representation matters

[rev]

It's interesting(or not) how you all missed the point I was making.

Most of you rushed off(as usual) to pass judgment on me, to call me a homophobe, directly or indirectly.
This is the hypocrisy and stupidity that has gripped our nation as a result of unchecked political correctness.
Anyone who doesn't agree with what's being pushed, is attacked and labelled things.

[Nathan]

You're response shows what sort of a person you are. And it's not any good kind. It's a shame in this case that there are rules, but really, when you disrespect our service people many of whom have made the ultimate sacrifice serving their country, well, what more can be said about such a person.

We all know Chinatown. We all know the cultural contributions that Chinatowns make, and that Chinese immigrants make. So, what are the cultural contributions homosexuality has made to our society? Besides making parts of the parklands late at night unsafe. And don't go listing any gay celebrities or famous people or authors or whatevers, because this isn't about them, but you, the individuals who nobody cares if you are gay straight or bi or secretly wish aliens from another galaxy came and beamed you up to their ship and had their way with you.
Same goes with the other ethnic cultural stuff you listed.

You are comparing childrens play grounds and public toilets to a rainbow walkway? Really ?

And statues of sports stars who have contributed to our sporting culture?

And tram lines?

And you even went there..with the Aboriginal culture stuff... Does that one even need explaining? How can anyone even compare that? Let alone war memorials. Amazing.

When I asked you to list things, I knew you had nothing.
But wow..

[rev]

Couple of ideas for you Rev.

1) How about you don't walk on the proposed rainbow path, or even look at it? That way you won't feel offended.

Yeh, maybe I can adopt the Crows mentality and demand it be covered up when I'm in the vicinity yeh?
Good job on jumping to assumptions though. Baaaaa sheep.

2) How about you work to get a symbol of equality happening for your own identity, ethnic or otherwise, which has been marginalised for centuries, if indeed that's the case?

Why? Will it erase the racism and bigotry I grew up with? What would be the point exactly?
Do you think the council will spring for a giant golden statue of Zeus like the one that was in Olympia in 435bc, in the northern part of Vic square, and then turn the southern part of Vic square into a replica of the Parthenon in Athens? We can have a Hellenic walkway with marble tiles in a Greek key pattern linking the two.
That should make up for all the racism and bigotry yeh?

Do all of you agree? If not, you are racists.

[rev]

[Norman]

Let's take this discussion elsewhere...

[Pikey]

[Ben]

If nothing else it's going to brighten up an otherwise dull part of the city. It will not be for exclusive use of gay or lesbian people. It will be bright and welcoming. Who cares what minority group it's going to make happy by being there. At the end of the day it does not effect you one iota and at the same time makes a group of people (albeit small) happy. Move on. There is no story here.

I believe you have you're Greek festival and Hellenic clubs. I seriously doubt you would have been bashed for being of Greek heritage and I certainly know you are not excluded from anything in law because of this heritage (that you did not choose). I.e the right to marry the one you love (unless of course you are gay).

[monotonehell]

If nothing else it's going to brighten up an otherwise dull part of the city. It will not be for exclusive use of gay or lesbian people. It will be bright and welcoming. Who cares what minority group it's going to make happy by being there. At the end of the day it does not effect you one iota and at the same time makes a group of people (albeit small) happy. Move on. There is no story here.

I believe you have you're Greek festival and Hellenic clubs. I seriously doubt you would have been bashed for being of Greek heritage and I certainly know you are not excluded from anything in law because of this heritage (that you did not choose). I.e the right to marry the one you love (unless of course you are gay).

Ben, in the past (1980s and before) it was common for "ethnics" to be bullied. So I'm surprised that Rev doesn't get it.

Representation matters to young people growing up. If a dark skinned person only sees white kids represented in the media, then how does that make them feel? If a gay kid only sees straight relationships represented in the media, how does that make them feel? It's good from a mental health aspect for young people to see themselves positively reflected in the media and society. So that they can see that they are accepted.

Things are a lot better now than even 20 years ago. But there's still a lot of heteronormativity, conscious or not, out there. It has a negative impact.

Representation matters to everyone no matter the colour of their skin, their heritage, their sexual identity, their gender, their sex, or any other natural aspect of themselves.

(And Patrick_27 - sorry about the bi-erasure from some of the gay community, they need to get over their bigoted selves already.)

[rev]

If nothing else it's going to brighten up an otherwise dull part of the city. It will not be for exclusive use of gay or lesbian people. It will be bright and welcoming. Who cares what minority group it's going to make happy by being there. At the end of the day it does not effect you one iota and at the same time makes a group of people (albeit small) happy. Move on. There is no story here.

I believe you have you're Greek festival and Hellenic clubs. I seriously doubt you would have been bashed for being of Greek heritage and I certainly know you are not excluded from anything in law because of this heritage (that you did not choose). I.e the right to marry the one you love (unless of course you are gay).

Yeh, we have Greek festivals and clubs of various kinds. There's gay festivals and clubs as well. What's your point?

The various Greek festivals aren't paid for by the taxpayers, and are held by privately run/organized groups that aren't part of government or council's.
It's a bit different to spending taxpayers money to fund some Greek walkway in the middle of the city. Just like the gay festival, it's up to you if you choose to go to the Greek festivals, which pay fees to the relevant council's to use park lands.

So I'm going to assume like some of you assumed I'm a homophobe that since you disagree with my Idea of a statue of Zeus and Parthenon replica with a marble greek key walkway linking them that you are a racist.

So I wasn't beaten up therefore my cause isn't as important? What other Greeks or Italians or Chinese etc who were beaten up and bullied?
Or has every gay been beaten up so they now need a council funded rainbow walkway to make up for it?

I want a Hellenic walkway to make up for the racism I had to endure. But you don't agree because I've got Greek festivals to go to and Greek clubs to go be part of.

But wait..There a gay pride festival..and gay clubs or groups/organizations...but they are still deserving of a walkway.

Like I said hypocrites with double standards.


FYI I don't want a Greek walkway, because it's not going to undo what's been done already it won't make things better, and a Greek walkway has nothing to do with the rest of the community. Just like a rainbow gay walkway has nothing to do with the rest of the community and won't make things better or change what's been done.

What is a better idea is to create a public space or park that's about unity of everyone regardless of their ethnicity or sexual preferences or faith.

But keep segregating one part of the community, often your selves, from everyone else while crying for equality.

Btw shouldn't thus thread be moved to the pub? It's not a CBD development topic.

[rev]

If nothing else it's going to brighten up an otherwise dull part of the city. It will not be for exclusive use of gay or lesbian people. It will be bright and welcoming. Who cares what minority group it's going to make happy by being there. At the end of the day it does not effect you one iota and at the same time makes a group of people (albeit small) happy. Move on. There is no story here.

I believe you have you're Greek festival and Hellenic clubs. I seriously doubt you would have been bashed for being of Greek heritage and I certainly know you are not excluded from anything in law because of this heritage (that you did not choose). I.e the right to marry the one you love (unless of course you are gay).

Ben, in the past (1980s and before) it was common for "ethnics" to be bullied. So I'm surprised that Rev doesn't get it.

Representation matters to young people growing up. If a dark skinned person only sees white kids represented in the media, then how does that make them feel? If a gay kid only sees straight relationships represented in the media, how does that make them feel? It's good from a mental health aspect for young people to see themselves positively reflected in the media and society. So that they can see that they are accepted.

Things are a lot better now than even 20 years ago. But there's still a lot of heteronormativity, conscious or not, out there. It has a negative impact.

Representation matters to everyone no matter the colour of their skin, their heritage, their sexual identity, their gender, their sex, or any other natural aspect of themselves.

(And Patrick_27 - sorry about the bi-erasure from some of the gay community, they need to get over their bigoted selves already.)

What don't I get Mono?

This walkway is somehow going to magically make them feel better and give them equality? They are going to be better represented as a result?

Where's the Greek Italian Chinese Serbian Croatian Polish Japanese Vietnamese Cambodian walkways and many more....?

There's plenty of gay people on TV. There plenty of non - Anglos on there too. So they are already represented.

How do we decide the quotas? Majority of people are straight and white. Should white straights be replaced by gays and dark skinned people on a 50-50 basis?

Neighbors has a couple gay characters on it. One of which is Indigenous.
It's had an Indian family on it.
Home and Away had a Greek family on it.
Bold and Beautiful has a transgender on it and even an Aussie.

The list goes on and on.

The indigenous have their own channel as well now.
Maybe gay people want one too?

The arguments put up would make sense, in a bygone era.

The gay community needs to actually realize finally that most people just don't care if they are gay or straight anymore. And need to stop acting and campaigning as if society still needs to change. It's already changed.

[Ben]

I'm still not sure why your so worked up about this.

I never said I did not agree with a Greek, Hellenic or whatever walkway.. In fact I would love to see something like this and one of my ideas for the parklands was to have different countries represented throughout in both flora and design and have it like a world surrounding our city, which in turn would become a tourist attraction in its own right.

I'm all for embracing culture, ethnicities individual identities etc. Everyone one of us is different. you can't unfortunately build something everyone will love. there will always be a hater no matter how successful (think Adelaide Oval).

I definitely think you are missing the point. China town is representing the Chinese community as Nathan said. The council are in talks for a "Little India" too. If you want a "Little Greece" I suggest you propose one. If you do not I suggest you stop trying to disadvantage groups that want to be represented. That whole mentality I don't want it... but I don't want you to have it either...

If you are a Adelaide city ratepayer and are upset because of the cost, Anne Moran was on the news last night saying she was confident they could do it for less than $10,000, in contrast they are spending $180,000 to renovate just one room in town hall. Maybe you should voice this disdain elsewhere?

[monotonehell]

...The gay community needs to actually realize finally that most people just don't care if they are gay or straight anymore. And need to stop acting and campaigning as if society still needs to change. It's already changed.

Rev, society is changing. But it hasn't changed.

Yes there's some positive representation on TV and the media now, that wasn't there less than a decade ago. That is good.

But there's still a minority of people fervently opposed to people understanding sexuality (other than their flawed, ignorant, prescribed heteronormative model). AND a silent majority who haven't thought about things and go about their lives acting according to that model, not realising that they are doing harm.

We still don't have marriage equality in this country. Look at what's recently happened in NSW, with the minister for education stepping in and banning the screening of an bullying awareness documentary. Look at what's happening in other countries like Russia where even mentioning that gay people exist in front of children is against the law.

We have a long way to go.


As to your question whether rate payers should pay for the crossing or not. I don't know either way. On one hand I see your point, on the other somewhere around 10% of the rates come from GLBT people, and festivals like Feast create business activity for the City... it's a judgment call.

[Ben]

I'd also like to add the comment Anne Moran made that she was initially against this proposal. Then she and other councillors received over 180 hate filled homophobic emails. It was then she realised ok wow this is a massive issue and there is still so much discrimination in this world (so close to home), how can the council make these people feel more welcome.

[Nathan]

Also, FYI, this won't be entirely paid for by council. It was already flagged before it came to the vote that they'd be seeking contribution from the community to help fund it.

[crawf]

Out of the members here, I knew rev would be the one to pounce on this.

Though I do kinda get what rev is trying to say here, however...

The gay community needs to actually realize finally that most people just don't care if they are gay or straight anymore. And need to stop acting and campaigning as if society still needs to change. It's already changed.

Clearly, that's why same-sex attracted people still can not lawfully marry someone they love despite many paying tax and contributing alot to this country. Very second class citizen material. Or if same-sex couples want to to do the simplest thing of holding each others hands, there is potential for them to be frowned upon, verbally abused or violently attacked.

Society has changed, but as recent international events and homophobia has shown, there is still a very long way to go. If this rainbow walkway is going to brighten up a dull pathway, bring more positive LGBTI awareness and encourage more young people to be their true selves... then it's worth it.

And if the community is going fund a big chunk towards it, then I do not understand the huge fuss.