Tag Archives: Australia & New Zealand

Age, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Global Perspectives | Queer Seniors

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In an effort to highlight geographically diverse conditions for minorities and underrepresented communities, Outlas is gathering and featuring publicly available personal accounts, documentaries, features, and other video content centering the experiences of marginalized communities around the world. Join us at the Outlas YouTube channel, where two playlist series highlight diverse stories from across the platform:

  • Intersections
    Featuring the experiences of multiple minorities and the effects and subcultures of compounded marginality, from Muslim women to queer people with disabilities
  • Contexts
    Featuring regionally specific content highlighting how geopolitical contexts shape identity from place to place, including people of African descent in East Asia, atheists in Africa, and beyond

So without further ado, Outlas presents…

Intersections: Queer Seniors

The first Intersections playlist is an evolving collection devoted to the experiences of queer seniors. Queer seniors face a range of community-specific vulnerabilities, from housing and services discrimination to ageism in the broader LGBT community. As the generations that survived the AIDS epidemic that eviscerated their ranks grow older, they age into physical, psychological, and financial health issues that disproportionately impact LGBT elders. But attention to vulnerability alone fails to highlight the vibrant cultures and histories of queer elders. Videos in the collection also tackle sexuality and aging, advice for younger generations, and the tremendous historical memory that queer seniors hold in need of preservation.

Featured content comes from countries including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia and includes the stories of queer women, people of color, drag performers, and transgender individuals. Unfortunately, the limited geographic scope of available content is a reminder that many if not most queer seniors around the world remain in the closet, located in regions unfriendly or even inhospitable to their visibility. We will continue to add more dynamic stories of queer seniors (particularly from non-English-speaking parts of the world) where appropriate and available. Outlas is always open to suggestions!

View the full playlist on YouTube and stay tuned for more collections featuring the experiences of other underrepresented groups around the world.

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Global Feature | LGBT

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The Global Fight to End “Reparative Therapy”

Countries around the world are increasingly acknowledging the extreme physical and psychological effects of LGBT “conversion” or “reparative therapy,” pseudoscientific practices including electroshock therapy, sexual violence, and psychological assault run in an effort to purge LGBT individuals of their sexual and gender orientations and identities. From East Asia to the Americas to the Middle East, governments have begun banning such practices, though they continue to run to the financial and psychological detriment of their subjects. The Guardian examines global stories and efforts to dismantle the phenomenon.

Read more:
“Electric shocks, rape and submersion: ‘gay cures’ and the fight to end them” (The Guardian)

Additional reading:
“A Firsthand Account of the Torture of ‘Conversion’ Therapy” (The Advocate)
“‘Gay Conversion’ Therapists Find Safe Haven in Israel” (The New York Times)
“Gay conversion therapy, fake doctors to be banned in Victoria” (ABC)
“US government calls for an end to LGBT ‘conversion therapy’” (Al Jazeera America)

(Image Credit: Ng Han Guan/AP, via The Guardian)

Age, Nationality + Migration

Australia News | Refugee Children

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Australian court ruling clears way for deportation of refugee infants born in the country
  • Australia’s High Court upheld the legality of the deportation of newborns born to asylum-seekers in the country, which currently include dozens of infants, as well as more than 50 children brought to Australia for medical treatment and their families.
  • The case was brought by the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) on behalf of a Bangladeshi woman who was transported from offshore detention to Australia in 2014 for prenatal medical treatment and has remained there since.
  • Australian citizenship laws withhold citizenship from children born in Australia to foreign nationals until their 10th birthday, at which time they must have lived in Australia for a significant period.

Read more:
“Australian asylum ruling paves way for deportation of infants” (Reuters)
“High court upholds Australia’s right to detain asylum seekers offshore” (The Guardian)
“Asylum seeker mother voices fears about being returned Nauru immigration detention centre” (ABC)

(Image Credit: Human Rights Law Centre Handout, via Reuters)

Religion + Belief

Australia News | Muslims

Hundreds show up for anti-Islam protest and counterprotest in Bendigo, Victoria
  • Right-wing protesters from the United Patriots Front rallied in the rural Australian town against the proposed construction of a mosque in the town.
  • The protest was met with counter-protest by anti-racism activists, which, though largely peaceful, led to four temporary arrests.
  • A massive police presence accompanied the demonstration, which was a part of a coordinated series of anti-Islam, anti-mosque demonstrations around the world.

Read more:
“Bendigo mosque: Anti-mosque protesters face off with counter activists” (ABC News)
“Hundreds face off in Australian town in anti-Islam protest” (Reuters)
“Bendigo mosque protests: Anti-racism demonstrators face off with nationalists” (The Age)

(Image Credit: Patrick Rocca/ABC News)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Australia News | Indigenous Australian

Indigenous lawyer earns Australia’s most prestigious legal title
  • Having just been announced among the new class of silks, Australian barrister Anthony McAvoy is believed to be the only Indigenous lawyer with the title in a country with an estimated 15 Indigenous barristers.
  • Taking silk is a merit-driven process allowing lawyers to add the initials SC (Senior Counsel) or QC (Queen’s Counsel, a Commonwealth title) after their name, designating senior authority.
  • One of 26 who were awarded the status in New South Wales, McAvoy specializes in native title rights.

“For many years there were hardly any practitioners coming through and unless you have practised as a solicitor, making it at the Bar is very difficult. …Without the number of law graduates coming into the practice of law, the numbers would always be low.”

Read the full story at The Australian.

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Australia News | LGB

Australia’s ruling coalition blocks free vote for same-sex marriage, effectively quashing chances in Parliament
  • Without a sanctioned free vote, party members are not allowed to cast votes that depart from the party line without threat of severe consequences leading up to expulsion.
  • Despite a poll from 2014 indicating 72% of Australians support same-sex marriage, socially conservative PM Tony Abbott has blocked multiple attempts to pass a marriage equality bill in Parliament.
  • After a rare full-coalition vote that saw Abbott’s Liberal Party outnumbered two to one against allowing a free vote, Abbott indicated that the coalition is open to a public referendum on same-sex marriage rights.

“If you support the existing definition of marriage between a man and a woman, the coalition is absolutely on your side but if you would like to see change at some time in the future, the coalition is prepared to make that potentially possible.”

Read the full story at Reuters.

Health + Ability, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Australia News | Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians face high kidney disease rates and low likelihood of transplant
  • According to official figures, nearly 18% of Indigenous Australians show signs of chronic kidney disease affliction and are ten times more likely to die of kidney disease than the non-Indigenous population.
  • Distance from treatment facilities and Australia’s comparatively low organ donation rate have created obstacles to treatment for affected individuals.
  • Northern Territory has the highest rates of kidney disease in the country, with Indigenous Australians comprising at least 85% of the afflicted.

“There’s a lot of work and hassle being to be on the waiting list so the incentive to be on the waiting is if you actually have to believe you’re going to get a transplant. If you believe your chances of getting a transplant are very low then it’s not worth the effort.”

Read the full story at BuzzFeed News.

(Image Credit: via BuzzFeed News)

Nationality + Migration

New Zealand News | Indian Immigrants

Indian nationals receive extortionate phone calls in New Zealand
  • Individuals posing as immigration officials have been targeting immigrants over the phone, threatening deportation unless payment is received.
  • The scams involve using phone numbers similar to the Immigration Contact Centre and demands for money transfers through Western Union.
  • Immigration New Zealand issued a reminder that they would never ask for payment over the phone and that such illegal activity should be reported to the police.

Read the full story at The Times of India.

Nationality + Migration

Australia News | Immigrants

Fights erupt as hundreds attend Melbourne anti-immigration rally
  • The demonstration in Melbourne organized by nationalist groups led to confrontations between participants and anti-racism activists, who tried to block the rally.
  • Protest organizers–including Reclaim Australia, the Rise Up Australia Party, and the United Patriots Front–used assimilation as a hinge for their anti-immigrant rhetoric.
  • Police officers used pepper spray to disperse the crowd and arrested four.

“If you think where you come from is better than where you are coming to, shut up, pack up and get out.”

Read the full story at Reuters.

(Image Credit: David Gray/Reuters)

Age, Health + Ability

Australia News | Seniors & People with Disabilities

New housing development in New South Wales looks to ease later-in-life care for people with disabilities with aging caretakers
  • The Pathways Project is a development providing housing units for people with disabilities and their aging family caretakers in a specially designed community.
  • The development allows families to continue to choose their disability services independently through the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
  • Ground broke on the project in February and is set to be completed by November, with its first residents by the end of the year.

“We really want to share what we’re doing because if it means there will be more accommodation for people who are ageing with a disability then that’s a wonderful thing.”

Read the full story at Australian Ageing Agenda.

(Image Credit: The Pathways Project, via Australian Ageing Agenda)

Gender

Australia News | Women

Housing in New South Wales domestic violence centers maxed out as government changes reshape landscape of crisis housing
  • In the southeastern Australian state, 90% of the 350 available rooms are full, while Sydney’s accommodations are at capacity.
  • The housing saturation comes as 28,870 domestic violence incidents were reported in the first quarter of the year, including 8 deaths.
  • Center managers report that a recently implemented governmental program has consolidated transitional and crisis housing with generalized homelessness services, leading to a sharp increase in housing demand and more turn-aways.

“It used to be that we were real advocates for women and now we are quite fearful of saying anything at all. We have to be grateful for every cent that we get.”

Read the full story at the Sydney Morning Herald.

(Image Credit: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, via The Sydney Morning Herald)

Nationality + Migration

Australia News | Greek Immigrants

As financial crisis looms, Greeks escape to Australia
  • Tens of thousands have immigrated to Australia in search of opportunity after Greece’s financial collapse has left families in economic ruin.
  • The immigration wave is the largest from Greece since its civil war in the 1940s, which sent more than 150,000 to Australia’s shores.
  • Melbourne, the city with the largest Greek population outside of Europe, has already seen overcrowding and a tightening job market, which could hamper opportunity for arrivals.

“I feel like I’m on a lifeboat and seeing the Titanic sink. … I’m relieved but my people are still on that ship.”

Read the full story at Reuters.

(Image Credit: Melanie Burton/Reuters)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Australia News | Indigenous Australians

Western Sydney Aboriginal community health center de-funded by government due to debts
  • The Department of Health announced that it was cutting AUS$2.6 million of funding from the Aboriginal Medical Service Western Sydney, a primary health care center for western Sydney’s indigenous community serving 11,000.
  • A department spokesman said that the department would work with the center over the next three months to transition its patients to other health service providers.
  • AMSWS had been found to have AUS$4 million in debt and had applied for funding from the government’s new Indigenous Advancement Strategy program.

“The Australian government acknowledges that this could be disruptive for patients, many of whom benefit by the community controlled model of care presently offered by AMSWS, but as this service is now no longer viable, every effort will be made to transition patients to other services, including local GPs and mental health and drug rehabilitation services.”

Read the full story at The Australian.

Nationality + Migration

Australia News | Nationals

Children of convicted terrorists in Australia could see their citizenship stripped under proposed law
  • Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has introduced a bill in parliament that would automatically remove Australian citizenship for those whose conduct is identified with terrorist activity, who travel abroad to fight with Australian enemies or terrorist organizations, or those convicted of terrorism by Australian courts.
  • Children could have their nationality removed as well if they are dual nationals unless there is a remaining Australian national parent who can care for them.
  • The immigration minister would retain the ability to reinstate citizenship without judicial oversight as a stopgap measure.

“The fact is, if you are a terrorist and you have left our country to fight with a terrorist movement that regards our way of life as in some way satanic, it is saying to us, submit or die, which hates our freedom, which hates our tolerance, which hates the welcome that we give to minorities, which hates everything about the way we live – frankly why should we consider you to be one of us?”

Read the full story at the Guardian.

(Image Credit: Mick Tsikas/AAP, via the Guardian)

Nationality + Migration
Indonesian authorities claim Australian government paid human traffickers not to return to Indonesia rather than land at Australia
  • A boat crew arrested in Indonesia told the police that Australian authorities had paid them each A$5,000 (US$3,860) to turn back with the 65 migrants on board.
  • Australia has made every effort to ensure that asylum seekers do not reach its shores, including turning boats back to Indonesia and detaining refugees in camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
  • Australia’s Foreign Minister and Immigration Minister have denied the claims, but PM Tony Abbott has declined to comment, citing security reasons.

“Under Australian’s push-back policy we have been consistently saying they are on a slippery slope. … Should this situation be confirmed and it turns out to be true, it would be a new low for the way the government of Australia handles the situation on irregular migration.”

More on this story at Reuters.

(Image Credit: Reuters/David Gray)