A secular government is important and vital for the health of our democracy.

This blog is now retired.

You can read my personal blog here and my technology blog here.

My name is Gregory Storer. You will probably call me Greg, I prefer Gregory, but you know what, whatever works for you. My preferences are often overlooked because they’re just too hard for people to deal with. At times I introduce myself as Gregory, other times as Greg. It’s hard to work it out in my own head.

Today I took part in a baby shower. Isn’t that great. One of the women at work is having a baby and we all celebrate. I can only wish her all the best.

We do it a lot, celebrating the important events in peoples lives. It’s all so normal. We celebrate the engagement, the marriage, the conception and the birth of children. We then celebrate anniversaries, birthdays and other major events in peoples lives.

I don’t have a problem with any of that. I celebrate too.

But, then, I’m not so normal. I don’t have a wife any more, I do have children, but they are adults. Some people like to tell me that I’m gay. Ok, let’s go with that. I don’t think you need to define my sexual preferences, because that’s what it means when you say I’m gay. It means I have sex with men. And you know what, that makes you feel uncomfortable. To be perfectly blunt, I have anal intercourse. Most people don’t even want to think about it. It’s not all I do, I enjoy a very full and rich sex life. It’s gratifying on so many levels. Deeply gratifying.

This isn’t about sex at all. I just wanted to get that out there. Perhaps you’d like to talk to me about it one day. I’m sure you’ve got questions. But in a polite society we don’t discuss it.

I listened today to a radio broadcast on Joy. The co-presenter said something along the lines of respecting people with religious beliefs. They think homosexuality is wrong, and I need to show respect to them.

You know what? I don’t respect them. You know why I don’t respect them? Because they don’t respect me, not even slightly. If they did they would remove the offending verses from the bible that refer to me as an abomination. They would remove the verses that call for my death. Don’t pretend that they don’t exist. Don’t pretend that they don’t matter, and don’t ever tell me that it’s about my actions and not about me. This is deeply personal. A large part of the community thinks I’m an abomination. They may not say so in so many words, but every time someone uses the word gay, fag or poof in a derogatory sense then that hurts me. Every time somebody says that homosexuality is immoral then that hurts me.

This is vilification, and it’s driven by religion, and driven by the horrible words used in a book. All sorts of readers of the book then use it as a weapon to ensure that I can’t live a happy and full life. They calmly sit there and tell me that I have to accept people’s beliefs. Even the Prime Minister uses the bible to defend antiquated notions of marriage and thinks it’s ok. If the bible said that people in wheel chairs where an abomination, would that be ok? If the bible called for death by stoning for adulterers, would that be ok? If the bible called for the death of anyone who worked on a Saturday, would that be ok? Sure, the moderates will say that the institution of marriage needs to be protected to preserve the family. Sure, they’ll say that I can change my sexuality, sometimes they’ll even claim that having a wife and two children is proof that I can change. The truth of these claims is that it is only driven by the notion that their god said being gay is bad.

I’m here to tell you that I can’t change. I tried and I really got messed up good and proper. Along the way I messed up the lives of some others too. Why did that happen? Because I was trying to be normal. What ever that means.

Would the world be different if the bible (and other religions) made no mention of sexuality? What reason would you tell me that I couldn’t marry Michael if the words “it is an abomination” didn’t exist?

You know what I want? I want to feel ok about going to a baby shower because I know that people don’t think twice about same sex partners having children. I want to rejoice in marriage because I can do it too. I want my life to be celebrated too. At the moment there is no celebration because there is no milestone that can be clearly waved around.

I want to walk down the street and hold my partners hand without fear of every shadow that comes up behind me. Without the smirks and raised eyebrows, or worse, those who avert there eyes, coming towards me.

The other night I had dinner with my sister and my partner in Hardware Lane, lovely. When Michael arrived I gave him a kiss and a hug. I do that with some trepidation because people don’t like it and you never know how they’re going to react. Then a friend, a long standing, best mate friend, appeared out of no where. He hugged me and I felt an overwhelming sense of joy at seeming him. But in our world we can’t express that feeling. He’s got a wife, it won’t do for others to think he might be gay. (Although I’m sure he wouldn’t mind)

You want to know why I don’t ask about your partner? Because you’ve got an opposite sex partner. You won’t ask about mine, because it might be awkward. Best to keep it all sort of superficial.

Every time some person makes excuses for the religious types that they are allowed to have their beliefs, then they hurt me. Sure, I defend your right to believe whatever you want, but don’t think you can believe that I’m an abomination and expect that I’ll let you get away with it, because with or without your belief, that’s vilification. When you defend the right of religious people to believe the bible as the word of god, then you defend their right to think I’m immoral, that I have no right to life. You defend their right to hide behind their religion as a way of making it some how more acceptable to harbour hatred and to openly abuse me.

Here’s a challenge for you, what are you doing about marriage equality? When did you last have the conversation about marriage equality with people who are happily married or the engaged couple? When did you last raise it as an issue when no gay people are about? I bet it doesn’t even matter to you unless I happen to be sitting there. When it comes to that, when did you last ask me about marriage equality? When did you check in with me to see if I was upset by Julia Gillard suggesting that marriage is between one man and one woman and that’s not going to change? Did you ask me what I thought about marriage equality in New York? Did you even hear about it?

My deep and personal thanks to my brothers and sisters, my extended family, all of those friends of mine that actually care about my life, care about my former wife, care about my partner, Michael, care about my children, care about finding those things that we want to celebrate. The respect you show me is wonderful and I hope to honour you with the same respect.

I celebrate my life with Michael, I celebrate the joy of children. Thank you for being you.

As the votes roll in tonight, I’ll be updating them here on the blog – feel free to drop in occasionally and see how well the Secular Party of Australia is doing.
Click Here or find the Election Night link on the menu above.

Thanks.

The Secular Party of Australia condemns Gillard for her outrageous claim that she accepts Australia’s cultural and religious heritage.  She ignores the fact that 42% of residents in Melbourne Ports are not Christian and she uses religion as an excuse to deny equality for all Australians.

Gillard stated in an interview that she accepts the Christian reason for marriage and ignores the fact that the Marriage Act was only changed in 2004 to specify marriage between one man and one woman.  Her use of the term ‘Christian heritage’ is disrespectful and deeply offensive to married people of no faith and of other religions.

Despite her personal held beliefs about marriage, she should not allow her decision to be based on religious grounds to the detriment of a section of the community.  Government should be about protecting minorities against the unjustifiable will of the majority.

The Secular Party of Australia’s policy is equality for all.  The removal of religion from government decision making is now paramount.  No one religion should be used to lord it over the rest of the population.

Media Release – Gillard Stands Condemned (20 Aug 10)

But Danby has been playing it both ways.  In the Jewish media he talks about his Jewish track record, how much the Labor government has spent in the Jewish community over the last three years.  Then at the Jewish News Candidate debate between himself and the Liberal candidate he called the last three years “The Golden Era of Labor and Jewish Schools”.  He’s very proud of that achievment.  Nowhere, to his Jewish voters, has he mentioned anything about gay rights or all the work he has purported to do for the gay community.  He’s strangely silent.

Over at the Melbourne Ports Candidate forum Danby makes no mention of this Golden Era, nor does he make any mention of his strong connections to the Jewish community.  He spoke about his great achievements and that of the Labor Government, but not once did he mention the hundreds of millions of dollars the Labor party has spent on Jewish schools.  That piece of information was kept quiet.

Now in rides Kev Ekendahl, astride the cash cow and promises the Jewish community $15 million for Jewish Schools.  In the loudest “Me too!” I’ve heard in years, the Liberals are bending over backwards to secure the prized Jewish vote.  Nowhere in his advertising in the gay media has Kev mentioned anything about his promises to the Jewish Community, and again, nowhere in his communication with the Jewish community does he mention he’s gay.

These two really do like taking it both ways.

Cut the crap.  Are they really so selective that they want to keep the two demographics of their potential voters apart?

Melbourne Ports deserves better than a couple of party hacks who will play the audience for fools, tell them only the nice bits, and ignore the tough bits in fear that it will cost them precious votes.

When you stand at the polling booth, ask yourself do you really want this sort of deceit from your elected representatives?  No?  Then you know what to do.

Vote [1] Gregory STORER in Melbourne Ports.

Vote [1] Penelope GREEN in Melbourne.

Vote above the line for the Senate and mark the Secular Party as [1] in Group R

We deserve to be represented by people with integrity, not hopefulls who only pander to sectional interest for the sole purpose of getting elected.  You need someone who will represent your views, without favouritism based on  religious lines or party politics. Melbourne Ports needs better representation and I can do that.

He has taken issue with Michael Danby and Danby’s lack of response over the last twelve months to speak out about the problem and to take some action.  Danby has been strangely quiet when it comes to talking about intolerance of homosexuality in the Jewish community.

I ask that you read Michael’s blog, then when it comes to polling day, ask yourself, do you want someone who is prepared to stand up for what’s right in our community, or do you want someone who likes to have it both ways, keep the Jewish vote, keep the gay vote and hope that the rest of the electorate won’t notice the conflict.

Religious institutions receive many exemptions and benefits.  They don’t pay payroll tax, stamp duty or GST.

It’s time to end the rort!

Organised religions are in a privileged position in our society.  The Australian Tax Office considers the ‘advancement of religion’ as a justifiable reason to grant them charity status and tax exemptions.

Religions take full advantage of this and use their status to amass huge amounts of money that isn’t properly accounted for as their books are quite often closed to public scrutiny.

It really is time to review their charity status and, unless a church can show that their work is for the public benefit, that status should be removed and the money should be taxed.

The challenge for us is to recognise where religion is:

• doing ‘charity’ work
• taking advantage of our current taxes laws
• making huge profits
• not contributing to society as responsible corporate citizens

If you run a business, then you have to be prepared to pay your share of the tax.

Australia needs a Charities Commission, an organisation that would monitor and supervise non-profit organisations to ensure that the work they are undertaking is really for public benefit.

Your support of the Secular Party will allow us to pursue the true separation of church and state, an issue that needs correcting and one we are long over due for.

The Secular Party has a plan,  we recognise that global warming is significant and a dire, immediate threat to global civilisation.  We need to dramatically reduce our global carbon dioxide emissions.  We must introduce a carbon tax, nationally and internationally.

We have to also tax our coal-fired power stations.  An International Coal Tax needs to be levied on all coal exports, in conjunction with other coal exporters.

The revenue from these new taxes would help us fund the huge investment in alternative energy production.

While the Greens, the Libs and the Labor Parties faff around trying to come to a consensus, you can send a message to them by voting 1 for the Secular Party.  We have a policy that’s ready to go, a policy that is far better than the Greens, a policy that will help our world recover.  It’s better than waiting for God to come help.

Full details of the policy are available on our website.

The Australian Education Union believes that the funding arrangement delivers one third of the funding to government schools that teach two thirds of all children.

The Secular Party of Australia understands the importance of public education, and to provide effective outcomes our system needs to be adequately and properly funded.  It’s time to move away from funding private schools so directly and instead move to a system of rebates directly to families that choose a private education.  The rebate would be based on the cost of educating students in the public sector.

The Greens are keen to placate the Catholic Schools, backing away from their policy to reduce private school funding ² and the Catholic Church again shows why we need to separate church and state when it’s director of Catholic Education says that a cut in funding would mean that Catholic Schools would loose the ability to be “catholic”³

Only the Secular Party of Australia has a fair system of private education funding.  We fully accept that some people may choose faith based education over secular education, but only the Secular Party would fund students and not schools, by providing rebates to directly to parents and not to the school, allowing an equitable funding to all.  The religious and independent schools would then need to fund their own school through fees and fund raising, not government handouts.

Get along and have a read.