Red Cross Reviews ‘No Gays’ policy
After being challenged by a gay man in Tasmania, the Red Cross has finally decided to review its policy prohibiting sexually active gay men from donating blood. The Red Cross currently prohibits men who have had sex with men in the previous 12 months from donating, based on a reckoning that this group of men was statistically likelier to be harbouring blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C. Tasmanian Michael Cain contested the restriction before the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Tribunal in 2008. The tribunal ultimately upheld the ban but it agreed with Cain that some gay men would be low-risk donors and supported a future policy review.
You think that’s a loss
New Mardi Gras (NMG) is expected to rejoin the parade and party in 2011 after it announced a minimum loss of $400K at an extraordinary general meeting in April. About 60 people gathered in Sydney to dissect the festival season 2010, which saw the parade and party split over two weekends following an administration error discovered in January 2009, but not made public for five more months. As well as the financial loss, the NMG board faced questioning over the change to the parade starting area; the decision not to allow the Animal Liberation float into the parade; the cost of the nude Spencer Tunick Opera House steps photo shoot and the decision to again screen the parade on Foxtel rather than a free-to-air channel.
Grindr Minds Its Ps and Qs
Photos of underwear, pubic hair, bare skin below the waist, sexual text and sexually explicit imagery of any kind is now no longer accepted under Grindr’s tough new rules. All users of the popular gay male hook-up iPhone application are warned they must obey its guidelines or their photos and text will be cropped or removed, as Grindr struggles to comply with Apple’s strict family-friendly PG-13 standards for all iPhone apps. Grindr users can still send explicit images and messages to each other via private messaging on the app.
First Successful HIV Vilification Complaint
The NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal awarded $10,000 to a gay couple in rural NSW whose former friends in the community threatened to shoot them and told the rest of the community they had HIV. This is believed to be the first HIV vilification complaint ever to go before the ADT. While not a court ruling, it’s still a step forward in the recognition of the stigma and emotional and physical abuse that people with HIV frequently encounter.
Kowalski comes out
Writing in Melbourne’s Sunday Age, former Olympian Daniel Kowalski has joined the small number of elite Australian sportsmen who have publicly announced they are gay. Kowalski, who has won four Olympic swimming medals, wrote he was ‘tired of living a lie’ and he wanted young gay people to know that others have had a similar experience. Kowalski said he was inspired to make the announcement after reading about the Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas, who announced last December he was gay. Kowalski said it wasn’t until 2006, more than three years after his swimming career ended, that he told family and close friends he was gay.
Steven Carter
