Doug PollardJeffed Again
First Bob Katter. Now Jeff Kennett.
Jeff Kennett. Oh how I had hoped never to write those words again.
Every time another attack of relevance deprivation syndrome strikes, there he is, mouthing off about a) football and b) gays, two subjects on which he is of course, hugely well-informed, experienced and wise.
I have no comment on his footy fulminations, but when it comes to teh gays, Kennett is talking through Bob Katter’s Hat. Yet again.
It's supposed the be Three Strikes and You're Out! Let's see how Jeff stacks up.
Strike One!
After "Young, Gay and Proud" was published in 1978, Kennett said:
" 'Young, gay and proud' may equate with 'older, dissolute and sorry.' And is there any reason why someone who is homosexual should be especially proud of this state?" (Progress Press, "MP slams 'gay' book," 11 October 1978).
He has never withdrawn that statement, or apologised for it. Perhaps be prefers, in the words of the Lion King’s warthog Poomba, to ‘put your past in your behind.’
Strike Two!
In 2008 he queered his chances of standing for the Melbourne mayoralty by raising a storm when he compared a bisexual footy trainer to a paedophile:
". . . you had this gentleman there who was obviously close to young men - massaging young men - it ran an unnecessary risk. ...... It's the same if you have a paedophile there as a masseur, right?" (“Jeff Kennett gay storm” Sunday Herald Sun, July 27, 2008)
Kennett never apologised for that one, either. When I approached his office, they told me, ‘Confidentially, you’re wasting your time. Mr Kennett doesn’t do apologies’.
Indeed he told Gary Burns, who was threatening legal action against him for inciting hatred:
“With the exception of this one comment, I am sure you will have had no reason to be anything but supportive of my many public comments on the rights of minority groups. I was one of your [community’s] most public supporters, as I was of multiculturalism.”
Actually, that's two comments, Jeff.
But nothing withstanding his supposed inability to say sorry, he did apologise to Mark Latham for questioning the former Labor leader’s mental health.
Then again, Latham isn’t gay.
Strike Three! And you're . . . . still here??
For years his pet project, beyondblue, did virtually nothing to address those high rates of suicidal thought and depression among gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.
Time and again gay organisations had their applications for funding knocked back. In 2010, beyondblue said this was because there no ‘high quality’ research in existence.
But at the same time their own factsheets carried Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing gays and bisexuals “have far higher levels of anxiety disorders than their heterosexual counterparts (31 percent compared with 14 percent); and more than triple the rate of depression and related disorders (19 percent compared with 6 percent).”
After a vigorous campaign by activists, notably Rob Mitchell of the RJM Trust (disclosure: I advise the RJM Trust on media matters), beyondblue has begun to take action, but it continues to be difficult-to-impossible to get them to pay serious long-term attention to the GLBTIQ community. I wonder why?
Although they do great work helping GLBTIQ individuals, they seem to have little interest in addressing the issues that are hurting people in the first place.
Meanwhile friends continue to insist “Jeff doesn’t have a homophobic bone in his body.”
Perhaps he’s had surgery.
Anyway, it ought to have been three strikes and you're out, but our Jeffrey's a survivor, so now we have . . . .
Strike Four!
Writing in the Herald Sun Friday Sep 9th 2011 Kennett said,
“Clearly the best environment in which to bring a child into the world is a stable, loving environment in which a male and female are married to each other.
The existence of both genders is the environment in which that child will live his or her life -- in a wider community where both genders are almost equally represented.”
Never mind the ridiculous notion that there are no members of the opposite sex in the world of same sex parents, the facts prove him wrong.
If you’re interested there’s a useful and largely jargon-free outline here , summarising a study by Biblarz, T. J. and Stacey, J. (2010), How Does the Gender of Parents Matter? Journal of Marriage and Family, 72: 3–22. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2009.0067 8.x.
The study looked only at lesbian couples, as few studies have to date been done on gay dads.
Please bear with me while I quote a few key points: don’t worry, it’s quite straightforward. Even a football club chairman could understand it.
“Women who parent without men . . .generally have higher-quality interactions with their children than fathers or even mothers who co-parent with their husbands. . . .
Children raised by two moms. . . viewed their parents as more available and dependable, and were more likely to discuss emotional issues with them.”
Boys raised without a father . . . scored the same as boys with heterosexual parents on masculinity scales, but scored higher on femininity scales . . . . A more androgynous individual . . . generally has . . .better mental health..”
And of course our national anti-depression and suicide prevention initiative has no interest whatever in raising kids with better mental health, does it, Mr Kennett?
And You're OUT!! Please.....
Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and intersex folk have far higher rates of depression and suicidal thought.
This is caused by the persistence of old stereotypes, e.g., gay men are all paedophiles, gays make worse parents – what we loosely call ‘homophobia’ – that have long since been dispelled by proper, peer-reviewed scientific research (anything coming out of the Australian Christian Lobby or any of its affiliates and/or the Catholic machine can safely be discarded as distorted and fatally compromised).
The spokesperson for the lead national ‘initiative’ on depression and suicide prevention has, over many years, publicly embodied those stereotypes and has never recanted or apologised.
Depression and suicide are desperately serious business. Every year suicide kills more Australians than road accidents (2191 suicides, against fewer than 1400 road deaths in 2008).
Most will be clinically depressed. A high percentage will be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex.
So what exactly prevents the good people at beyondblue from focussing their efforts in line with the facts?
Surely they can’t be scared of offending their Chairperson? I thought that only happened in media organisations.
Time was when Jeff Kennett was a huge asset to beyondblue. It’s time the organisation recognised that time is over.
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They may well dispute that they are telling lies and vilifying people. What they don't know is being said about them they have no way of answering.
His comments were in the public press and I don't think Orble can be quite classified that way.