Porn Again Christians
In late April a 25-year-old gay man was sentenced to serve three months jail for selling X-rated videos at the Urge on Oxford Street, in the heart of Sydney’s gay ghetto. Last week, midway through the young man’s incarceration, fifteen of Kings Cross’ finest personally inspected and seized every last X-rated video at the Pleasure Chest, a gay male sex club which famously bought full page ads in this paper advertising its “Suckatorium.” The seizure follows a similar raid on Valentine’s Day 2007, featured on the cover of this paper, in the lead up to another state election.
Currently serving time, the young gay man is the first detainee since the Federal ALP refused to support a free speech plank in a draft bill of rights in April. In all other Western countries, the sale and purchase of pornographic material that does not depict harm or mutilation is legally permissible. In the US, Western Europe and throughout the developed world, the protection to free speech is extended to the right to produce, distribute and consume dirty pictures and sexual content across a variety of platforms whether it is off your desktop computer or across the counter of an Oxford Street sex arcade.
The young, gay Darlinghurst entrepreneur was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for selling federally classified X18+ films, which any Australian citizen has the legal right to purchase. According to Fiona Patten, CEO of the Eros Foundation, “This is the first time that someone has been jailed for this offence since the legislation for this moral crime was established in the early 1980s. This man has now lost nearly 10kg in weight and is developing mental instability problems as a result of this incarceration.”
Following the raids on several gay sex shops, Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon is introducing legislation in the Upper House this week calling on the government to clear up the legal uncertainties around selling X-rated non-violent erotica. According to Ms Rhiannon, “I struggle to think of a less productive use of NSW Police’s valuable time than having fifteen officers spend an entire day confiscating material that is legal for the public to own. Material classified in this category contains consensual sexual activity between adults. It does not contain violence, sexual coercion or depictions of performers under 18 years of age.”
Time and time again, numerous public opinion polls have demonstrated that the majority of Australian citizens believe that it should be legally permissible to sell and purchase porn. Following the Kings Cross Valentine’s Day raids of 2007, 86 per cent of all Sydney Morning Herald readers supported the legalised sale of X18 films. A year later a Newspoll survey found that 70 per cent of Australians supported the legalised sale of porn as they had in 2006. In the late 90’s Roy Morgan polled the same result.
When the censorship czar, Stephen Conroy, promised to make filtering the Internet an election issue during the upcoming Federal campaign; he promised not to filter or place classified X18+ material on a federally mandated black list. While the Labor Party is willing to stop short of making the sale of pornography illegal, their State counterparts in NSW have thrown a young gay man in jail for selling X18+ films. As Fiona Patten wrote to State Attorney General John Hatzistergos, “The advice which led the police to raid the Oxford St adult shop came from the Australian Classification Board’s (ACB) educational unit, the Classification Liaison Scheme (CLS). With regard to X18+ films, this means that one part of the ACB classifies these films as legal for all Australians, while another section acts outside its charter to assist in prosecuting people for selling them. Further, NSW funds part of the scheme to run the CLS with money gained from the classification of X18+ films. It is fraudulent and dishonest that NSW takes money from the classification of a product that is illegal to sell in the state and that you as an Attorney General actively seek to prosecute.”
In mid May would-be Archbishop, Kristina K Keneally, accepted the shock resignation of her Transport Minister solely because he was a loyal customer at the KKK Sauna. David Campbell (not the cute cabaret singer) had been visiting Ken’s Karate Klub for some time, supporting a safe and legally operating local business in Kensington, in the heart of Keneally’s Heffron electorate. Federal opposition leader Tony Abbott has asked why his Catholic religion has been scrutinised by the public and State Premier Keneally’s religious beliefs have not been evaluated. He may have a point.
This week, Norrie Mae-Welby was forced to plead her case before the Administrative Decisions Tribunal after Keneally’s State government refused to provide a registered certificate stating Norrie’s gender was “sex not specified”. Not happy to be a male by birth or a female by surgery, Norrie originally received a gender neutral certificate the day before Mardi Gras, only to have the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages rescind its decision. In response, Norrie filed a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission and is taking the State government to court. What, pray tell, is Keneally’s problem?
