Discrimination

There was a lot of misinformation shown on the main stream media (MSM) in Australia yesterday regarding the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunals decision last week to grant the Peel Hotel in Melbourne an exemption to the Equal Opportunities Act by allowing the pub to prohibit entry to non-homosexual men.

Most of the MSM and right-wing blogs were up in arms at the hypocrisy of the LGBTQ movement for wanting this discrimination, stating that the publican wanted to ban ALL non-homosexual men.

But they miss the point, the exemption gained by the pub is not to ban individuals, but to limit large groups who are not gay men. The pub has, in the past, had problems with groups using the pub as a “spectacle or entertainment”. This has changed the atmosphere in the pub to the extent that the gay male patrons felt intimidated.

The publican has made it clear that he does not want a blanket ban – just the ability to turn away large groups that would change the atmosphere in the pub or who would create a threat to the gay patrons.

As a gay man, I am actually quite proud that the publican has taken this pre-emptive action to ensure that the Peel remains a comfortable venue for gay men.

Just as an aside, I was in the Peel a few years ago and I did feel intimidated! But that was because of the owners little dog who took a dislike to me. LOL

Quote

This is just a short post of a great quote I saw today:

In Washington, the truth is just another special interest, and one that is not particularly well financed.— Michael Mussa

Human Rights Abusers Attending Harvard University Programmes?

A group of Harvard University students, Alliance for Justice in the Middle East (AJME), have campaigned against Dan Halutz, a former Israeli military chief, for attending a two-month executive training programme at Harvard’s Business School (HBS).

According to a Al Jazeera report, the students believe that the University should not welcome “people with poor human rights records, or who are seen as war criminals”.

The activists, in their protest posters against Halutz, stated that, he was responsible for ordering, “the indiscriminate bombing of Lebanon last summer, killing over 1,000 civilians. The jets he commanded bombed houses and hospitals, ambulances and airports, refineries and roads. The atrocities committed under his command were condemned worldwide as war crimes.”

Human rights organisations have also accused the resigned General for ordering the dropping of a one-ton bomb in Gaza in 2002.

The former chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Force, Halutz, resigned in February after last year’s disastrous war with Lebanon. An Israeli- government commissioned report criticized the man for misinforming Israel’s political leadership about the military’s capability.

You can read more about Alliance for Justice in the Middle East (AJME) at their blog site which has to date documented six human rights abusers from Israel and one from Guatemala.

The group, drawing sources from mainly UN, and credible human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, aims to highlight the University’s record of “admitting and hiring individuals with publicly documented records of war crimes and/or human rights abuses”. It is campaigning for more stringent rules in allowing war criminals and serious human rights abusers for admission or hiring into the institution.