WHAT IS THE VOICE OF VICTORIAN JEWRY?

Some time in 2011 the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) called for submissions to be looked at by a "committee" "chosen" to investigate discrimination, violence, abuse and other forms of homophobia against Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and HIV (GLTH) people in the Jewish population in Victoria.

Why this process was ever undertaken has not been made clear over time since the final report was issued.

The point to consider in all of this nonsense is that the JCCV calls itself the
"Voice of Victorian Jewry".

Does this voice speak for 10, 100, 1000, 10,000 or the total Victorian Jewish population estimated to be about 100,000 people?

This is a body with no standing, with no honesty, with no representation, with no collaboration with those it constantly excludes from its so-called "voice".

The whole thing is a sham and needs to be exposed as such.

The pathetic bleatings on Joy Radio about a week ago of the current spokesperson for the organisation shows it is in complete disarray and should be closed down as soon as possible to stop wasting the Jewish public's money.

This fraud has gone on long enough with this group calling itself the "Voice of Victorian Jewry"!

Who is kidding who? (or should that be whom?)

FIRST RUSSIAN CONVICTED UNDER GAY PROPAGANDA BAN, BUT GAY PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY STILL RUSSIA'S FAVOURITE COMPOSER!!

The Russian hypocrisy is on a level with the worst types of homophobia around the world, and considering how many famous Russians are/were gay or lesbian, the Russians are hiding behind their own cloistered homosexuality. In the year 2012 one would hope they would start waking up to themselves, particularly with macho Putin prancing around half-naked to show how well-proportioned he is (Many suspect he is a closet homo, but we wouldn't be too happy to admit him to the fraternity/sorority or whatever!). The trouble is his brain was missed out in the process. All he knows is brute force and ignorance, a recipe for dictatorships around the world.

Interestingly, the number of famous gays and lesbians from Russia reads like an honours list and should give great hope and encouragement to so many around the world living in repressive regimes. Here are some of them:

Peter the Great

Rudolph Nureyev

Waslaw Nijinsky

Catherine the Great

Nikolai Gogol

Modest Tchaikovsky

Modest Moussorgsky

Alexandra Kollontai

Sergei Eisenstein

Sergei Diaghilev

Sviatoslav Richter

And this is just the tip of the iceberg!

This article was in Care2 on 4 May 2012:

First Russian is Convicted Under Gay Propaganda Ban

By Steve Williams
May 4, 2012

LGBT rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev has become the first person to be convicted under St Petersburg’s gay propaganda ban.

Reports the Washington Post:

Nikolai Alexeyev told the Associated Press that a city court in St. Petersburg fined him 5,000 rubles ($170) for breaching the law, which was controversially introduced by lawmakers in Russia’s second-largest city in February. He pledged to appeal the decision.

[...]

He said the judge has not presented the grounds for her decision, and that they will only be available next week. Calls to the court went unanswered shortly after the ruling.

The law was approved in February and came into force in March. As noted above, this is the first time a citizen has been charged under the ban’s provisions.

A judge late last month however declined to invoke the penalty, specifically saying that the ban on “homosexual propaganda” was so broad and ill-defined it lacked a sufficient legal framework to make it enforceable.

Alexeyev, a former journalist, turned to LGBT rights promotion in 2005 and subsequently founded the gay rights advocacy group GayRussia. He has been a vocal opponent of the ban, saying that its wide ranging nature speaks to a larger climate of oppression Russia is currently suffering under.

The propaganda ban is of course purposefully broad though. It is designed to prevent open advocacy of LGBT identity in the public sphere, this under the guise of protecting children. Critics have pointed out that this would serve to ban gay pride events outright, in direct opposition to European mandates of freedom of speech and assembly.

Seventeen Russian protesters were arrested during a May Day march this week with police charging them under St Petersburg’s ban on homosexual propaganda and with failure to comply with police orders, all because they were trying to fly rainbow flags.

The Ryazan, Kostroma and Arkhangelsk regions have also banned so-called LGBT propaganda and there is now a push to enact a federal ban.

It recently emerged that the propaganda ban is likely to have been inspired by a visiting US evangelical.

Read more: FIRST RUSSIAN IS CONVICTED OF GAY PROPAGANDA

MONSANTO, NEWS INTERNATIONAL - THINK BIG AND POWERFUL - THINK HOW POWER CORRUPTS AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY!!

From Nation of Change:

Letter Shows Monsanto Planted GMOs Before USDA Approval

By Anthony Gucciardi and Cassandra Anderson

Natural Society / News Analysis

Published: Wednesday 2 May 2012

“The USDA may have turned a blind eye to the entire situation, allowing widespread GMO contamination of GMO-free crops.”

Did Monsanto actually plant genetically modified alfalfa before it was deregulated by the USDA? There is some shocking evidence that, until recently, was withheld from the public showing that Monsanto’s genetically altered alfalfa may have been set free in 2003 — a full two years or more before it was deregulated in 2005. In a letter, obtained by NaturalSociety with permission to post for public viewing, it becomes clear that the USDA may have turned a blind eye to the entire situation, allowing widespread GMO contamination of GMO-free crops.

Amazingly, the letter actually proves that the USDA was fully aware of the situation. In order to fully understand the intricate details of this event, it is first important to understand a few key factors regarding alfalfa and its connection to the entire food supply.

Alfalfa is a perennial plant that grows for more than 2 years and may not need to be replanted each year like annuals. Because it is a perennial plant, it is exceptionally vulnerable to contamination. Interestingly, the modified alfalfa — created by Monsanto in partner with a group known as Forage Genetics — was the first perennial plant to be deregulated for open planting by the USDA. But did Monsanto unleash the plant before this occurred?

This is very serious because it is only a matter of time before alfalfa across America could be corrupted with Monsanto’s patented genetically modified trait. Organic meat and dairy could be tainted when animals are fed the modified alfalfa as well, threatening the very integrity of the organic food supply. What’s more, the contamination of natural alfalfa could be nearly impossible — if not entirely impossible — to remedy, so it could actually fracture the genetic stability of the entire crop on a global scale.

Shocking Letter Reveals Monsanto’s Contamination Dates Back 2 Years Before Deregulation

A letter from Cal/West Seeds shows that evidence of contamination was withheld and the USDA turned a blind eye to proof of contamination in 2005 which shows it was planted at least two years before it was initially deregulated in 2005. As you can see for yourself, the official letter states:

We first discovered the unintended presence of the Roundup Ready gene in our conventional alfalfa seeds in 2005. It was identified in one of our foundation seed production lots grown in California. We tested the foundation seed lot priot to shipping it to a producer who intended to plant it for organic seed production.

In another telling segment, the author writes:

We detected the presence of the … Roundup Ready gene in both our foundation seed and certified seed prior to deregulation.

In order to protect the safety of the individual, some further contents cannot be divulged. Remember in the past, those who have stood up against Monsanto have received anonymous death threats — in one case, the threats were directed towards a mother and her children.

This video documents the timeline of events that led to the deregulation of Monsanto & Forage Genetics’ GMO alfalfa that is contaminating natural alfalfa. As the video explains, the lawyers representing the farmers against Monsanto failed to hold an evidentiary hearing so the injunction (ban) against planting GMO alfalfa was removed and the case was sent back to the lower district court. The lawyers pursued no further action on this case.

Contamination levels are still very low, but will undoubtedly increase over time with unexpected results (like superweeds), so stopping the further planting of GM plants like alfalfa is of high concern. Furthermore, it would set a precedent for banning other GMO perennial plants as well — a monumental move in the legislative fight against GMOs. This letter, compounded with the other evidence presented in this article, is paramount in displaying just how serious of an issue genetic contamination is. What’s more, the USDA appears to have known the entire time. It’s time to spread the word.

AUSTRALIAN AIDS QUILT PROJECT

Some 5 or 6 years ago, at an event commemorating World AIDS Day on 1 December, the group in Melbourne called People Living with HIV/AIDS used the day to launch, at the premises of Positive Living in Commercial Road, Prahran, one of the best resources recording the Australian AIDS Quilts which had been photographed and placed on a web site where it was possible to look for a particular quilt block or panel and it was found easily while the site also gave information about the Quilt Project and its history in Australia.

Suddenly in 2011 this site ceased to function. The index page was still available, but the links no longer worked and the resource vanished from the scene, leaving people puzzled as to what had happened and why the site no longer worked.

The web site for the Quilt was aidsquilt.org.au and even now, if you look at this in a browser you will get the index page.

So it was with some surprise that we saw an announcement in the latest edition of the Star Observer of 27 April 2012 headed with this web address followed by the subheading "AIDS Memorial Candlelight Vigil & Quilt Project Inc" inviting people to an Annual General meeting at 2pm on Saturday 5 May 2012 at the premises of the Victorian AIDS Council in South Yarra.

When the Quilt web site ceased functioning, we contacted the AIDS Council and People Living with HIV to try and find out why the resource had vanished and were met with silence - we had no feedback whatever!

As a consequence of this failure to communicate, we acted on a suggestion of a friend of ours to do a little research and resurrect the AIDS Quilt blocks and panels and although this is a huge task, we have done a fair amount already and the Australian AIDS Quilt may now be found at: Australian AIDS Quilt


The meeting announcement stated that the Quarter-Centenary of the Australian Quilt is coming up and they are asking for community involvement and input with ideas for future directions.

One of the best ideas we can think of is to be pro-active with people who contact them and support efforts to continue the memorial work from years past.

This won't happen because all these groups are so busy big-noting themselves they have no interest in people who are not in their mainstream agendas.

SYDNEY CANDLELIGHT MEMORIAL - SUNDAY 20 MAY 2012

A news item in the Star Observer of 27 April 2012 states that the annual Sydney Candlelight Memorial for people who have died from AIDS will take place on Sudnay 20 May 2012 to coincide with International Candlelight Memorial Day.

The announcement goes on to state that the memorial will be held at Slide bar, 41 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst.

What is so extraordinary about this announcement is that there is in existence a ready made venue for such events to take place. The venue is called the Sydney Park AIDS Memorial Groves (SPAIDS) and is an ideal area for holding such commemorative events.

In past years SPAIDS has contacted the organisers of such events and suggested they hold the event at Sydney Park, but we have never even had the courtesy of a response.

The same story applies to the World AIDS Day Events held around 1 December each year. One event is a fund raiser and people are invited to do walks in the Sydney Botanical Gardens. Sydney Park is a fantastic venue for such events, but SPAIDS has been met by stony silences from the organisers.

It is interesting to know that people who come to SPAIDS on tree planting days, once a year on National Tree Day at the end of July each year are people who would attend some of these other events at these other venues.

SPAIDS realised a long time ago that the Sydney AIDS organisations are not interested in dealing with activists who aren't in the AIDS political mainstream, but it is their loss, and we are pleased to know that some groups, such as IDAHO and the Sydney Beat Project have felt that SPAIDS is a wonderful venue to hold events and also has the attribute of being conveniently situated in inner Sydney and easily accessible by all forms of transport. Sydney Park AIDS Memorial Groves (SPAIDS)

BRADLEY MANNING UPDATE - 30 APRIL 2012

On 24 April 2012, the day the latest trial of Bradley Manning started in Fort Meade in the USA, protests at the travesty of the so-called trial of Bradley Manning in that so-called democracy, the United States of America, were held in many places around the world. One of the places where there was a protest rally was here in Australia in Sydney. Nowhere else in Australia were any rallies held, showing how pathetic the left groups are around Australia. The city where protests should have been held, apart from the smaller cities, was Melbourne but there was absolute silence here. This shows once again that the left in Australia can not be relied on to take combined action to further left causes at home and around the world. No wonder they are held in such contempt by so many who have been involved in these groups over the years, only to leave them in disgust!

Hearings in Fort Meade, Protests around the world.

Hearings in Fort Meade, protests around the world.

Bradley Manning’s motion hearing comes to a close with judge upholding the charge of ‘aiding the enemy’, and prosecution attempting to ban any reference to the lack of harm caused from future court proceedings. The military continues to delay the proceedings: extending once again the trial timeline. As such we need to raise an additional $50,000 for legal defense expenses.

April 30, 2012. Bradley Manning Support Network. Supporters around the world took action as Bradley Manning's recent motion hearing came to a close, bringing him one step closer to actual trial. During the three day hearing the defense filed motions to remove the charge of ‘aiding the enemy,’ and to combine a number of the charges filed against Bradley Manning, blaming the prosecution for having listed a single offense multiple times in order to unreasonably multiply the sentence. The prosecution also filed a motion to gag any attempt by the defense to mention the lack of harm caused by the documents.

The military has used this hearing as an opportunity to clarify that they do not care whether Bradley Manning was acting with patriotic motives, or even whether the U.S. was actually damaged in any way, they still intend to pursue life in prison. The ACLU explains the alarming injustice of this argument and how its success would "turn thousands of loyal soldiers into criminals."

The judge denied the defense motions to consolidate and lessen the charges, but argued that the prosecution will have the burden of proving that Bradley Manning intentionally provided material to Al-Qaeda - when alleged chat logs clearly show Bradley’s intent was to inform the public and to inspire “worldwide discussion, debates, reforms.” Bradley will return to Ft. Meade for the next hearing, scheduled June 6-8.

Supporters raised funds to place 21 ads throughout the Washington DC metro in time with the hearings, and demonstrations were organized internationally. Protests were held in Chicago, Ann Arbor, Cleveland, Portland, Washington DC, Brea, Dallas, Oakland, San Diego, Las Vegas, Salina, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Sydney, South Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, and of course Fort Meade. Over the course of the week the National Theatre Wales was also performing "The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning", a play inspired by Bradley's life and story. Click here for photos and more of local events.


Donate now to the Bradley Manning defense fund.


For more information about the defense fund click here.

Legal Proceedings

New public domain image
of Bradley Manning.

Tuesday, April 24: Judge Denise Lind rejected a renewed request for transparency and the defense argued its motions to compel grand jury testimony and to dismiss all charges with prejudice. However, she granted in-camera review access to three damage assessments the defense requested – these assessments evaluate the harm, if any, caused by WikiLeaks’ releases.

Wednesday, April 25: The judge laid out a tentative schedule for the remaining pretrial hearings and the court martial itself, set to begin September 21. Then she denied the defense’s motions to compel grand jury testimony and to dismiss all charges. The defense argued two more motions to dismiss, and the ‘aiding the enemy’ charge and Bradley’s intentions were discussed. Supporters in the courtroom wore ‘Truth’ t-shirts and announced messages of support for Bradley.

Thursday, April 26: The prosecution motioned to gag any reference to the lack of harm caused by the released documents from further courtroom discussion. Closing the hearing, the judge denied the defense motion to dismiss the “aiding the enemy” charge. However, the prosecution’s burden of proof is raised: the government will have to prove Bradley knew America’s enemies would visit WikiLeaks.org specifically. Again, supporters thanked Bradley aloud for his steadfast courage.

New Trial Timeline

The judge laid out a tentative timeline for the remaining proceedings, again extending the trial timeline. This follows a long pattern of unreasonable trial delays whereby Bradley Manning has been in prison over 700 days. It will have been over two years before he reaches the actual court martial.

• June 6-8 Article 39 pre-trial hearing
• July 16-20 Article 39 pre-trial hearing
• August 27-31 Article 39 pre-trial hearing
• September 19-20 Article 39 pre-trial hearing
• September 21 – First day of court martial
• October 12 – Estimated completion of court martial

*all dates subject to change at the discretion of the military.

Demonstrations of Support

With the help of over a hundred donors, supporters were able to place 21 metro ads in Washington DC in time for the hearings. They help bring Bradley’s case back to Washington DC, and into the public eye, just as are the hundreds of supporters who organized demonstrations around the world.

M-1 of Dead Prez with Kevin Zeese from the Bradley Manning Support Network

Supporters at Fort Meade

Occupy the DOJ:

On April 24th, 2012, protesters gathered in front of the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, to protest against the brutal treatment of a number of political prisoners, including Mumia Abu-Jamal and Bradley Manning. The protest was organized by several community groups who shared the common goal of sending a strong message to Eric Holder to end solitary confinement, to stop torture, and to free all political prisoners. Bradley Manning was abused for 11 months in solitary confinement.

Guest speakers included Mumia Abu-Jamal who spoke by telephone from prison, M-1 of Dead Prez, Kevin Zeese of the Bradley Manning Support Network, and many others.

Occupy the Courtroom:

On Wednesday, April 25, Bradley Manning supporters amassed at the front gate outside Ft. Meade, where Bradley's motion hearing continued. Some advocates for the Nobel Peace Prize nominee remained outside holding signs, while others filled the courtroom, wearing "Truth" t-shirts to symbolize that which has been withheld from the proceedings thus far.

ABC News reports on the action inside:

Approximately 20 supporters of PFC Bradley Manning spilled over both sides of a small courtroom at Fort Meade, Md., the venue for a pre-trial hearing in the WikiLeaks case this afternoon at which Manning’s defense argued for dismissing charges against Manning.
About half of the Manning supporters had “truth” emblazoned across their shirts. Although their shirts spoke for them, at the very end of the hearing a few voices made their opinions audible.

A man yelled out, “Thank you, Bradley,” followed by, “Please free Bradley Manning.”

One woman yelled, “I think the military should go on trial.” Then another joined in, saying, “We need to know what our government’s doing.”

Donate now to the Bradley Manning defense fund.


For more information about the defense fund click here.

DAREBIN COUNCIL, SEXUAL MINORITIES, IDAHO

In 2001 we moved from New South Wales to Victoria after buying a house in Preston, in the Darebin Council area in Melbourne's northern suburbs.

For a few years before moving to Melbourne we had been involved with a group we had been part of since its inception, InterSection, formed after Christine Bird had been commissioned by Sutherland Shire Council to investigate issues dealing with sexual minorities in that Council area.

InterSection led us on to investigations of homophobia in local government councils around New South Wales, and correspondence between our group and many of the councils resulted in some interesting conclusions and outcomes.

Conclusions were that most councils weren't even interesting in responding to enquiries about homophobia and sexual minorities in their areas, and a few councils responded positively and provided information as to how they were dealing with issues of discrimination, abuse, bullying and related issues.

The outcome was that the New South Wales government of the time - during the 1990s - rewrote the mandatory requirements of local governments to include sexual minorities as a special group with other groups such as ethnic minorities, Aboriginal requirements, disability groups and similar minority groups in our society.

When we arrived in Preston in 2001 we discovered that Darebin Council had been involved in a survey relating to ageing and other issues within the Council's area.

We wrote to the Council person who had been the signatory to a report and the feedback we obtained at the time seemed to promise progress that Darebin Council would address the issue of sexual minority problems within the Council area.

Over the years we have made several attempts to urge the Council to address various issues relating to sexual minorities, all to no avail.

For the first time, in 2011, after the Council election process had been changed by the Victorian Electoral Commission, and Darebin residents were able to elect other than the dominant ruling party to the Council, Darebin Council suddenly discovered that there was an annual international event which recognised homophobia around the world and is called IDAHO - International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia and is held on 17 May each year.

Darebin Council held its first event in 2011, which involved a seminar and morning tea for people from various groups and residents in the Council area to get together and suggest ways forward to address the many problems confronting the Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and HIV (GLTH) members of the community in Darebin.

Some months later Council asked interested groups and individuals to contact Council with a view to setting up a committee to investigate and deal with issues in the GLTH communities.

In 2012 Darebin Council is holding a follow-up IDAHO to recognise the day and is having various events for the day.

Now it is possible to give Darebin Council some credit for acting at last on homophobia and related problems, but we, as InterSection and as Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, have been using whatever means were at our disposal to get some movement on these issues tears ago, to no avail.

We set up web pages to document progress - or otherwise - and what we see now is that Darebin Council, in keeping with so many other organisations, is re-inventing the wheel.

Our web pages are at InterSection, but the Darebin-specific pages commence at InterSection Part 4 and succeeding parts of the InterSection web pages.

Two issues with which we have been heavily involved in recent years relate to GLTH ageing and GLTH listings in Darebin libraries for young people discovering their sexuality and for older people who may still be living in the closet for fear of the consequences of being known to the public as "dykes", "poofters", "trannies" and other terms unacceptable to many people.

It is by now well known how the federal government outed people with changes to legislation on 1 July 2009 when many people were exposed after lifetimes of abuse from the community at large and over which the federal government ignored requests from us to grandfather certain of the clauses which were seen to be most harmful to us all. The homophobic members of the federal parliament - most of them, it seems - including the member for Batman, which covers most of the Darebin Council area, ignored our requests, but managed to grandfather other clauses of dramatic natures which they were busy introducing - increasing the ages before people would be able to receive pensions!

We are yet to see who the members of this committee are and what their connections are to the GLTH members of the community.

We are hoping it won't be another case of the farcical Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) inquiry into homophobia, discrimination, bullying and other GLTH issues faced by Jewish members of the community. JCCV received 5 submissions and the members of the committee were demanding secrecy of their identities which were only revealed on publication of the report. Since that date, all trace of any progress for the Jewish GLTH members of the community have vanished altogether.