Up Front by Emma Hart

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Up Front: Amazons Are Not the Only Fruit

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  • Eddie Clark,

    Well I have a copy :P.

    Oh! Rather to my surprise, the VUWLR appears to have posted pdf copies of their back issues on their website. Didn't know they did that, and they sure as hell didn't ask me if they could. Ah well, not that I mind.

    Anyway, it's here:

    http://www.victoria.ac.nz/law/documentation/VUWLR%20PDFS/37(2)/03%20clark.pdf

    The whole issue is worth reading if you're interesting in GLBT issues. Special issue on sexuality and the law - as far as I know the first (and only) such dedicated law review volume produced in New Zealand.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 273 posts Report Reply

  • Mrs Skin,

    Excellent, thanks!

    My list of Things To Do includes talking to JPIL and VUWLR about one of them doing an issue centred around the Outgames human rights conference in 2011.

    I understand VUWLR is going all technological these days.

    the warmest room in the h… • Since Feb 2009 • 168 posts Report Reply

  • Eddie Clark,

    God the wellington legal community is small, lol.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 273 posts Report Reply

  • Mrs Skin,

    NZ is small! I really missed that when I was overseas. I like meeting people & knowing that they'll know your cousin's girlfriend's best friend.

    the warmest room in the h… • Since Feb 2009 • 168 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Anyway, it's here:

    Cheers, Eddie. I was thinking I was going to have to work today, but that's fixed that.

    Here's a blog on the Amazon situation with a bit of time to reflect - how it's not the end of the world, nor all okay now.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Eddie Clark,

    Be interested to know what you think of it, Emma and/or Mrs Skin, if you have the time to read it.

    And that blog is very sensible (as are most things said by Cheryl Morgan. A most sensible lady). Given that the US has no real labour laws to speak of, I'd be very worried if I was in Amazon's PR department right now.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 273 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Be interested to know what you think of it, Emma and/or Mrs Skin, if you have the time to read it.

    Depressing, unsurprising, cogent and remarkably reasonable?

    It seems it should be very easy to instruct judges not to mention sexual orientation - so you just have 'relationship' and 'partner' not 'relationship' for straight people and 'homosexual relationship' for LGBT people.

    Anyway, here, let me give you something in return, from back in March.

    Gay Sex Attacker Jailed for Four Years

    Try to imagine the headline 'Straight Sex Attacker Jailed'. It ain't never going to happen. But they're not finished.

    He was acquitted of one charge of stupefaction after it was alleged he used Amyl Nitrite - a drug commonly used in homosexual activity - to render the victim unconscious.

    A drug commonly used in homosexual activity. Classy. It's possible that a change in judicidial language might also trickle through to court reporting.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Eddie Clark,

    *sigh* yes, that sounds depressingly familiar, Emma.

    Well, I'd better head off and do some homosexual legal work and then head home on the same-sex bus and have some gay dinner.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 273 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Given that the US has no real labour laws to speak of, I'd be very worried if I was in Amazon's PR department right now.

    Given that this is looking more and more like a PR golden shower that didn't need to happen, I'd be very worried regardless of the labour laws. Are there people in the world who are genetically hardwired to choke rather than say "I don't know" or (even worse) "we got that wrong"?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Are there people in the world who are genetically hardwired to choke rather than say "I don't know" or (even worse) "we got that wrong"?

    Yeah, I'm going with 'yes' on that one. But they sure as hell shouldn't be working in PR. Or customer relations for that matter.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    __He was acquitted of one charge of stupefaction after it was alleged he used Amyl Nitrite - a drug commonly used in homosexual activity - to render the victim unconscious.__

    A drug commonly used in homosexual activity. Classy. It's possible that a change in judicidial language might also trickle through to court reporting.

    To be fair, I'd guess ~90% of amyl use is by gay men. It's not unfair to call it a gay drug. But it's not a stupefying agent.

    But the funny thing about that case is ... I'm given to understand that I know the man convicted, and have done for a long time. If so, it seems worth noting that he has never, to my knowledge, identified as gay.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Mrs Skin,

    ...he has never, to my knowledge, identified as gay.

    I was thinking earlier that this gay-your-life-up thing has similarities to the complaint of wheelchair users that other people see the chair, not the person, but I see that unlike a boringly static physical disability we can spread the love around and tar you with our gayness too.

    Quite by coincidence, someone told me a story today that was marvellously on-topic. A couple of guys were complaining to my friend about one of my lecturers on the grounds that he's just a bloody rugby-head who spends the whole lecture leaning against the blackboard. On being informed that the lecturer is in fact gay, the chaps attitudes shifted markedly and they decided he was a fairly decent chap after all. My friend was left scratching his head and reflecting on how markedly things have changed in NZ when people are more accepting of one's gayness than one's passion for rugger. So the gay oil-slick works in our favour on occasion.

    Eddie, I have 2 assignments and some test revision to procrastinate on, so it's a dead cert I'll be reading your article in the next day or two.

    Craig, my day is only complete when I've read your description of whatever event is in discussion.

    the warmest room in the h… • Since Feb 2009 • 168 posts Report Reply

  • Eddie Clark,

    *grin*

    If you go to Vic law school, I'm 95% sure said lecturer is a friend of mine.

    And yes, I agree re Craig. Where have you been these past few weeks. I need more comments that are simultaneously obscene and crotchety in an old-manish "get off my lawn" sort of way (that's a compliment, btw).

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 273 posts Report Reply

  • Mrs Skin,

    Can there BE more than one blackboard-leaning rugby-mad gay lecturer?

    I want him to model for the Outgames website. He's model material for sure.

    the warmest room in the h… • Since Feb 2009 • 168 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    To be fair, I'd guess ~90% of amyl use is by gay men. It's not unfair to call it a gay drug.

    It's the implication that it's common to use drugs during gay sex that bugs me.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Eddie Clark,

    Yeah, Emma, I agree. Although it's more lazy wording than malice. "Commonly used" could mean "this drug is most commonly used during sex between men", but could equally mean "teh gayz always take drugs and shag."

    Not that I think it's an excuse. Lazy - not malice. Sounds like Amazonfail :).

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 273 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    And yes, I agree re Craig. Where have you been these past few weeks.

    In Wellington on holiday -- and at the risk of sounding like a pretentious wanker, had a serious attack of aesthetic bliss at the Monet exhibition. Helped by a week of wonderful weather that would have had Claude piddling his pants with glee.

    Yes, the Boston Museum of Fine Art was filled by dirty Gilded Age plutocrats who treated Europe like a middle-brow K-Mart, in the belief that ART was spiritual castor oil. Don't care. this just put my head somewhere mysterious and wonderful for half an hour.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Jackie Clark,

    this just put my head somewhere mysterious and wonderful for half an hour.

    Lovely jubbly. I remember being 16 and going to Wgtn Museum/Art Gallery to see the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection. It was too much for me. And living in London and going to the National for the first time. I walked in, got a few steps into the Impressionists and had to leave. Too overwhelming. Too much beauty.

    Mt Eden, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 3136 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    this just put my head somewhere mysterious and wonderful for half an hour.

    That's lovely.

    And speaking of having your head in a different place, if there are any other of Radio Live's listeners out there who want to contribute, please do feel free to join in the discussion here instead of emailing me.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Dave Patrick,

    the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection

    I remember seeing that in Auckland and being blown away by a LOT of it - especially how TINY the Dali was ("One Second Before Awakening from a Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate") - it' was literally only about A4 size

    Rangiora, Te Wai Pounamu • Since Nov 2006 • 261 posts Report Reply

  • Judi Lapsley Miller,

    the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection

    My intermediate school arranged a trip to Wellington for the arty kids - it was just incredible. And I've been a Dali fan ever since. It was kind of surreal to see "One second..." again, 25 years later, in an exhibition in Hartford, CT.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 106 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    What do you mean kind of surreal? Surely it was entirely, 100% surreal.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Judi Lapsley Miller,

    "doubly surreal"? "surreally surreal" perhaps?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 106 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Something I missed while the whole amazonfail thing was going on (I still haven't recovered from having to get up for a breakfast radio spot yesterday).

    Judith Krug died.

    Judith, who ran the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom since 1967, was a life-long censorship foe who conceived the now internationally famous “Banned Books Week.” She raised awareness of book censorship in America and devised strategies to combat it.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    It's the implication that it's common to use drugs during gay sex that bugs me.

    Given the role of alcohol in many societies to enable 'hooking up' of all flavours especially.

    I remember seeing that in Auckland and being blown away by a LOT of it - especially how TINY the Dali was ("One Second Before Awakening from a Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate") - it' was literally only about A4 size

    I had my first reaction (being a big Dali fan) when I saw my first original at MOMA.

    They'd be the most amazing paintings if they were 10 feet in each direction and fulled up your whole view, suck you into Dali's world. Instead I felt like I was instead looking at one of the reproductions that are on my wall and had somehow been ripped off.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

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