Gay rights for gays and other great things
Bloop de doop, I'm rather irregular on here.
Went to a Gay rights rally today, and it was terribly exciting. Started off pretty standard but, well... So,l I rocked up, and it took a little while for them to actually get going. Once the show was running, it was actually quite good, started off with MC Hans and the "We recognise we are on aboriginal land" announcement (Extended version) which I think is a bit wanky - to say they have a special connection with victoria square is a bit sus when it didn't exist before white settlement, but I digress. First guest was Sarah Hanson-Young, who was surprisingly interesting for a politician, and reccommended we contact our local MP. This was followed by Union reps, A sweet girl who was starting a GSA at Unley High, A singer, and another girl talking about the Inside Out Project being closed down (she would have to be one of the most enigmatic speakers I have ever heard)
The media was there as well, at first just a girl from ABC but soon The Advertiser, as well as channels 7, 9 and 10's news cameras showed as well and were doing a few half hearted interviews with the speakers of the day asking such inane questions as "What do you hope to get out of today?" To which I thought the answer was particularly clear ^_^
This was all going well until the marriages. The marriages were absolutely beautiful and it was lovely to see so many beautiful (and some rather cute) couples all taking their vows in front of everyone. At first I thought it was meant to be a bit of a joke because Hans was asking each of the speakers to marry him. When he still didn't have a partner by the ceremony I asked Hans to marry me but the bitch clearly knew I was too good for him and respectfully declined. I still wanted to take part though so I asked the nearest cute guy and almost had him but when we realized that most of the couples were actually taking it quite seriously we thought it best to bow out. I know a few of the couples there weren't taking it entirely seriously either but those that were, were in tears!
It was just lucky that the marriage ceremony finished when it did because almost exactly at the end of it the Bible bashers turned up. It is no small blessing that the Bible bashers were late, as I bet they would have loved to have ruined the ceremonies. Still, the Bible bashers weren't there to show their support of us and loudly started declaring how evil and horrible we all were in their vain attempt to bring us to the light (even though we were clearly brighter and more colourful than they were). A few of the more militant queers went over to quite loudly, firmly and in some cases forcefully request they kindly fuck off which had about as much effect on them as they did on us. Naturally the equal rights group were getting quite livid at this unwelcome intrusion so while the organizers attempted to distract us with the chick playing the guitar it didn't work and more and more of the gay rights group went over to voice their opinions right back at the Bible bashers.
I think at this point the organizers realized that an all out brawl was brewing and so if there was any other entertainment it was cut short and we dove straight into the march. I'm not sure if they were expecting the Bible bashers to push their way into our march but of course the bashers joined us as we marched down King William Street from Victoria Square to Parliament House , spilling their hatred while people on the sidelines cheered us on. When we reached Parliament House, the Bible bashers darted up on to the top of the stairs to try to get a podium spot but were quickly surrounded by us. While they were trying to wave their banners our side was making sure to get our banners in front of them. Any time a news camera was pointed at the Bible bashers, we made a point of waving our banners and flags behind them until the news reporters told us that they were not going to use any footage that we were trying to push into. Is for this reason I lost all faith in the South Australian news desks - although ABC was not being so stupid. I noticed on the news that they found some footage without us standing behind them so bravo for that you scum. I just feel it is important that any use of that footage clearly shows they were protesting US at OUR rally.
Anyway the minister who had presided over the marriages jumped into the thick of things and started reading passages from her Bible extolling peace, love, acceptance, and respect. Referencing her Bible she then mention a few passages that hinted they should perhaps fuck off home. I am in awe of that minister, the whole time she was calmly but firmly reading passages at them and defending us. She is everything I wish the church would be -not getting hung up on one passage while ignoring the surrounding passages and expressing the love and respect for all that Jesus proclaimed.
Unfortunately she seemed to be the only one that was keeping calm and controlled out of both groups, the tension was rising between the rest of the equal love group and the Bible bashers and I swear the Bible bashers were the first to start fighting dirty when they were pushing equal love protesters off the ledge. Its a near miracle no one was hurt before the police got there. I am so proud of my comrades in that we did not harm any of the protesters, we simply make sure that our voices were louder than theirs and that they understood we were not going to back down. A few times they attempted to break up however each individual member was quickly surrounded by pissed off fags louder than they could be.
While the police were there things settled a little and the police repeatedly suggested to the Bible bashers the what they were doing was likely to only incite violence and that they may wish to leave. Many people felt that the Bible bashers should have been forcefully removed but I disagree, just as we had the right to proclaim our beliefs and demand our rights, so that they have the right to proclaim their beliefs, as inconsiderately timed and narrow minded as they may be. As it was, the news cameras did capture a sweet shot of the head Bible basher being taken away. They portrayed this as him being removed, however the truth is that they were simply taking him away from the loud crowd to suggest that they may wish to leave, that their message was clearly not being heard nor accepted, and that there was a concern for their wellbeing. The Bible basher clearly decided that this suggestion was not for him nor any of his compatriots, as he drove straight back in.
After a while the equal love organizers declared the rally over, which was met from the other side with comments about who would be the last ones standing. Who says they weren't looking for a fight? A few people took this opportunity to leave, and gradually the crowd died down until there were only a few of us left. It was at this opportunity that a few of us started discussing with the Bible bashers how they found their beliefs and justify their treatment of us. I was quite eager to ask, if they felt their god was imperfect or made mistakes, to which they naturally replied that their god was perfect and that he (or she) could never make a mistake. I then asked, do they believe that their god made everything and everyone. Again this was answered in the affirmative, so I clarified that they believe that god made me and he could not have made a mistake with me. They saw with this was going but had no way out, and I asked that if I was not a mistake then why was I gay? They expressed the standard response that I was making the choice to live in sin, so I asked that, should the Bible not have said anything about homosexual sex, and if they had had a very good friend of the same sex, would they just be able to turn gay? They tended to dodge this question, and then attempted to draw parallels between homosexual sex and adultery.
As they were now drawing parallels between sins, I asked them to clarify which passage exactly declared homosexual sex immoral. They brought out leveticus and so I asked them why they felt that that one passage was more important than any of the others? This was met with a confused look so I explained that my understanding was leveticus had some other things to say about such topics as women in their menstrual cycle, marrying only virgins and stoning people. The is turned into the circular argument as to whether the old testament was still to be followed. Eventually the person I was discussing this with admitted he did not understand the Bible and I told him that I feel until he has a full understanding of what he is trying to discuss he should keep his opinions to himself. As he was also black, I asked him what his Bible had to say about people of different races and slavery? He naturally didn't agree with that so I once again pointed out they were selecting certain passages to fuel their hate filled agenda and that if they really want to make their point perhaps they should follow all parts of the Bible without fail. Alternatively, I suggested, perhaps they would like to take the opportunity to follow their lord and messiah's teachings in a more welcoming and loving way and make sure that the way they show their faith to the community around them shows Christians in the best light. This was met by suggestion that maybe I would like to stop being a sinful heathen. Clearly when debating with idiots such as these, you're wasting your breath but I found it fun anyway.
Towards the end I was asked why I wasn't going down before their word. I replied that I don't believe the gospel they were preaching truly captured the spirit of the lord. They had the wrong interpretation of the bible's meaning and they should rethink what is really telling them. Naturally they felt that the Bible was be infallible word of god and that there is no interpretation. I asked if that was so then why had so many translations, not to mention so many sects of religion all following the same book who cannot agree on what it means? And why would the infallible word of god be so hard to understand? If it really was god's intended method of telling us how to live surely he would have made a lot easier to understand. For instance, the words " men should not have sex with men nor should women have sex with women" would probably have been easier to follow than what is there.
All of a sudden the Bible WAS OPEN to interpretation And it was unfair to think that scholars thousands of years ago would have been able to copy it perfectly. So why should I expect that the first people to write it would have been able to write it with any accuracy -apparently because it is the word of god and god guided the hand that was writing -so why did god not guide the hand the translated it? Once I'd finished debasing all their arguments and getting little except for confused looks I was the last one left. I thought this was hilarious considering their previous statements about the last one standing and as they walked away I claimed a small moral victory.
All in all I think he was actually quite fun to debate with and their attendance made our experience all the richer and ensured that the media hung around for longer and had all the more reason to show our cause on the news, even if their reporting methods may have been a bit shit. I thought the group that formed to debate Julia Gillard when she came to speak at the Uni was forceful and at the rally this group took up another notch. I wait with bated breath to see the next rally!
Went to a Gay rights rally today, and it was terribly exciting. Started off pretty standard but, well... So,l I rocked up, and it took a little while for them to actually get going. Once the show was running, it was actually quite good, started off with MC Hans and the "We recognise we are on aboriginal land" announcement (Extended version) which I think is a bit wanky - to say they have a special connection with victoria square is a bit sus when it didn't exist before white settlement, but I digress. First guest was Sarah Hanson-Young, who was surprisingly interesting for a politician, and reccommended we contact our local MP. This was followed by Union reps, A sweet girl who was starting a GSA at Unley High, A singer, and another girl talking about the Inside Out Project being closed down (she would have to be one of the most enigmatic speakers I have ever heard)
The media was there as well, at first just a girl from ABC but soon The Advertiser, as well as channels 7, 9 and 10's news cameras showed as well and were doing a few half hearted interviews with the speakers of the day asking such inane questions as "What do you hope to get out of today?" To which I thought the answer was particularly clear ^_^
This was all going well until the marriages. The marriages were absolutely beautiful and it was lovely to see so many beautiful (and some rather cute) couples all taking their vows in front of everyone. At first I thought it was meant to be a bit of a joke because Hans was asking each of the speakers to marry him. When he still didn't have a partner by the ceremony I asked Hans to marry me but the bitch clearly knew I was too good for him and respectfully declined. I still wanted to take part though so I asked the nearest cute guy and almost had him but when we realized that most of the couples were actually taking it quite seriously we thought it best to bow out. I know a few of the couples there weren't taking it entirely seriously either but those that were, were in tears!
It was just lucky that the marriage ceremony finished when it did because almost exactly at the end of it the Bible bashers turned up. It is no small blessing that the Bible bashers were late, as I bet they would have loved to have ruined the ceremonies. Still, the Bible bashers weren't there to show their support of us and loudly started declaring how evil and horrible we all were in their vain attempt to bring us to the light (even though we were clearly brighter and more colourful than they were). A few of the more militant queers went over to quite loudly, firmly and in some cases forcefully request they kindly fuck off which had about as much effect on them as they did on us. Naturally the equal rights group were getting quite livid at this unwelcome intrusion so while the organizers attempted to distract us with the chick playing the guitar it didn't work and more and more of the gay rights group went over to voice their opinions right back at the Bible bashers.
I think at this point the organizers realized that an all out brawl was brewing and so if there was any other entertainment it was cut short and we dove straight into the march. I'm not sure if they were expecting the Bible bashers to push their way into our march but of course the bashers joined us as we marched down King William Street from Victoria Square to Parliament House , spilling their hatred while people on the sidelines cheered us on. When we reached Parliament House, the Bible bashers darted up on to the top of the stairs to try to get a podium spot but were quickly surrounded by us. While they were trying to wave their banners our side was making sure to get our banners in front of them. Any time a news camera was pointed at the Bible bashers, we made a point of waving our banners and flags behind them until the news reporters told us that they were not going to use any footage that we were trying to push into. Is for this reason I lost all faith in the South Australian news desks - although ABC was not being so stupid. I noticed on the news that they found some footage without us standing behind them so bravo for that you scum. I just feel it is important that any use of that footage clearly shows they were protesting US at OUR rally.
Anyway the minister who had presided over the marriages jumped into the thick of things and started reading passages from her Bible extolling peace, love, acceptance, and respect. Referencing her Bible she then mention a few passages that hinted they should perhaps fuck off home. I am in awe of that minister, the whole time she was calmly but firmly reading passages at them and defending us. She is everything I wish the church would be -not getting hung up on one passage while ignoring the surrounding passages and expressing the love and respect for all that Jesus proclaimed.
Unfortunately she seemed to be the only one that was keeping calm and controlled out of both groups, the tension was rising between the rest of the equal love group and the Bible bashers and I swear the Bible bashers were the first to start fighting dirty when they were pushing equal love protesters off the ledge. Its a near miracle no one was hurt before the police got there. I am so proud of my comrades in that we did not harm any of the protesters, we simply make sure that our voices were louder than theirs and that they understood we were not going to back down. A few times they attempted to break up however each individual member was quickly surrounded by pissed off fags louder than they could be.
While the police were there things settled a little and the police repeatedly suggested to the Bible bashers the what they were doing was likely to only incite violence and that they may wish to leave. Many people felt that the Bible bashers should have been forcefully removed but I disagree, just as we had the right to proclaim our beliefs and demand our rights, so that they have the right to proclaim their beliefs, as inconsiderately timed and narrow minded as they may be. As it was, the news cameras did capture a sweet shot of the head Bible basher being taken away. They portrayed this as him being removed, however the truth is that they were simply taking him away from the loud crowd to suggest that they may wish to leave, that their message was clearly not being heard nor accepted, and that there was a concern for their wellbeing. The Bible basher clearly decided that this suggestion was not for him nor any of his compatriots, as he drove straight back in.
After a while the equal love organizers declared the rally over, which was met from the other side with comments about who would be the last ones standing. Who says they weren't looking for a fight? A few people took this opportunity to leave, and gradually the crowd died down until there were only a few of us left. It was at this opportunity that a few of us started discussing with the Bible bashers how they found their beliefs and justify their treatment of us. I was quite eager to ask, if they felt their god was imperfect or made mistakes, to which they naturally replied that their god was perfect and that he (or she) could never make a mistake. I then asked, do they believe that their god made everything and everyone. Again this was answered in the affirmative, so I clarified that they believe that god made me and he could not have made a mistake with me. They saw with this was going but had no way out, and I asked that if I was not a mistake then why was I gay? They expressed the standard response that I was making the choice to live in sin, so I asked that, should the Bible not have said anything about homosexual sex, and if they had had a very good friend of the same sex, would they just be able to turn gay? They tended to dodge this question, and then attempted to draw parallels between homosexual sex and adultery.
As they were now drawing parallels between sins, I asked them to clarify which passage exactly declared homosexual sex immoral. They brought out leveticus and so I asked them why they felt that that one passage was more important than any of the others? This was met with a confused look so I explained that my understanding was leveticus had some other things to say about such topics as women in their menstrual cycle, marrying only virgins and stoning people. The is turned into the circular argument as to whether the old testament was still to be followed. Eventually the person I was discussing this with admitted he did not understand the Bible and I told him that I feel until he has a full understanding of what he is trying to discuss he should keep his opinions to himself. As he was also black, I asked him what his Bible had to say about people of different races and slavery? He naturally didn't agree with that so I once again pointed out they were selecting certain passages to fuel their hate filled agenda and that if they really want to make their point perhaps they should follow all parts of the Bible without fail. Alternatively, I suggested, perhaps they would like to take the opportunity to follow their lord and messiah's teachings in a more welcoming and loving way and make sure that the way they show their faith to the community around them shows Christians in the best light. This was met by suggestion that maybe I would like to stop being a sinful heathen. Clearly when debating with idiots such as these, you're wasting your breath but I found it fun anyway.
Towards the end I was asked why I wasn't going down before their word. I replied that I don't believe the gospel they were preaching truly captured the spirit of the lord. They had the wrong interpretation of the bible's meaning and they should rethink what is really telling them. Naturally they felt that the Bible was be infallible word of god and that there is no interpretation. I asked if that was so then why had so many translations, not to mention so many sects of religion all following the same book who cannot agree on what it means? And why would the infallible word of god be so hard to understand? If it really was god's intended method of telling us how to live surely he would have made a lot easier to understand. For instance, the words " men should not have sex with men nor should women have sex with women" would probably have been easier to follow than what is there.
All of a sudden the Bible WAS OPEN to interpretation And it was unfair to think that scholars thousands of years ago would have been able to copy it perfectly. So why should I expect that the first people to write it would have been able to write it with any accuracy -apparently because it is the word of god and god guided the hand that was writing -so why did god not guide the hand the translated it? Once I'd finished debasing all their arguments and getting little except for confused looks I was the last one left. I thought this was hilarious considering their previous statements about the last one standing and as they walked away I claimed a small moral victory.
All in all I think he was actually quite fun to debate with and their attendance made our experience all the richer and ensured that the media hung around for longer and had all the more reason to show our cause on the news, even if their reporting methods may have been a bit shit. I thought the group that formed to debate Julia Gillard when she came to speak at the Uni was forceful and at the rally this group took up another notch. I wait with bated breath to see the next rally!