hebrew Congregation, said the museum was an independent organisation and ran exhibitions as it saw fit. "The Torah, the basis of Jewish law and life, clearly speaks against homosexuality," he said. "Therefore, from where we sit, we wouldn't be involving ourself in the exhibition."

In Carlisle Street, St Kilda, yesterday Yoram Raz, 24, from South Caulfield, said: "It's OK for him to be who he is as an artist, but I don't understand what drives people to have gay relationships."

Student Netz Goren, 28, from Israel, said Jewish law was outdated and he supported the exhibition. A woman who described herself as deeply religious said the museum's stance would cause a stir "not just among the Orthodox community but among some of the elderly ladies who work at the museum as volunteers".

Michael Barnett, convenor of Aleph Melbourne, a support group for gay and bisexual Jewish men, believes the wider Jewish community will support the exhibition. "Unless the art is controversial I don't see what the issue is," he said.

I am making this submission because if those of us who believe the JCCV is irrelevant don’t make some publicity about the issues then indeed nothing in the Jewish communities will ever change.

4) Jewish leaders and homophobia

Items like the following story reported on the ABC do not show organizations such as JCCV in a very favourable light and their attempt to create a secret Reference Group to address homophobia and its related ills and which has had no publicity and whose members remain a closely guarded secret do not inspire confidence that anything dramatic will come from people making submissions at this stage.

Jewish leaders accused of ignoring homophobia

Alison Caldwell reported this story on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 18:34:00 ABC programme PM on Radio National

MARK COLVIN (Presenter of Radio National’s PM) A rift is developing in Australia’s Jewish community over the treatment of homosexuals.

A major gay and lesbian support group claims Jewish community leaders are ignoring discrimination and hate language aimed at homosexuals. It wants Jewish representative bodies to come up with a clear policy upholding gay rights.

Alison Caldwell reports.

ALISON CALDWELL: When two young people were shot dead in Tel Aviv last month at a gay and lesbian youth centre, Melbourne-based Michael Barnett wanted nothing more than for the leaders of the Australian Jewish community to take a stand against violence towards homosexuals. But he says his calls for action fell on deaf ears.

MICHAEL BARNETT: The Israeli leadership, the Prime Minister, the President of Israel, they spoke out against intolerance and hatred and said you know, everyone deserves respect.

Yet in Melbourne where there is the family of one of the two people killed, there wasn't even a single statement from the community leaders.

ALISON CALDWELL: He says the silence from the Jewish leadership was symptomatic of a much deeper problem.

MICHAEL BARNETT: There's a lot of intolerance of gay people in the Jewish people. Calling gay people perverted and disgusting, comparing gay people to people who commit incest or bestiality, there's all this language that gets used from people like some rabbis in the orthodox world who speak out against gay people.

ALISON CALDWELL: Michael Barnett is the coordinator of Aleph Melbourne, a support group for homosexual people in the Jewish community. He believes representative groups are afraid to express their support for homosexuals for fear of offending ultra-orthodox groups in the community.

MICHAEL BARNETT: I want every state and national Jewish peak body in Australia to have a specific, unambiguous policy addressing the persecution of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Jews in regard to homophobic hate and intolerance, irrespective of whether it originates from outside or inside the Jewish community.

The policies must be enforced with the same zero tolerance afforded to anti-Semitism and holocaust rhetoric and other hate crimes.

ALISON CALDWELL: Much of his anger is levelled at a Jewish blog which recently described homosexuality as "depravity and debasement" and extolled the virtues of reprogramming homosexuals.

In July, a Sydney rabbi wrote to the Australian Jewish News, comparing homosexual intercourse with adultery, bestiality and incest.

JOHN SEARLE: If it's a matter that's guided by religious laws, then those laws will presumably be applied. Now I can't say very much about those because I'm not an expert in those areas.

ALISON CALDWELL: John Searle is the president of the Jewish Community Council in Victoria. It describes itself as the roof body of Victorian Jewry. On its website, it says it shows zero tolerance towards anti-Semitism and racism but it has nothing to say about supporting or protecting gay or lesbian people within the Jewish community.

JOHN SEARLE: If we need to rewrite a policy that was written some time ago, we can certainly look at that and if it needs to be adjusted in any way, we can adjust that.

ALISON CALDWELL: John Searle says he's against vilification of any sort.

JOHN SEARLE: The JCCV has issued statements condemning vilification of all minority groups, including vilification based on grounds of sexual orientation, sexual preference.

ALISON CALDWELL: He says the council has sought advice from numerous sources on how to be more inclusive and will invite gay and lesbian support groups to events in the future.

Michael Barnett says it's not enough.

MICHAEL BARNETT: Lip service, motherhood statements, platitudes, rhetoric, anything but "yes, we're going to do this and take it seriously".

JOHN SEARLE: I reject the allegation or assertion that inviting people to participate in community events is simply lip service.

ALEX FEIN: My blog is called The Sensible Jew.

ALISON CALDWELL: Jewish blogger Alex Fein has written about the issue in recent weeks. She says the vast majority of Jews support homosexuals and describes those who don't as minority extremists. But she says groups like the Jewish Community Council of Victoria need to be more proactive.

ALEX FEIN: It's not enough to say that homophobia is problematic. I think all people of good faith would like to see concrete action.

MARK COLVIN: Alex Fein the author of the blog known as the sensiblejew.wordpress.com, ending Alison Caldwell's report.

5) Lists of Australian and International people who are known to be Jewish and Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, HIV

Lists below show many people who are well known locally and overseas and whose activities identify them publicly as Jewish as well as gay, lesbian, transgender, or people living with HIV.

PEOPLE WHO LIVE, OR HAVE LIVED IN AUSTRALIA WHO ARE IDENTIFIED AS JEWISH AND GAY, LESBIAN, TRANSGENDER OR PEOPLE WITH HIV (GLTH):

Sam Schoenbaum

Laurie Collinson

Dennis Altman

Kerryn Phelps and Jackie Stricker

Joan Nestle and Di Otto

Esther Singer

Rebecca Cox and Fiona Doherty

Janey Stone

Dawn Cohen

to mention a token few!

PEOPLE WHO LIVE, OR HAVE LIVED IN COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD WHO ARE IDENTIFIED AS JEWISH AND GAY, LESBIAN, TRANSGENDER OR PEOPLE WITH HIV (GLTH):

Marcel Proust

Wittgenstein brothers

Leonard Bernstein

Magnus Hirshfeld

Moises Kaufman

Allen Ginsberg

Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman

Gertrude Stein

Harvey Milk

Phyllis Lyon

Pieter-Dirk Uys

Robin Tyler and Diane Olson

Tony Kushner

David Leavitt

David Halperin

Larry Kramer
Roger Horwitz

Mark Feldman

Aaron Copland

to mention a small number for this submission.

6) Australian Jewish academics and homophobia

In his book, “Defying Gravity – A Political Life”, published by Allen and Unwin in 1997, Dennis Altman wrote (pages 186 and 187):

“AIDS has brought me close to the workings of government – but also to the vagaries of power. Between 1990 and 1992 I was a member of the Australian National Council on AIDS (ANCA), then chaired by Peter Karmel, a distinguished economist and emeritus vice-chancellor of two universities, was another in the string of secular Jews, like Peter Wilenski, Hannah Arendt and Henry Mayer, with whom I have felt particular affinities. I remember him describing the reaction of some of his professorial colleagues when he accepted the role of chief spokesman for the government’s AIDS policies, and his surprise and shock at the depth of homophobia they revealed..”

7) The Invention of the Jewish People by Shlomo Sand

Finally I think it would be a good idea if members of the JCCV read the book by Shlomo Sand called “The Invention of the Jewish People”. It would be revealing to discover the origins of those Jews who are affiliated with this group.

You don’t need to be Jewish to be homophobic, but it helps!

Mannie De Saxe (Member of Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, Melbourne) 29 August 2011