Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
Joined June 13th 2008
Recent PostsOn The Move AGAIN!!April 15th 2013 02:12
pic by Doc Searles: Creative Commons
Following a complete makeover of the Joy website and servers, you can now find The Rainbow Report blog and podcasts on the Joy website, finally bringing all the programs web presences together in one location. Check it out here.
 Labor's Lazy Cop-out on Discrimination ReformMarch 20th 2013 05:26
The problem I have with the government's retreat on anti-discrimination is simple: the remnant Sex Discrimination Bill is to be stretched to protect us. Good. No problem in principle. Thanks very much. (Not sure why we couldn't have a standalone LGBTI Rights & Protections Bill of our own, but I'll let that pass for now.) On the surface, a good idea. But . . . . The people who are most eager to discriminate against us (and single mums, and atheists, and believers in other religions), will continue to have carte blanche to do so without penalty. They are set above the law, by the law. And that is, quite simply, wrong. What is more, these people are paid public money - our taxes - to discriminate against any taxpayers they don't like. And who are the people, in general, they dislike most? Who do they wish to discriminate against the most? Us. Another wrong. The proposal now on the table does not even acknowledge, let alone tackle, these wrongs. Instead, it entrenches them. So this is very far from being a 'major' or 'historic' step forward. It cements this officially-sanctioned discrimination into law. Forgive me if that leaves me less than enraptured. So why have the government left the religious exemptions in place? They don't want to pick a fight with the religious trolls in their own party, like Joe de Bruyn, or in the Coalition, or in the Christian lobby. They don't want to have to actually WORK to get this through parliament, consulting, cajoling, negotiating and arm-twisting. You know, like they've been doing over a piece of legislation they REALLY want, they're REALLY proud of, they're prepared to take risks for, because they BELIEVE in what they're doing - the media laws. Yes, it's good that something, however little, has been offered for intersex and trans people. But as Rodney Croome says, this Act is so old and so riddled with religious exemptions that, with them still in place, it is almost meaningless. The least the government could possibly get away with doing, at absolutely no cost to themselves. A cheap, lazy, craven grovel to the Christian right, again. Because those people REALLY matter to Labor. Unlike us.
Life on the outerJanuary 15th 2013 20:50
Just a reminder that this blog now resides at The Stirrer
The StirrerDecember 23rd 2012 04:46
The StirrerNovember 21st 2012 05:51
In case you were wondering, I've opened a new site called the stirrer , where you can find all the pearls of wisdom I used to dispense here. I'd like to thank everyone at Orble for hosting me all these years, and I hope whoever takes this blog over from now on has as much fun with it as I have.
Religion in Schools: the Rainbow ReportOctober 25th 2012 04:59
Why should we worry about religion in secular schools? Well, if you send your child for a secular education, and then find s/he’s being taught Scripture by a fundamentalist Christian, and worse, an amateur teacher, wouldn’t you be a bit mad? If s/he was only Instructed in one religion, instead of being taught by qualified teachers about many religions?
And if you’re gay, as I’m sure one or two of you are, how would you react if you found out that anti-bullying programs were not being put in place, or even removed, because they are alleged – by Christians and some right-wing journos – to be a way of turning children gay by stealth? Some people want any discussion of sexual diversity kept out of sex education classes for the same reason – it’s ‘teaching children homosexuality
Rainbow Report Thursday Oct 11th 7pmOctober 11th 2012 03:18
Well, we got off to a good start last week with with Big Data: but our man from the Federal Police wasn’t happy. He thought he’d just be talking to an ordinary radio show, apparently, and felt a bit ambushed by the presence of people who knew what they were talking about. Sorry about that.
However, this week we’re on safer ground. I think
Rainbow Report Thursday Oct 4th 7pmOctober 3rd 2012 03:58
Simon Hackett , the founder of Internode, and Neil Gaughan, National Manager, High Tech Crime Operations, Australian Federal Police, join the Rainbow Reporter to discuss Big Data and the threat to your privacy, with James Newburrie and Rob Mitchell, Thu Oct 4 @ 7pm AEST.
Rainbow Reporter Doug Pollard - that's me - is celebrating more than 10 years of reporting and campaigning. And coming back with a bang! After a 3 month holiday, the long-running GLBTI news and current affairs show, The Rainbow Report, returns to Joy 94.9, Australia's only full time gay and lesbian radio station 7pm Thursday October 4
Freshly Doug on TuesdaySeptember 26th 2012 06:35
Freshly Doug on MondaySeptember 24th 2012 02:43
Veteran GLBTIQ journalist and broadcaster Doug Pollard picks his stories of the day.
FRESHLY DOUG will shortly appear regularly in a new home - watch this site for details.
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Lordy me!"
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on Rainbow Report Thursday Oct 4th 7pm
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