A THOUSAND MILES FROM CARE

Steve Johnson has written a book about the murder of his brother SCOTT JOHNSON which needs to be read by as many people as possible but most of all the gay and lesbian and other communities with affiliations to those communities where most murders and assaults occur. These took place mostly in NSW in the 1980's and 1990 which has had some of the most corrupt police in these organisations leaving devastated groups of people who have over the years had to deal with communities shattered by the unsolved crimes commited against devastated people who then do not have orgaisations they can turn to for assistance and healing. Once I started reading the story I was not able to put the book down until I had finished it. I came out as a gay man at the age of 61 at the time when we were also having to deal with the arrival of HIV and AIDS in our communitiesn and arround the world,giving homophobes yet another opportunity to do as much harm to all our communities with links t0 gay organisations as possible. I became a carer for people dying of AIDS, in Australia mostly young gay men which gaqve the homophobes even more opportunities for hate of those in the community who identified with any of these groups and affiliated communities.

A WEB HISTORY – GAY, LESBIAN, TRANSGENDER, HIV/AIDS

This is a presentation to the AUSTRALIAN LESBIAN AND GAY ARCHIVES 2013 Australian Homosexual Histories Conference at Melbourne University on 15 November 2013. Because of the limited time available for each presentation, only segments were able to be presented. This is what the content of the whole presentation would have been:
          

 A WEB HISTORY – GAY, LESBIAN, TRANSGENDER, HIV/AIDS

                       “Oh, what a tangled web………………!”

                   OR “THE WEB IS MIGHTIER THAN OBAMA!”

……..and if this sounds like a gross exaggeration, to which I am prone, just think about Snowden, Manning, Assange and others like them who have shown what the web can do!

The book illustrating what the web is capable of in collective political terms was published in 2013 is called “Hacking Politics – How Geeks, Progressives, the Tea Party, Gamers, Anarchists and Suits Teamed Up to Defeat SOPA and Save the Internet” EDITED BY DAVID MOON, PATRICK RUFFINI AND DAVID SEGAL.

SOPA is Stop Online Piracy Act

An Internet blackout occurred on 18 January 2012.

We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people who are the Traditional Custodians of this Land. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present of the Kulin Nation and extend that respect to other Indigenous Australians present.

             Computer illustrating talk to the ALGA Homosexual Histories Conference on 15 November 2013 - Session C2 – 4.00pm to 4.30pm

Extract from article I wrote for Overland online magazine published on 15 April 2013

“I am now 86 and this is a story of a voyage of discovery over the last 25 years. I had known I was gay from early on in my marriage, but family requirements kept me maintaining a home base until the family was grown up and independent. My marriage ended after 31 years in 1985, and in 1986 I became politically active. I joined socialist groups and started learning about activism and the politics of change, started selling our group’s newspaper and got involved in diverse organisational issues.
On one demonstration in 1988 we ended up in the Domain in Sydney and some people were holding a banner and handing out leaflets about a demonstration outside the British Consulate at Circular Quay a few days later. The demonstration was to protest Margaret Thatcher’s introduction of clause 28, one of the most homophobic pieces of legislation perpetrated by a so-called democratic state. I was 61 years old and trying to come out as a gay man – fairly daunting at that age after a life-time living as a heterosexual in a heteronormative world.
At the demonstration in April 1988 I was invited to attend a meeting of the group at that time called Gay Solidarity at the home of one of the members. Being a gay activist group without means to afford premises for meetings, these were always held at the homes of group members. The person whose home the meeting was in was Peter Collard who was also known as Sister Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, (MMQC) one of the Sisters of the Order of Perpetual Indulgence. He remained a close friend until his untimely death in 2011 at the age of 58.
My activist path increased in leaps and bounds from 1988 onwards, and the politics of the left and gay issues were predominant in my steep learning curve. A major issue during this period was homophobia, leading in many instances to gay, lesbian, transgender and HIV/AIDS (GLTH) hate crimes involving abuse, assault and murder.
We had demonstrations against the series of gay murders in and around Oxford Street, Bondi, Tamarama and other areas around Sydney, and the brutal attitude of the police relating to assaults and murders and their unwillingness to fully investigate and prosecute those guilty of the crimes. It may well be argued that homophobic police were themselves involved in some of these crimes.
In 1999 the web was just becoming available and, with the help of Sister MMQC, I established an online presence with emails and a website. My knowledge was rudimentary, to say the least, and MMQC was patient and helpful in establishing webpages documenting issues with which we were involved.
When we moved to Melbourne in 2001 and help was far away in Sydney, MMQC assisted me – by phone from Sydney for at least an hour  – to learn how to operate the web, and with the help of another Sydney friend – Barry McKay who moved to Melbourne soon afterwards, I started to set up a variety of web pages which showed our political interests in a large variety of activist issues.
Among the web pages I started assembling were those on homophobia and GLTH hate crimes, both in Australia and around the world. The amount of material that became available was staggering and it was a big task to be able to put everything on web pages that were required to be there to inform the world of the horrors of homophobia and hate crimes.
What I tried to do on the hate crimes pages was to assemble information in a chronological order, although under certain circumstances that became difficult. If a murder was committed, say, in 1992, and the person who committed the crime only appeared in court some few years later, the report of the court story had to be recorded under the year in which the crime was committed, so the chronology method was not altogether satisfactory.
All of this background is leading up to a series of emails I received last year.
The first email, in early November 2012, was from a journalist/writer, who had seen our hate crimes pages and said the web pages were of great interest and help. He was investigating a death in 1988 of a young gay man who was studying in Sydney but who came from the USA. His name was Scott Johnson and he was found dead at the foot of cliffs in Manly, naked and with his clothes folded neatly at the top of the cliff. The police verdict was suicide.
If Scott’s death were recorded as suicide, we would not have recorded it because ostensibly it wasn’t a hate crime.
The journalist, whose name is Daniel Glick, sent us an article he had written which had appeared in the Weekend Australian some while ago and told the story of Scott Johnson leading up to his death. Scott’s brother Steve in the USA had long doubted the police verdict of suicide and asked Daniel Glick if he would be prepared to carry out further investigations to determine whether Scott’s death was a murder and a hate crime, because at the time suicide seemed a very unlikely scenario for a young man in his late 20s who had just completed a doctorate in Mathematics from a Sydney university.
There was also an article by a local writer and journalist, Garry Wotherspoon, which told much the same story as Daniel Glick had uncovered.
The results of further enquiries and investigations between Dan Glick and Scott’s brother Steve resulted in the original verdict of suicide being overturned and an open verdict provided. This opened the door for new police investigations and the offer of a reward of about $100,000 for further information leading to a conclusion in the search for the truth of what happened to Scott Johnson.
On 11 February 2013 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation featured Scott Johnson in an episode of Australian Story, a half hour program of people and events in Australia. This episode, ‘On the Precipice’, featured the story of Scott Johnson and those he was involved with and also told the story of his brother Steve’s search for the truth.
Steve attended the 2013 Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade in Sydney in March and there is a short video of his visit and an interview he gave at the time.
The journalist involved, Dan Glick, wanted to know whether there were other hate crimes committed around that time north of Sydney Harbour, because there were records of murders taking place between Bondi and Tamarama beach in the 1980s and 1990s and the police involvement in finding the perpetrators of those terrible crimes, but there didn’t seem to be the same records of hate murders and hate crimes north of Sydney Harbour.
Journalists and writers wrote articles and books about these homophobic crimes and many of the perpetrators are still walking around, having not been apprehended and tried for the murders.
Police homophobia over the years – and still ongoing – hasn’t helped get to the bottom of these crimes and it seems that many were happening north of Sydney Harbour in the same way they were happening south of the Harbour.
There have been a few policemen who were not satisfied with the investigations and have since persevered to establish task forces to investigate many of the murders which are now cold cases.
This whole story is, unfortunately, a work in progress and as long as homophobia is propagated by religions and the state, hate crimes will continue in Australia and around the world.
While I am still able to, I will continue to document such events on our web pages so that everybody will know about these heinous crimes, aided and abetted by the societies we live in in the twenty-first century. I am now 86 and my partner is 90 (we have been together for 20 years) and we both still endeavour to draw attention to the iniquities perpetrated against the GLTH and the wider communities.”

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION:

1)    cost of running web pages – estimated to be about $1400 per year.

2)    items of interest relevant to GLTH communities:

a) Gay Solidarity/Lesbian and Gay Solidarity newsletters

          b) Sydney Park AIDS Memorial Groves

c)     Homophobia

      d) GLTH Hate Crimes  - Australian and international

 e) Local governments and homophobia – formation of InterSection

 f) Ageing issues for the LGTH communities

 g) Activism and actions

  h) ALGA and Gary and Nick submitting our web pages to NLA Pandora and being accepted for archiving!

  i) International Organisations such as ILGA and IGLHRC

  j) HIV/AIDS and activism with ACT UP film documentaries reviews by Mark Pendleton in red pepper

3) Resurrection of lost web pages from the Wayback Machine of GLTH concern such as:
              a) Gay and Lesbian Holocaust Memorial Project
              b) Australian AIDS Quilt Project 

LINKS TO OUR WEB PAGES:
www.josken.net

and

www.red-jos.net

and

red-jos.blogspot.com

There was a young person named Bradley
Who later did call herself Chelsea
Obama was scared
About info she shared
So Snowden fled over the sea

INQUIRY INTO SUICIDE IN AUSTRALIA

SENATE COMMUNITY AFFAIRS REFERENCE COMMITTEE

INQUIRY INTO SUICIDE IN AUSTRALIA

Submitted by:

E.J.(Mannie) De Saxe, Lesbian and gay Solidarity, Melbourne
PO Box 1675
Preston South
Vic 3072
Phone: 03 9471 4878
Email: josken1_at_pacific_net_au
(Home address: 2/12 Murphy Grove, Preston, Vic 3072)

I am making this submission because for many years I have been involved with the ongoing problems confronting the gay, lesbian, transgender and HIV/AIDS communities relating to suicide and/or attempted suicide (ideation).

The gay, lesbian, transgender and HIV/AIDS communities (hereinafter referred to as GLTH) have generally not been included in studies about suicide and this lack of attention to such community members is directly attributable to the homophobia of the population at large and governments at all levels in particular.

Non-government organizations such as beyondblue have over the years refused to involve these groups in their research and care facilities because they are intrinsically homophobic and refuse to deal with people for whom they have the utmost contempt.

Fortunately there are a few organizations such as Suicide Prevention Australia who actually see the larger picture of human rights and who are justifiably concerned at the fact that GLTH people have been treated as they have been by society at large.

This brings us to the point of the senate inquiry exercise which is that so many groups around the country are not being looked at for possible suicide reasons and have dropped off the agenda and therefore helped cause depression, loneliness, anxiety, desperation, and ultimately suicide.

Most at risk, according to statistics which may or may not be very accurate, are young males, and specifically young gay males and many living in rural or regional areas where they have no access to any type of support or community consultation processes.

Also at risk in similar categories, but not young, are older people in our communities who may be isolated, have lost partners, have few or no friends, have no supporting networks and are therefore totally isolated.

Personal experience in recent years has been as a carer during the 1990s of people with AIDS at a time before various combination drugs had become available, and many were dying of AIDS-related diseases which were horrible in their actions on bodies already decimated from ongoing illness and debilitation. When some of these young men were told that they had a particularly nasty illness which would blind them or cause other major traumas, they were not prepared to go through the suffering they had seen in so many of their friends, partners, relatives, acquaintances, so they simply prepared themselves for suicide and succeeded.

Earlier personal experiences of suicide were related to family members or acquaintances, and so often, reasons were not forthcoming as to the causes of the suicides. Now in my 80s with a partner likewise in his 80s, my thoughts have been drawn to aspects of euthanasia because of the dreadful sufferings which occur with certain diseases which, at the end of a long life does not inspire one with hopes of a painless death.
Why suffer needlessly when there are other solutions?

However, that is not the reason I am making a submission to this senate inquiry. The reason is that I am sickened by the ongoing homophobia which is causing so much trouble for GLTH members in our communities and the fact that there are so few resources out there for them to get any help from.

Recent changes to same-sex relationships legislation by the federal government ensured that their refusal to consider providing a transitional arrangement for the December 2008 legislation helped many desperate people in long-term partnerships to attempt suicide because they saw their situations as hopeless.

Fortunately, in one particular instance which has come to my knowledge, the people involved in these traumas were assisted by friends who were also specialists in such fields as gerontology and social work and lives were saved. This may have been the exception to the general rule.

Before addressing the items in the "Terms of Reference" document I believe that one issue above all needs to be addressed and that is to ask the question: How far is the federal government prepared to go in addressing fundamental problems relating to suicide – homophobia and financial support for organizations addressing the issues involved? Will the government be prepared to ensure that better statistics become available and that the findings are made public?

These are but a few of the questions which require urgent answers. Without positive responses, the whole inquiry is a waste of time and money.

TERMS OF REFERENCE:


The impact of suicide on the Australian community including high risk groups such as indigenous youth and rural communities, with particular reference to:

a) the personal, social and financial costs of suicide in Australia;
The financial costs should be the least of the Inquiry's problems. The personal and social costs are infinite and cannot be quantified without doing much deeper and more meaningful research into the consequences of suicide to those left to address the disasters. Indigenous youth and rural communities can not be dealt with unless the government is determined to address indigenous poverty, unemployment, housing, education and related issues and ensure rural communities have the services required to assist those most in need. This means not only young but old members of our communities who are isolated and without support.

b) The accuracy of suicide reporting in Australia, factors that may impede accurate identification and recording of possible suicides, (and the consequences of any under-reporting on understanding risk factors and providing services to those at risk);
Accuracy of suicide reporting requires more resources than are currently available and more effort needs to be put in to determine if unexplained deaths have been recorded without adequate explanation. There are so many risk factors ignored by mere statistics that it is therefore necessary to have greater services available AFTER risk factors have been identified.

c) the appropriate role and effectiveness of agencies, such as police, emergency departments, law enforcement and general health services in assisting people at risk of suicide;
If suicide is such a problem in Australia as this inquiry would suggest then it seems as if the appropriate role and effectiveness of the agencies mentioned in item c) are totally ineffectual and publicity needs to be generated to address the problems faced by the communities. There would thus appear to be a failure to be aware of, and assist people at risk of suicide.

d) the effectiveness, to date, of public awareness programmes and their relative success in providing information, encouraging help-seeking and enhancing public discussion of suicide;
Four young people committed suicide in Geelong during the last year. There was a public outcry about the publicity generated in the media, and attempts were made to silence all discussion on the issue, particularly by people like Jeff Kennett of beyondblue. This is hardly calculated to enhance public discussion of suicide.

e) the efficacy of suicide prevention training and support for front-line health and community workers providing services to people at risk;
If suicide prevention training and support for front-line health and community workers was working, there would be no need for inquiries such as this, so the question is self-answering! There would be no alarming increases in rates of suicide as possible statistics seem to suggest there are.

f) the role of targeted programmes and services that address the particular circumstances of high-risk groups;
What targeted programmes and services exist for young and old GLTH members of our communities? Are they publicised? Who runs them? Does one find them in the media? Are isolated GLTH people found to be in particular circumstances making them high-risk groups?

g) the adequacy of the current programme of research into suicide and suicide prevention, and the manner in which findings are disseminated to practitioners and incorporated into government policy;
If the current programme of research into suicide and suicide prevention was adequate, findings would be disseminated to whoever required the information and government policy would respond accordingly. Again this item begs the question - is there actual government policy which addresses suicide and its enormous ramifications for the communities and those most affected by the impact on individuals, families, groups, partners - the numbers affected by each suicide have ripple effects.

h) the effectiveness of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy in achieving its aims and objectives, and any barriers to its progress.
The barriers to the progress of a national suicide prevention strategy, if such a strategy actually exists, would be the homophobia besetting the federal government and those who develop policies for the government. There would therefore be no possibility of any aims and objectives being achieved until such time as there was a total reversal of attitude to so many gay, lesbian, transgender and HIV/AIDS members of our communities by all levels of government in Australia - local, state and federal.

We have a web site which was started when we became involved with groups trying to overcome the homophobia generated by the religious institutions in this country who have a direct link to government through various ministers and lobby groups. The web site is:

http://home.zipworld.com.au/~josken/suicide.htm

We started the web page in 2001 and now, in 2009, not only has nothing changed, the situation has deteriorated during those 8 years.

We are making this submission in the hope that the apathy and homophobia surrounding the issue of the suicide of young and older gay people will actually be drawn to the attention of policy-makers and politicians who will do something to ensure that the problems in indigenous and gay communities causing so many to be driven to suicide will finally be addressed.

Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, Melbourne