Post 3: Stakeholders Issue Map & Image Archive

Categorised participants/stakeholders (human and non-human) involved in LGBTIQ

Stakeholders Relationship/connection Map

 

In the first step of mapping exercise (identifying issues based on our chosen issue) our group found it fairly straightforward with identifying all issues and ideas related to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Intersex and Queer/Questioning. At first we noticed a lot of broad terms thrown around everywhere on the paper. In order to build up on the complexity of our issue we decided to refine our map by categorizing them into significant areas that made LGBTIQ issue aware. They include; Media, Organization, Demographic, and Government. After refining the map I noticed that many of these stakeholders were interwoven together some way or another. The issue that was raised during mapping session was that we had to consider the environmental and the cultural impact of the significant LGBTIQ on top of the stakeholder’s involvement. This consideration added second layer of complexity to LGBTIQ issue and allowing us to understand that there was a bigger intertwined picture to this issue. Through this exercise we realised how each stakeholders can affect each other and that it can impact the way it can be perceived and identified.

 

Image Archive

Image 1: The Veiled Truth / Jordon – Where Love is Illegal

This is a photograph of a Gay Jordanian boy. He comes from a extremely culture orientated family that strongly disses and hates minorities, including homosexuals like himself. His mother in particular insists that he is an ill boy and that there is something wrong with him because he is gay. The bandaged face represents a notion of being perceived as a sick person in the eyes of the public and it shows signs of disgust and hatred. The fact that the image is taken as a direct portrait shot with lack of facial features showing accentuates a strong sense of insecurity and agony living in a place where homosexuals are not welcome.

 

Image 2: GLSEN’s #DayofSilence (Connor Franta, 2016)

This is a photograph of, a proud gay public figure Connor Franta. The image was specifically taken for #DayofSilence which was to promote safe schools and space for everyone in the community. The idea of ‘silence’ written on his wrist and covering his mouth sends a clear message that LGBT youth are being silenced in our community. According to the GLSEN.org 9 out of 10 LGBT youth report of being verbally or/and physically bullied in their school. The pink carnation held in hand by Connor communicates a gesture of gratitude towards victimized LGBT youth. The intention behind this image stands strong and clear on sending a powerful sentimental message

 

Image 3: LGBT as a Disorder in Japan. (Buzzfeed, 2016)

This is an image of a Japanese girl walking into a disabled toilet due to public’s rejection and negative output towards her sexual orientation. The idea of the girl walking into a dark disabled bathroom captures the notion of rejected or confused gender identity. In the sourced article of this image, the mother of the girl in this image gave her daughter a diagnosis of gender identity disorder (GID). The disorder is defined as “a desire to live and be accepted as a member of the opposite sex.” The result of her diagnosis lead her school to implementing disabled bathrooms accommodating for students with physical disability including her.

 

Image 4: No home for the holiday (XD, 2012)

This is an image of a homeless child. According to the source the child has been left on their own due to their queerness/sexual orientation. The image gives verisimilitude to the LGBT youth issue. The torn clothes worn by the child indicates sense of violence that he or she might have experienced. Through this idea of violence (besides homelessness) represented in this photo, we can immediately link the idea of child abuse and discrimination as a result of being a minority member. Furthermore the curled up position of the child embodies loneliness and heartache towards the world they live in. This image portrays a powerful reason as to why LGBT youth are so afraid of coming out.

 

Image 5: Where Love is Illegal (Panos, 2016)

This is an image of Jean Yannick form Cape Town, covering his chest with his hands. You can see by the way his nails have been treated that he is not an average man if South Africa. This is a body picture of Jean who has been gang raped infront of his partner. That has been rejected and denied for reporting the attack he was in. And also whom the police have taken and locked up for 13 days for reporting the attack. ‘We can’t help someone like you because our culture doesn’t have gay people, and if those people come to kill you, we can’t do anything. If you want to be gay you should leave the country.’

 

Image 6: I am not… (Osocio, 2016)

This is a poster for Czech LGBT support organization Sbarvouven. The poster of a girl camouflaged to the background represents the idea of concealed identity in the LGBT community. This poster clearly emphasizes the idea of ‘hiding inside the closet’ through the visual expression. In the poster only her clothes have been edited to blend in with the background. This shows that she does not have the courage to stand up for herself to show her true self. Instead she is blending into the environment she lives in to avoid harassment and taunts that may be caused due to the way she is.

 

Image 7: No Soy Tu Chiste (Daniel. A, 2013)

This is image is part of ‘I’m Not A Joke’ Artivism, art on human rights. This particular art campaign is raising awareness of the prejudice and discrimination against LGBTIQ community around the world. The visual representation of the male being anchored down by the globe ball and chain indicates the notion of suppressed identity expression. The floral print on the male’s body implies a natural beauty.

 

Image 8: Transgender (Pinterest, 2016)

The image shows a reflection of what it appears to be a boy but in reality a girl. The chest strapped up girl looking own signifies the hardship and agony she is going through in order to transform her body into an image that she wants to be disguised as. The image depicts the notion of distressed transgender who cannot be entirely who they want to be until the process is completely done. Although this image represents a transgender youth’s struggle this hardship is applied to any transgender in our society.

 

Image 9: Stop Trying To Wash It Away (Pinterest, 2016)

This is an image of a mother trying to wash away the rainbow-bodied son in the bathtub. The image of the mother with the glove attempting to scrub off the son’s LGBT identity illustrates the notion of disbelief and rejection. It shows that the mother believes sexual orientation is removable and that it should not belong to her son. The boy on the other hand sits in the bathtub watching him being washed away when he clearly knows that it’s in fact part of who he is.

 

Image 10: I Hear Your Words (Helenski. J, 2015)

This is an image of a closer up body part with an imprint saying ‘I will not allow your semantics to hide my experience.’ The image explores the role of body as a tool for shaping society’s concept of gender and sexuality. The impression made on the body represents the notion of being emotionally, psychologically, and physically oppressed to society’s semantics. The body becomes the essential medium and tool in this image for visualizing the social metaphysics surrounding the concept of LGBTIQ.

 

Works Cited

Arzola, Daniel. “No Soy Tu Chiste.” 23 Januaray 2013. Tumblr. 18 August 2016 <http://nosoytuchiste.tumblr.com/post/136108552752/im-not-a-joke-no-soy-tu-chiste-is-artivism&gt;.

Franta, Connor. “ConnorFrantaFans.” 15 April 2016. Facebook. 18 August 2016 <https://scontent-syd1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/13002396_1057779877634336_2680180186774449929_o.jpg&gt;.

Helenski, James. Jameszie. 2015. 20 August 2016 <http://www.jameshelenski.com/i-hear-your-words/&gt;.

2016. Lester Feder, Nikki Tsukamoto Kininmonth. “BuzzFeed News.” 6 August 2016. BuzzFeed. 20 August 2016 <https://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/transgender-in-japan?utm_term=.fhMB37qyWr#.muvG1B0QYR&gt;.

Panos Pictures. “Where Love is Illegal.” Panos. 21 August 2016 <http://www.panos.co.uk/bin/panos2.dll/go?a=disp&t=gl-loader.html&_storyState=1&_tlid=2&groupid=13&galleryid=1797&glbid=2290&si=65B29A8FA0DE4901A54E666B978491&rnd=283.5.3&gt;.

Pinterest. Pinterest. 18 August 2016 <https://au.pinterest.com/pin/350014202272873809/&gt;.

sbarvouven.cz. “I am not.” Osocio. 17 August 2016 <http://osocio.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/sbarvouven_lgbt2.jpg&gt;.

“Stop Trying To Wash it Away.” 2016. Pinterest. 18 August 2016 <https://au.pinterest.com/pin/350014202272873786/&gt;.

“The Veiled Truth.” 2016. Where Love is Illegal. 22 August 2016 <http://whereloveisillegal.com/the-veiled-truth/&gt;.

2012. “No Home For the Holidays.” 24 December 2012. Mused Mag Online. 18 August 2016 <http://www.musedmagonline.com/2012/12/no-home-for-the-holidays/&gt;.

 

By April Bae

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Post 3: LGBTIQ rights: Mapping the stakeholders (human and non-human) and constructing an image archive

KATHY NGO

A Map of the Stakeholders involved in the LGBTIQ rights issue

Mapping the stakeholders helps us to understand who involve and the context of this issue. In the beginning of mapping, many broad terms were put down on the paper randomly as then we hadn’t specified the groups of stakeholders yet. The relation between was a bit of complex since somes were supportive, somes were against and somes were neutral into the LGBITQ rights.

From the first map, we categorised the stakeholders into 4 different groups that were marked with 4 colours:

Pink: Organisation
Green: Government
Blue: Social Media
Orange: Institutions

From this, we noticed that stakeholders from the Green group has less supportive than the others as its related to political issues. The rest are all supportive or seeking for support and education.

IMAGE ARCHIVES

1. “End the Bigotry”: SNP backs “Time for Inclusive Education” campaign for LGBT teaching

Time for Inclusive Education Campaign #TIE – Gray M. 2016

This is the campaign ‘TIE: Time For Inclusive Education’ which aims to support increasing young people’s awareness of LGBTIQ in Scotland. The Tie campaign co-founder Jordan Daly stated that it was a ‘historic day’ for Scotland. The vote has pushed the government and schools to take action against sexism and discrimination, especially LGBT suicides and self-harm in Scotland’s schools.

“We need to make sure that Scotland’s young people grow up in an environment that is equal, accepting and safe.””More than a qua\rter of LGBT young people have attempted suicide due to bullying in schools,” Miller said.

I found that Scotland also had the similar program to the Safe Schools in Australia. Therefore, no doubt that this issue is globally a big concern.

2. The U50 Lesbian couple in Quang Ninh, Vietnam:

Ms.Nhung and Ms. Phuong (from Australia) in their Wedding photoshoot. (Kenh14, 2016)

In January 2015, Vietnam was the first Southeast Asia country allowed same-sex marriage. This move has opened a new page to LGBT community in Vietnam, not only for young people but also older generation. Ms. Phuong is from Sydney and Ms. Nhung is from Ho Chi Minh city. They knew each other through Facebook and fell in love with each other. In August this year, they decided to get marriage (once more!) and luckily, they have a great support from their own daughters. The kids said “As long as you happy, I am happy!”

I am very surprised by this statement from them. I think children are so pure-hearted. Their thoughts are not affected by the society and environment, that sometimes, adults should have learned from.

3. Love is Colorful: Love Comes In All Shapes And Colors

Love Is Colorful: Paint Ads campaign by Zim Colored Powder (Tuppi 2015)

This is an LGBT-oriented ad campaign by Zim Colored Powder. These beautiful photos embrace the meaning of LOVEL: Gay, Lesbian, and Heterosexual can be loved with all present, all shapes, all colours, and sizes. 

I really love this campaign. It is very powerful and also empowers the LGBT community.

4. Think B4 You Speak

The campaign created by Ad Council aims to raise awareness about verbal bullying at school. (Ad Council & GLSEN 2014)

As my topic is the Sexual education in schools, I am really keen of seeing existing campaigns in this issue. This is one of the campaign I found having a strong message. It aims to “raise awareness about the prevalence and consequences of anti-LGBT bias and behaviour in America’s schools”.

According to Ad Council, almost 90% of LGBT students report being verbally harassed at school. Compare to Australia, the rate is slightly lower with 80% (Australian Humman Rights Commission – 2014) . However, both numbers are still very high and unacceptable.

5. Do I Sound Gay?

David Thorpe’s self-exploration documentary “Do I Sound Gay” (2014)

After a break-up with his boyfriend, David Thorpe starts a self-discovery about ‘sounding gay’. After interviewing many people including friends, family and even celebrities, he learnt that almost everyone has wished for a different voice. His documentary film uncovers the complicated layers of sexual orientation and identities.

6. Gay Marriage Equals

Rick Santorum has produced a lot of posters concerning about LGBTIQ rights. This is one of his series. By using only typography, his work presents what gay marriage couples often hear and get verbal abuse from the society such as being animals or ‘the devil himself’.

7. Safe Schools…

Illustrated by David Pop 2016

The artist of this illustration is David Pop. He often illustrates the political issue for magazines and newspapers. He illustrates the statement of Victorian Equality Minister Martin Foley accusing Mr Turnbull of abandoning LGBTIQ youths as the program saved lives. The program was blamed for not “age appropriate”. The issue was discussed at a meeting of Coalition MPs and senators. Liberal senator Cory Bernardi called this program to be defunded because he was afraid it would “indoctrinate children into a Marxist agenda of cultural relativism”.

However, on its websites, Safe Schools has included links to various content to prove that this issue must be solved as soon as possible as “61% reported verbal abuse (the rate is higher in 2014 according to my research with 80%) , 18% reporting physical abuse”, “20% of trans Australians and more than 15% of LGBT report current suicidal thoughts”.

In my opinion, Safe Schools is a good program. However, again, we still need to make a good consideration of how it should be launched. Because as saying, children is very pure-hearted. We don’t want them to think themselves in different gender but more likely to educated them to respect all genders and discrimination and harassment are wrong.

8. Infographic: North Carolina’s Gay Marriage Ban

An interactive Infographic of gay rights in the USA – The Guardian 2015

 

This is an interactive infographic presents the handling of gay rights laws vary by America state and on a range of marriage, hospital visitation, adoption, housing, employment and school bullying. Created in 2012, the design is still up-to-date and the graph has shown that the number has changed dramatically.

 

The graph on 26 June 2016

All of the states across America has approved Gay marriage. However, school bullying still happens a lot in Midwest, Southeast, Southwest and Northwest. It seems like nothing has changed in 4 years. Once again, school bullying has become my big concern and I would like to research more.

9. How America Came To Accept Gay Marriage

Jishai Evers / Vocativ – 2014

This infographic motion gif shows how America came to accept gay marriage in 24 years, from 1993 to 2014. Visually we can see that from 1993-1995, Americans had been pretty neutral opinion towards gay marriage. However, in the 1996-2006 period, the discrimination got more intense, especially in the Midwest and the South states. In 2006 and so on, with a lot of effort to change the attitudes toward LGBTIQ from many activists and campaigns in the USA, more and more states has begun accepting same-sex marriage. In 2014, the discrimination intensity decreased and the Midwest and the South states changed their attitudes to be a bit more neutral.

10. The Murder of Hande Kader – A Turkish Transgender Woman

The incident just happened on Aug 12. Kader was the victim of the murder whose body was found burned and mutilated in the Istanbul neighbourhood of Zekeriyaköy. From the source, I learnt that she was a well-known LGBT activist and the photograph above was take last year when she participated in a protest in Gay Pride Istanbul in June 2015. Kander’s murder has shocked me because it happened just after Muhammad’s murder, a gay Syrian, who was killed 2 weeks ago. In Turkey and surrounded areas, homosexuality is not illegal and discrimination is still commonplace.

I feel so angry. Because LGBTIQ people are normal human being. They should have the rights like everybody else. They shouldn’t have fight for their basic rights – for just being themselves.

“We are constantly shouting at LGBTI+ Prides, Trans Prides and other protests that homophobic and transphobic statements are leading to hate crimes, murderers often escape unpunished, and hate crime laws are urgent. Unfortunately, our Prides have been banned in the last two years, yet we need to be seen, to be on the streets and to shout our demands in order to end hate crimes… We demand justice for all that lost their lives for being a woman, a trans or a gay.” – Pink Life Association stated

Reference

Ad Council 2014, Think B4 You Speak, Pinterest, viewed 15 August 2015, <https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/37/32/ec/3732ec93dc94c9330501b4cf3feb810a.jpg>

"Gay rights in the US, state by state" 2012,  The Guardian, viewed 27 August 2016, <http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2012/may/08/gay-rights-united-states>

Gray M. 2016, "End the Bigotry": SNP backs 'Time for Inclusive Education" campaign for LGBT teaching", CommonSpace Journalism, viewed 15 August 2016, <https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/3664/end-bigotry-snp-backs-time-inclusive-education-campaign-lgbt-teaching>

Gray M. 2016, "Time for Inclusive Education" , CommonSpace Journalism, viewed 15 August 2016, <https://www.commonspace.scot/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/migrate/article-3664.jpg?itok=osNBsdNM>

"How America Came to Accept Gay Marriage" 2014, Visually, http://visual.ly/how-america-came-accept-gay-marriage>

Kenh 14 2016, "The U50 Lesbian Couple in Quang Ninh: "We are so lucky that our children support us", LGBT, viewed 15 August 2016, <http://kenh14.vn/cap-doi-dong-tinh-nu-u50-o-quang-ninh-may-man-nhat-la-cac-con-ung-ho-chung-toi-den-voi-nhau-20160809222115795.chn>

Pop D. 2016, Safe Schools..., Scratch! Media, viewed 19 August 2016, <http://www.scratch.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/160224schoolscts.jpg>

Warren, R. 2016, "A Transgender Woman Was Raped And Set On Fire And People Are Demanding Justice", BuzzFeed News, viewed 27 August 2016, <https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2016-08/19/10/asset/buzzfeed-prod-fastlane02/sub-buzz-926-1471617794-1.png?resize=625:543&no-auto>

Zim Color & Tuppi 2015, "Love is Colorful", viewed 15 August 2016, <http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/love-is-colorful-lgbt-gay-lesbian-ad-campaign-zim-colored-powder-5.jpg>

Post 5: Approaches to design for change, design-led ethnography

Kathy Ngo

“Designers should care about ethnography because it can help produce more compelling innovative design that really connects with users – in a way that creates delight” – Darrel Rhea

Design-led ethnography is “to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group” – Clifford Geerts.

Ethnography has 3 step process:

• Go to them
• Talk to them
• Write things down (Rick Robinson)

Therefore, to approach to design for change and design-led ethnography, we need to interview people to find out different insights towards the LGBTIQ rights issue.

My main goals in this interview was to:

• How is the LGBTIQ community life in Asia like?
• How did the country decrease discrimination? By what methods (social media, movies…)
• A personal experience of the interviewee of homosexual bullies
• Sexual & gender education in an Asian country
• How TV series and dramas influence and support LGBTIQ

 

The interview questions:

• Do you know what LGBTIQ stands for?
• Have you known/experienced anyone any verbal abuse/discrimination relating to different genders before?
• Did they have any challenges to fit in the society?
• What are the issues of LGBTIQ rights you think the community is facing?
• Do you often see videos/articles related to LGBTIQ on social media? Where?
• What is the most important right that the LGBTIQ should have?

My questions in the interview were intentionally lack of in-depth in order to let her give me her own perspective towards the issue. Interestingly, her answers gave me another view that I had not expected. From the interview, it could be assumed that young people in China had little knowledge about this issue. She didn’t know what LGBTIQ stood for and also didn’t pay much attention to this issue. However, when I asked some questions related to her, the conversation got more open and more in-depth. She said that in her country China, LGBTIQ had gone quite popular in tv series, dramas and social media, where the young generation mostly associated with. However, in real life, general public and especially the government often ignored this issue. People still called homosexual people mental illness or need to be sent to hospital.

After the interview, a task I gave to her was to collect any TV dramas and series she watched and could fine that were with LGBTIQ characters or storylines. The result was far from my expectations.

Love of Siam – Thai Movie

 

Alternative Love – 2016

 

 

Go Princess Go – 2016

 

 

Yes or No – Thai Movie

Some of the movies she mentioned were very popular that I had watched several times. Most of them brought the gay relationships to the big screen in such a natural way that there was no different between straight and gay relationship. Those movies had influence the audience for a long period of time and were called the big revolution of gay movies in Asia. They normalised the LGBITQ people in order to erase the discrimination and impact to those very traditional and cultural societies. 2016 has been a big year that there are many Chinese dramas released with gay storylines. Therefore, as an impact, the perspective towards this community has shifted positively.

However, most of the films and dramas were banned by the government as being called “not appropriate”. This had raised a lot of questions from the audience of the definition of being “appropriate”. It can be assumed that for now, China government still doesn’t support much to LGBITQ.

 

 

Key insights:

• Discrimination in China ( Asia in general) was not as intense as I imagined. In fact, social media and film industry play a vital role in the change and in raising awareness about LGBTIQ issue.
• There is still a lack of knowledge of young generation on this topic. It is important and essential to educate people from different generation about the issues.
• However, the youth are the main factor of the change. They are easily influenced by what they read, watch and see everyday.
• It was very awkward at the beginning of the interview. However, if I let the conversation grow, there are many more information from the participant that are unexpected and very interesting to know since the person slowly relates the questions to herself. Also it is very good to have some generic questions and to avoid yes/no ones. Those could kill the flow!
• I think the next step of my research is to understand more about Religion in LGBTIQ rights as they are potentially a major factor in the change of LGBTIQ rights.

Post 1: Discriminatory Treatment Against LGBT Youth

According to the human rights campaign, 4 in 10 LGBT youth say the community they live in does not accept them and LGBT people. Growing up, I would’ve never considered LGBTIQ issues as something serious if I hadn’t witnessed a close friend of mine go through social ostracism and personal denial due her homophobic community and culture. After reading various secondary sources on LGBTIQ rights it was disappointing to see that there were still strong negative perspectives on this issue today.

 

Article 1.

Sonia Kruger calls scholarship program ‘reverse discrimination’ 

Dana McCauley is a finance Editor at new.com.au. She is responsible for breaking stories about all things business, work and money related. Prior to her current position she has been an award-winning Journalist for 3 years at Leader Community Newspapers. Her education in Arts, Law and Journalism ensures her as a profound writer for new.com.au.

McCauley has written this article due to the controversy Sonia Kruger has raised on LGBTIQ scholarship program. The article is mainly built up on Sonia Kruger’s commentary on the scholarship as “reverse discrimination” on the Today Extra show. The article is followed by other relevant but mixed commentaries on the LGBTIQ Scholarship. The commentaries that are mentioned in the article show two opposite standpoints on the LGBTIQ financial incentive. The argument circulates around if the incentive is appropriate or not for youth and if this is an example of ideological activism.

Although the article shows strong opposing standpoints of various commentators the author herself does not show particular bias towards the issue. But rather writes the article in a respectful tone that is critical of ideas, and not of commentators.

 

Article 2.

Schools embrace controversial gender program that the LGBT community says ‘saves lives’

In contrast to article one, Lisa Schefman from Frankston Standard Leader writes a supportive outlook towards gender programs offered at schools in Frankston. Schefman is a Journalist at Leader Newspapers, covering Frankston area in metropolitan Melbourne.

As a local of Frankston municipality for 32 years and a Journalist at Frankston, Schefman was motivated to write this article due to the attention that has sparked from growing number LGBTIQ programs embraced in Frankston schools. The controversy began after a Frankston High School parent withdrew her children from the school due to her disapproval of the gender diversity program. However the article does not flourish the negative take on the program, but alternatively mentions statements from LGBT organizations and stakeholders that encourages why we should have safe schools coalition on board.

The article shows preference towards pro safe schools coalition through several mentioning of improved statistics on discrimination and bullying against same-sex attracted and gender diverse (SSAIGD). Overall, the article is embracing the safe schools program to general public and voices that it should be something we all need to be humbled about being offered at schools.

 

Article 3.

Rainbow Votes: Where The Parties Stand On LGBTI Youth 

This article was written by the Gay News Network (GNN). They are also the online home of Evo media, Australia’s largest national media company focusing on the gay and lesbian market. The GNN writes about latest news, stories, trends and gossip that affect the LGBTIQ community in an informative way to connect the community together.

This article was written to provide in-depth facts about major parties on LGBTI youth for the LGBTIQ community in preparation for the upcoming federal Election Day. The Gay News Network strongly believes that it is essential to reduce violence and harassment against LGBTIQ students. Therefore they give us an outline of what each major parties are doing to combat homophobia, biphobia and transphobia occurring in schools. Additionally it is evident that this article is a well-researched piece as it aims to provide comprehensive information for LGBTIQ voters.

The 2016 Federal Election is said to be one of the most important election for the LGBTIQ communities. Overall the author profoundly writes to make rainbow votes count. Their main aim for this article is to help LGBTIQ people in deciding how to make their vote count.

 

Article 4.

NSW Safe Schools ‘harassed’ into hiding: youth foundation

Sarah Elks is a Queensland political reporter at The Australian with 9 years of Journalism experience. She has received several awards and honors for excellence in investigative report, coverage and feature writing. In this article she reports about Safe Schools Coalition Australia after NSW pull its schools out from being public on the program’s official website.

This is Elks’ first article based on LGBTIQ rights that is related to Queensland politics. The article is presented in a straightforward style without bias commentary or opinion. Elks was motivated to write this article as NSW become the second state after QLD to no longer be publicly listed on the Safe Schools Coalition Australia website due to harassment experienced by some schools. Similarly Queensland member schools have been hidden from the website for several months after institutions started receiving hate calls.

The concise article indicates the unfortunate struggles the Department of Education goes through for recommending Safe Schools program. It shows that there is still serious disagreement in the community against this program and shaken political agendas.

 

Article 5.

 LGBT Youths Are Turning To Facebook To Find A Safe Place To Live

Lane Sainty is a reporter at Buzzfeed Australia, focusing on LGBTIQ issues. She has written several issues raising the LGBTIQ rights issue in Australia already. Sainty, herself has been part of LGBT campus society as a Sydney University student before becoming a reporter. During her Arts in Media and Communications studies she has published several articles and collected pieces related to LGBT issue.

Sainty is well aware on the issues based around this topic and is pro LGBT in her articles. In this article Sainty writes about queer housing groups awareness due to the increasing number of LGBT community turning to Facebook to find trust worthy and accepting housemates. The article is presented in a sympathetic stance through various statements from struggling LGBT people looking for homes. The article further communicates the hardship the LGBT people through emphasis on homeless LGBT youth population.

The well-investigated article indicates that the author is writing to bring awareness of this issue to the readers in a sympathetic manner. The article highlights the disadvantages undeniably.

 

Bibliography

Elks, Sarah. The Australian. 16 July 2016. 30 July 2016 <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/nsw-safe-schools-harassed-into-hiding-youth-foundation/news-story/0f206ddc9563a13afd9b0ad49b5e28ba&gt;.

GayNewsNetwork. Gay News Network. 27 July 2016. 1 August 2016 <http://gaynewsnetwork.com.au/feature/rainbow-votes-where-the-parties-stand-on-lgbti-youth-21437.html&gt;.

McCauley, Dana. New.com.au. 1 August 2016. 1 August 2016 <http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/sonia-kruger-calls-scholarship-program-reverse-discrimination/news-story/08eac22223225ce80214014712e3c400&gt;.

Sainty, Lane. BuzzFeed. 27 April 2016. 5 August 2016 <https://www.buzzfeed.com/lanesainty/queer-housing-australia?utm_term=.uk6zEARglX#.uk6zEARglX&gt;.

Schefman, Lisa. Leader Community News. 9 February 2016. 27 July 2016 <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/south-east/schools-embrace-controversial-gender-program-that-the-lgbt-community-says-saves-lives/news-story/4f64da8a6bc0a90d1727910842e4dcc2&gt;.

 

By April Bae

Post 1: Marriage Equality in Australia

Most of all issues that were listed as topics to chose from, I think I am kind of have a general knowledge about it and I have looked in depth in some issues already. However, it seems that I have never been aware to looking into the issue of LGBTIQ at all, even this issue happens everywhere all over the world. Therefore, I decided to research depth into it and see how the world has been over this LGBTIQ. To be specific, I am focus more on to marriage equality and a little bit of gender identity.

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One of the articles that I have read on SBS (sbs.com.au) website was about Telstra decided to step back in supporting marriage equality, was written by AAP (Australian Associated Press). AAP is an Australian news agency found it 1935 and owned by three Australian news organisations – News Corp Australia, Fairfax, and Seven West Media. They are very actively post news related to marriage not just on SBS also News Corp Australia (news.com.au), ABC online (abc.net.au) and more. From my point of view, AAP is very reliable source which is based on research and reality. In this article, AAP has undercover the reason that Telstra has turn its direction back to supporting marriage equality laws. It seems AAP was just stating the fact of this issue. Last year in 2015, Telstra was one of the 400 companies who supports same-sex marriage, however they came out and turned its back away from the support due to the criticism of the their own customers and also after receiving a letter from the archdiocese of Sydney business manager Michael Digges that they should not be involved in the subject matters. A few months ago, Telstra has changed their direction and turn back into supporting the same-sex marriage campaign. An Australian Marriage Equality spokeswoman, Janine Middleton stated that many Australian business leaders are joining this support of marriage equality campaign and this creates a very powerful message to “a more open, inclusive and respectful work environment” towards their employees and customers.

In my view towards the author’s position is that AAP is trying to state one side of the fact that they want people to portray the message, however they didn’t state the reason behind those decision.

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The second article I read was about gender identity related. It was written by Eliel Cruz who is the Executive Director of Faith In America, a prolific speaker and writer on religion, (bi)sexuality, more. He is also the co-founder and former president of Intercollegiate Adventist Gay-Straight Alliance Coalition. This article is originally published on Quartz and it was edited and distributed to publish on SBS.This article is more like his research that he has found on Apple Siri. His research was about the different between Sex and Gender. He state

“A large portion of people don’t understand gender identity. Sex and gender are two separate things; sex is biological and gender is societal.”

Therefore, it made him question Siri to see what kinds of response he will get from Apple generated Siri. The answers he got were brilliant which explain sex and gender perfectly. What he ask was “What is your gender”. There were quite different answers —

I don’t have a gender.

I was not assigned a gender.

Well, my voice sounds like a woman’s, but I exist beyond your human concept of gender.

Animals and French nouns have genders. I do not.

I don’t think that really matters.

I am still just… Siri.

He also asked “what’s your sexuality” and answer he got is “My name is Siri, and I was designed by Apple in California. That’s all I’m prepared to say.”

From what he found, I think it is really a great idea to contribute messages to all around the world that gender is not matters.

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The second article has led me to question if Apple does support same-sex marriage. What I found is very surprising that Apple just joined companies to back same-sex marriage for Australians a few week ago. This article was written by Hannah Francis who is a Technology Reporter For Fairfax Media. She has been working and reported news for more than 2 years. She also was the author of article which is published in 2014 on Facebook ‘real name’ policy on queer community as well. In this article, it is quite an information based. Apple has decided to come out publicly backing the movement to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia alongside with other companies such as, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, Qantas and more. Apple stated in a statement,

“Apple believes all people should be treated equality. That’s why we think all Australians should be able to marry the person they love.”

It is all making sense that Apple’s Chief executive, Tim cook is also openly gay and a supporter of gay rights and other humanitarian causes. He also tweeted a tweet on twitter on the day that the company publicly support marriage equality on 27th June 2016. Apple is not the only tech company to support the campaign in Australia but also Google, Microsoft, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Hannah also uncovered politic aspects of the issue too by stating the Australian federal government promise to hold a plebiscite on the legalisation of same-sex marriage if re elected and also about Labor and the Greens oppose the plebiscite and arguing for a parliamentary vote.

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The other article that I have read was about “Genuine marriage equality is more than overdue in Australia”. It was written by the President of Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs. The reason behind this story is to show Australian how heartbreaking and traumatic to see your spouse’s death certificate says “never married” is. In this article, Triggs was written about a same-sex couple, Marco and David, who got married oversea and came to Adelaide, Australia for their honeymoon. Tragically, Marco Bulmer-Rizzi’s husband has died from falling off stairs at a friend’s place. Since Australian doesn’t recognise same-sex marriage from oversea,

David’s death certificate initially recorded him as “not married”.

This incident shows how isolated and outdated Australian marriage laws has become. Triggs also stated a law under the article which says “ All people are equal before the law and entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law”. That should mean including civil marriage as well, without discrimination, to all couples, regardless of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.

It is such a shame that Australia does not recognise a same-sex marriage certificate from oversea. I do agree on Triggs position that politician in Australia does not really understand the term of non-discrimination.

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On the other hand, I read another article on a very contrasting consequence which a same-sex couple, Joe Murphy and Nick Smith, who had to elope in New York to getting marriage without their both side grandmothers rather than in their home country, Australia that does not allow same-sex marriage with another family member. Michael Koziol who is a journalist with Fairfax Media tried to make their stories heard under title “12 years after gay marriage was banned, families reflect on the joys they have missed”. Not just a couple that Koziol has mentioned in this article but few different scenarios. Syndey rugby league legend Steve Mortimer also had to fly to Chicago to see his son got married.

“We’re sons of parents who love of us and would have loved to have been at our wedding” said Gennaro Hellmans and Brett Haythorpe eloped in New Zealand in 2013

Due to the issue of banning gay marriage in Australia, it has become one of the biggest issues. People are trying to get out of their hometown just to get married. What Koziol has portrayed his opinion on this issue is very effective to let people see how serious this issue is. People are finding our own voices and freedom oversea and left Australia just because of the non-recognition of marriage equality.

Calvin

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1. AAP 2016, Telstra feels love for marriage equality, SBS, viewed 07 August 2016, <http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/04/18/telstra-feels-love-marriage-equality>
2. Cruze, E. 2015, Comment: 7 times Siri understood gender identity better than most humans, SBS, viewed 07 August 2016, <http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/05/22/comment-7-times-siri-understood-gender-identity-better-most-humans>
3. Francis, H. 2016, Apple backs Australian marriage equality, The Sydney Morning Herald, viewed 10 August 2016, <http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/apple-backs-australian-marriage-equality-20160725-gqdogo.html>
4. Triggs, G. 2016, Genuine marriage equality is more than overdue in Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald, viewed 10 August 2016, <http://www.smh.com.au/comment/genuine-marriage-equality–is-more-than-overdue-in-australia-20160128-gmfyes.html>
5. Koziol, M. 2016, 12 years after gay marriage was banned, families reflect on the joys they have missed, The Sydney Morning Herald, viewed 10 August 2016, <http://www.smh.com.au/national/12-years-after-gay-marriage-was-banned-families-reflect-on-the-joys-they-have-missed-20160811-gqq9fa.html>

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Post 2: LGBTIQ rights: Scholarly secondary sources

KATHY NGO

From The Closet To The Courtroom

Carlos A. Ball is Distinguished Professor of Law and Judge Frederick Lacey Faculty Scholar at the Rutgers University School of Law (Newark). He is the author several books focusing on marriage equality, LGBT rights, and law. In this book, Carlos has given 5 LGBT right lawsuits from the dry, academic pages to the livelier pages of newspapers. Then, he put them together in a more engaging in the context of human experience and daily life. The article gives us the stories of many heroes (activists) behind the LGBT rights movement from the past to the present.

Portrait of Carlos A. Ball Photographed by Dyanna Stupar, 2011

The 5 LGBT right lawsuits are Family, Harassment, Discrimination, Marriage and Sex. After bringing different stories regarding 5 different lawsuits, Carlos stated that these five lawsuits profile share several similarities. All of them used the state courts to protect not only themselves but also the LGBT community. By comparing the profiles, Carlos gives us different perspectives of how civil residents fight for their rights. Therefore, in his conclusion, that the movement has shifted to less rely on the courts because “the movement’s legal successes have lessened the need for further litigation”. It has begun to pay more attention to the legal recognition of same-sex relationships. Carlos recognises as the movement begin to achieve its success in the lawsuit, our society should take more seriously the needs of LGBT groups, to determine whether these groups are to be viewed and treated equally in our democracy.

I think this book has successfully  given us the broader views of how LGBT activists fight for their rights and change our society, in order to, from that, we could learn from the past to make a better future.

Ball C. 2010, 'From the Closet To The Courtroom: Five LGBT Rights Lawsuits That Have Changed Our Nation', Queer Action/Queer Ideas, Beacon Press, Boston

Rethinking Gender in Early Childhood Education

Professor Glenda MacNaughton currently works in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia. She has been a senior policy advisor to the government in the UK and Australia. She is passionate about researching young children’s constructions of race, gender and class. In this book, “Rethinking Gender in Early Childhood Education”

Portrait of Professor Glenda MacNaugton. Photographed by the University of Melbourne, 2007

The Safe Schools program is one of 3 positions I would like to investigate in this 2nd blog. In this book, “Rethinking Gender in Early Childhood Education”, Glenda has given her previous research of early childhood education as the evidence to state that gender doesn’t matter to young children. Rather, everyday teaching practices influence children’s gender identities. She draws on theory such as Feminist Poststructuralist and her research with other 6 people who had formal tertiary early childhood education qualifications to explain this statement in order to challenge and develop everyday truths; teaching and learning with young children.

Through 9 chapters, Glenda proves that the Feminist Poststructuralist concepts can help teachers to understand how gender is being constructed in order to expand their traditional teaching methods. These ideas may create a stronger will to know gender if we try to achieve to reject simplistic understandings of gender and gendering. Her statement in this part conflicts strongly with Eric Abetz statement about the Safe Schools program in The Drum (ABC News 2016)

 “[There are] circumstances where this program suggests that if a boy feels like being a girl, he should be allowed to use the girls’ toilet facilities, which might be good for him, but what about all the girls that are then submitted to a boy being in their change rooms or in their toilets?

However, in practice, the program still has some disadvantage that we surely could apply the theory of feminism in Glenda’s research to education young children about their gender identity and equity.

MacNaughton G. 2000, 'Seeking Gender in Early Childhood', Rethinking Gender in Early Childhood Education, SAGE Publications Ltd, London

Post 1: Fight for LGBT rights? Let’s start from our families

Kathy Ngo

LGBTIQ rights is an issue that I personally involved with. During my high school, I had a group of best friends who were all tomboys. And two of them came out in year 10. I have been supporting the LGBTIQ community since then. Therefore, I really want to learn and understand deeper about this issue. I had no hesitate to choose this topic and I feel very excited to apply all my research data into design term that can raise  the awareness of LGBTIQ rights, especially in Vietnam.

Articles 1: Vietnam Has Been Praised As A Leader In LGBT Rights. Activists Beg To Differ

Dominique Mosbergen

Dominique Mosbergen is a Reporter at The Huffington Post. She loves languages, travelling and telling stories. She has lived and worked in different countries such as India, Russia and the United States. This article is the 8th part of a 10-part series on LGBT rights in Southeast Asia, written while she lived in Singapore. The series uncovers the challenges facing the LBGT community and praise the effort of activists there.

“Trying to add sexuality education to the formal program is difficult and needs to be advocated for from the highest level” (Luong, cited in Mosbergen 2015).

A protester in Phnom Penh, Cambodia tapes his mouth shut in support of LGBT rights on Nov. 16, 2012. Activists across Southeast Asia have been fighting for years to win greater protections for LGBT people. (Mosbergen 2015)

In this article, she uncovered the real story behind the positive headlines of Vietnam being called ‘The Leader in Gay rights’ or ‘More Progressive than America’. Although Vietnam was the first country in Southeast Asia who abolished the ban on same-sex marriage on Jan 2015, in fact, it’s certainly not the leader in gay rights. Lots of LGBT people are facing discrimination and widespread abuse, especially right in their home. 20 percent of LGBT respondent said they had beaten by their family members (iSEE survey, 2008). I agree with this survey because I have seen lots of my friends who went through discrimination in their high school and in their family. People called them as ‘social evils’ or ‘illness’. Mosbergen revealed many issues that Vietnamese journalists couldn’t report due to the lack of basic freedoms (freedom of press). Mosbergen stated that the LGBT activists in Vietnam were facing a lot of challenges, one of them was ‘Sexuality education in public schools’. All schools in Vietnam are controlled by the government.

Mosbergen D. 2016, ‘Vietnam Has Been Praised As A Leader In LGBT Rights. Activists Beg To Differ’,The Huffington Post, viewed 3 Aug 2016, <http://news.trust.org/item/20160229230302-dnli6/?source=spotlight>

Articles 2: A hard silence to break: LGBT Vietnamese struggle for understanding

Vo Thy

Thy is a staff writer at Voice of OC, a nonprofit investigative news agency in Santa Ana, California. In addition to reporting on municipal politics and government, Thy writes about community health and quality of life issues affecting OC’s underserved immigrant communities.

Lotus Dao and his partner, Jayelle Greathouse. Photo by Ash Ngu. (Vo 2016)

This article was produced as a project for the California Health Journalism Fellowship, a program of the Center for Health Journalism at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism.

The Vietnamese American community, although living in the Western country where is more open about this issue, is also facing a lot of challenges and discrimination, start from their families.

“We were called ‘sick,’ that this is a ‘western disease,’ ‘your parents didn’t teach you right,'” said Hieu Nguyen

Living in the Vietnamese community in Sydney, I have more understanding about the gulf of language and culture within immigrant families. I agree with those stories told in this article that the boundary between 2 generations is commonly hard to emerge. This text tells 3 different stories but same one main issue: Sexual education. The article made me feel hurt and shocked about the lack of sex education that starts from Vietnamese parents, causing more intense when LGBT people want to come out. What makes me angry is that this is the basic education everyone must learn. After reading this article, I would like to raise more awareness of sex and sexual health in order to help the future LGBTIQ generation a better life.

Vo T. 2016, ‘A Hard Silence To Break: LGBT Vietnamese Struggle For Understanding’, Center for Health journalism, viewed 4 Aug 2016, <http://www.centerforhealthjournalism.org/fellowships/projects/hard-silence-break-lgbt-vietnamese-struggle-understanding>

Articles 3: For our kids’ sake, it’s time to scrap school chaplains

Rober Simms and Janet Rice.

After reading those 2 articles above, I wanted to know deeper about Sex and Sexual Health Education. This article is published on the Gay News Networks, the Australia’s largest gay and lesbian publishing house. The text was written by Rober Simms and Janet Rice. They are both the Greens’ spokespersons for LGBTI and Marriage Equality. Robert is the first out gay man to represent SA in the Federal Parliament.

Unlike to Vietnam, Australia is one of the happiest country in the world where human rights are higher protected. However, a multicultural country has its own difficulties. One of them is pointed in this article. The authors stated that the government should scrap school chaplains, whose religion prevents them from accepting or recognising LGBTIQ people. “This is putting our young LGBTIQ people at more severe risk of mental ill-health”. (Simms & Rice 2016) The authors also made an action: pledge $32 million over the next four years for Safe Schools to build respect and ensure wellbeing in LGBTIQ youth.

This is a good idea. Not only does it show the 2 side of school chaplains but also it gives the option to replace them with trained professionals  who are qualified in youth work, social work or mental health support. I am very excited to see positive movement from the government toward this idea in order to protect best to keep our young generation a healthy life.

Simms R. & Rice J. 2016, ‘For Our Kids’ Sake, It’s Time To Scrap School Chaplains’, Gay News Networks, viewed 4 Aug 2016, <http://gaynewsnetwork.com.au/feature/for-our-kids-sake-it-s-time-to-scrap-school-chaplains-21469.html>

Articles 4: Orlando, Paris massacres were attacks on freedom

Frank Bruni 

Frank Bruni is a New York Times columnist who specialises in politics, gender equality and food culture. This article was written 2 days after the incidents happened in Orlando and Paris. By using short, strong statements, Frank states that both were attacked by freedom itself. His voice of writing is quite upset with what is happening to LGBT rights in the world, not only in USA or Franch. Different from other articles, Frank give his own voice instead of giving facts and statistics. He shows how emergent this issue is, that is not a moment for identity politics, it is a terror that everyone must recognise. Frank also includes Obama speech speaking about the victims:

Illustration: Andrew Dyson 2016 – drawn for LGBTIQ community in Orlando

“The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub. It is a place of solidarity and empowerment where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds and to advocate for their civil rights. So this is a sobering reminder that attacks on any American, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation, is an attack on all of us and on the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define us as a country.” (Obama, cited in Bruni 2016)

Frank’s article is very emotional as it was written just 2 days after the incidents. He criticises The Islamic State. In their world, ‘To be gay is to be in mortal danger. To embrace love is to court death’. I agree with him that LGBTIQ rights are equal to other gender equality rights, that is a basic right to protect people from discrimination and violent, to be treated equally and to be loved equally.

Bruni F. 2016, ‘Orlando, Paris massacres were attacks on freedom’, The Sydney Morning Herald, viewed 4 Aug 2016, <http://www.smh.com.au/comment/orlando-paris-massacres-were-attacks-on-freedom-20160613-gphlx6.html>

Articles 5: Australian schools must promote LGBT-inclusive education

The Drum

After reading the 3rd article: ‘For our kids’ sake, it’s time to scrap school chaplains’, I looked up the Safe Schools Coalition to know more about this program. This article is reported from The Drum show which is the Australian analysis & opinion, and commentary news on ABC channel. When I first heard about the Safe Schools program, I thought this would be a great move to educate young generation to respect for gay, intersex and gender diverse students. However, after reading this article, I questioned about the value core of this program. Whether or not it has gone far beyond the point of protecting and respecting LGBT. Liberal Senator Eric Abetz appeared in this show and gave his opinion and concern to this program. He stated that this program is unhealthy and unhelpful. A clear distinction between girls and boys should be protected, especially in primary school. He argued:

“[There are] circumstances where this program suggests that if a boy feels like being a girl, he should be allowed to use the girls’ toilet facilities, which might be good for him, but what about all the girls that are then submitted to a boy being in their change rooms or in their toilets?

I disagree with his opinion. I think that the Safe Schools is designed to stop bullying and to help children to be themselves. It is not to influence them to doubt themselves to be in different genders. It is created change attitude and allow kids to live without fear, that they can freely come out without fear of being bashed.

The Drum, 2016, ‘Australian schools must promote LGBT-Inclusive Education’,  ABC News, viewed 4 Aug 2016, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-24/drum-safe-schools-education-or-indoctrination/7195894>

3 positions I think are worth investigating further:

1. The progression of changing perception towards LGBTIQ community in Vietnam from the past to present. It is very interesting for me because the attitude of Vietnamese people to this community has changed positively and dramatically. I would like to know more about what activists in Vietnam have done to protect themselves from discrimination.

2. Sex and sexual health education. What and how we should educate the young generation about LGBTIQ rights without influence them of doubting their genders. 

3. Existing campaigns that educate people about LGBTIQ rights. Investigating this position would help me apply my research and data to design practice.