Mannie Blog, LGS, SPAIDS, InterSection, Israel/Palestine, Jewish Issues

COPY BEING SENT TO TENNIS AUSTRALIA
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: josken@zip.com.au
To: josken@zipworld.com.au
Date sent: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 23:01:50 +1000
Subject: Lleyton Hewitt
Priority: normal

Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, Melbourne
PO Box 1675
Preston South
Vic 3072
Phone: (03) 9471 4878
Email: josken@zipworld.com.au
Web: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken
Homophobia in the tennis world is reaching new "heights" or depths as perceived from our end of the spectrum.
Lleyton Hewitt is the latest in a long line of tennis players to use homophobia against people they have taken a dislike to or object to on all sorts of grounds. At the Davis Cup match in Sydney during the weekend of 16-17 July 2005 against Argentinean Guillermo Coria, Hewitt shouted "Who is this poof?"
A few years ago, in 2002, Margaret Court stated that lesbian tennis players "snared" their counterparts into homosexuality. She was no doubt still smarting from her defeat by lesbian Billie-Jean King many years earlier.
Also in 2002 the tennis player’s father Damir Dokic stated he would kill himself if his tennis champion daughter Jelena came out.
At Wimbledon in July 2001 the Croatian tennis player Goran Ivenisevic made anti-gay comments about a judge. He said, "Then I hit another second serve, huge. And that ball was on the line, was not even close. And that guy, he looks like a faggot little bit, you know. This hair all over him. He call it. I couldn’t believe he did it." He had previously told a reporter: "Hey, sometimes I watch the TV, and then I see the guys when they throw the rackets. They throw it like a faggot, you know. They throw it not to throw it."
This homophobia in tennis has just got to stop. It is not good enough for Hewitt to apologise, the damage has been done.
If it is good enough for Hewitt, Court, Ivanisevic, Dokic and others to come out with these horrible attacks, then it is good enough for us to demand not only apologies, but educational programmes to stop this happening again. The harm that is done is that it is seen to be acceptable to the community at large and as a consequence homophobic bashings, murders, verbal abuse, suicides caused by homophobia continue unabated.
Tennis Australia must ensure that this does not happen again. We demand public apologies from Hewitt, Tennis Australia and all those who condone this conduct or turn the proverbial blind eye in national and international sport.
Just as racism is unacceptable, so too is homophobia. We live in an ongoing and ever-increasing climate of homophobia due to ever-increasing conservatism and influence by the religious right.
It is worthy of note that this incident was not reported in the mainstream media.
Stop it now before it is too late.
------- End of forwarded message -------

Mannie De Saxe
2/12 Murphy Grove
Preston
Vic 3072
Phone:(03) 9471 4878
email: josken@zipworld.com.au
Some people have short memories, Karl (Killen - letters, 13/7), but some
of us remember that Germany's war killed millions - Jews, homosexuals,
Gypsies, Poles and Russians (who also killed Jews) and other
"untermenschen" for the benefit of the Third Reich.
War is brutal and criminal and all sides commit criminal acts during war
time. The war of 1939-1945 was started by Hitler and aided and abetted by
the USA, UK and others in order to stop the spread of communism (or
Stalinism) throughout the world (and probably to help get rid of all those
pesky Jews everywhere in the world!).
By the time Hitler bombed British cities he had caused devastation in all
the countries he had invaded, and the devastation continued to the bitter
end.
Terror is terror, and no amount of saying who did what to whom will
sanitise the issue. The holocaust terror was one which we should not
forget, nor allow any others to forget about the genocides which continue
unabated into the 21st century.
United Nations? What nations are united?
Mannie De Saxe, Jew and homosexual

Homophobia is on the increase around Australia, thanks to the Howard Federal Government, the influence of the religious right on this and the Labor governments around the country, and the increasing denial of human rights to sexual minority citizens.
The NSW Minister for Education has recently been involved in a blatant abuse of ministerial power by banning a lesson on homophobia in an NSW state school.
The issue has implications for gay, lesbian transgender and HIV/AIDS people in the country.
The letter below was today sent to the NSW premier and his Education Minister.

Bob Carr, Premier, New South Wales: bob.carr@www.nsw.gov.au
Carmel Tebbutt, NSW Minister for Education: carmel.tebbutt@parliament.nsw.gov.au
Ministerial interference with school curriculum
During the period of the last 10 to 15 years we have been fighting homophobia in the News South Wales education system.
At the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board’s gay and lesbian consultations, held between 3 and 6 times a year, members of the NSW Department of Education were asked to explain why a particular module dealing with sexuality was not compulsory in schools, whereas the modules dealing with issues such as racism, were compulsory. We didn’t ever receive a satisfactory resolution to this issue.
In the event, due to ongoing homophobia in the NSW government and its Department of Education, the situation is once again critical due to the intervention of the NSW Minister for Education, Carmel Tebbutt. The issue this time is over the Daily Telegraph article headlines "School sex furore: Students asked to imagine being gay."
Carmel Tebbutt reacted to a complaint about the class lesson, which she has banned after "a community member" had complained to Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson.
The Federal Government’s homophobia is well known – the Prime Minister and his government, heavily influenced by the religious right – are trying to turn the clock back on the very hard-won gains by gay, lesbian, transgender and HIV/AIDS communities during its 9 years in office.
The Carr government’s record is not much better, and every gain by these communities has only been achieved after intensive battles at all levels.
Now we have a minister of the Carr government responding to an article in the Daily Telegraph – further proof of the Murdoch and other media’s influence in governments and their responses to sexuality issues.
There are many ironies in the current situation, not least being the fact that the Daily Telegraph’s readers responded positively to the issue as did parents and students at the school in question.
We intend to publicise the issue as much as possible and demand that the Minister reverse the decision to ban the lesson. Homophobia is on the increase in Australia, due to most governments around the state, be they Coalition or Labor, and the religious right, and the outcome is an increase in violence, bashings and murders of gays, lesbians and transgender people around the country. Many young people struggling with their sexuality, particularly in regional and rural communities, where there are few, if any, support systems, attempt, or succeed in committing, suicide, and governments have a great deal to answer for in this regard.
Sexual minorities are entitled to the same human rights as all citizens in this country, but we have a long way to go, and issues like the latest one make the struggle that much more difficult.
We trust that the Carr government and the Minister for Education will reverse their decision immediately.COPY TO: EDUCATION: journal@nswtf.org.au Member No.: 66011
Mannie De Saxe, casual/part-time member of the NSW Teachers Federation, member of Lesbian and Gay Solidarity
PO Box 1675, Preston South, Vic 3072
Phone:(03) 9471 4878 email: josken@zipworld.com.au web: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken