Ex-Gays Of Australia

The Sydney Morning Herald today published a small feature on pray-the-gay-away cults around Sydney, Australia. It's a good read, and it bears good news: The ex-gay movement in Sydney, like ex-gay movements everyplace, is on the wane, and groups which once claimed to utterly rejigger clients' sexual orientations now have lesser ambitions:

... the Australian ''ex-gay'' movement has shrunk and become more marginalised than it was when he went through homosexual ''healing'' in the 1970s. The sessions today are more in the style of confessional support groups, not dissimilar to Alcoholics Anonymous ...

Of the three groups contacted by The Sun-Herald, only Haydn Sennitt, the pastoral worker at Liberty Christian Ministries, agreed to be interviewed. Sennitt says: ''We do not offer 'fixes' or 'cures' for homosexuality, but we do believe that it can be healed over time.''

''I have seen in myself and others an ability for people to overcome same-sex attraction by persistence, prayer, and patience,'' says Sennitt, who after years of living as a homosexual is now married with a child.

(" ... and who is therefore probably naturally bisexual," one wishes the editors would add.)

The article's good tiding's aren't its most striking feature. That would be the description of the "treatments" used by Australian ex-gay groups to heterosexualize their clients, which are far more dramatic than those used recently by equivalent American organizations. In particular the "treatment" of Anthony Venn-Brown, "a former leader in the Assemblies of God who for 22 years tried to change his homosexuality through psychiatric treatment, exorcisms, ''ex-gay'' programs and 40-day fasts." According to the Sydney Morning Herald:

He was assigned a ''minder'' to monitor his behaviour. The minder combed through his wardrobe to remove all ''gay-looking'' clothes such as pink socks and colourful underwear, stood outside while he showered to stop him from masturbating, and made him do more manly activities such as gardening and maintenance.

(If you were running an "ex-gay" group, wouldn't you be more concerned by the proclivities of your willing shower-minders than those of your clientele?)

Read the full Sydney Morning Herald feature here.

Your Disco Needs You: VIDEO

DJ Dan Murphy forwards us this fun clip created by Australian anti-bullying group The Community Brave Foundation at Sydney's Mardi Gras.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Kylie Does Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras: VIDEOS

Kylie Minogue was the main attraction at this year's Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. Australia's Same Same has a full report including a couple of huge galleries. Last month, Kylie announced she would be participating as part of the celebration of the 25th year of her career.

Watch clips of a Kylie tribute float and two (poor quality) videos of her performance,
AFTER THE JUMP...

'Bored' RuPaul Drags Down Sydney Mardi Gras: VIDEO

Same Same's Matt Akersten reports that Sydney Mardi Gras crowds were not impressed by RuPaul:

Alone on the giant stage at midnight in the Royal Hall of Industries, RuPaul badly mimed her song Supermodel, then departed, leaving her back-up dancers to perform the theme of Drag Race by themselves.

“She looked bored and mimed her own song badly, not caring if she stopped ‘singing’ while the main vocals on the song kept going,” said a party punter who witnessed the carnage. She even told the crowd “Happy Pride!”

The Mardi Gras crew won’t comment officially, but those involved with Ru’s show were yesterday muttering about how hard she was to work with, with creative tussles ending in her refusal to be on stage with any of the back-up dancers.

The Courier Mail adds:

The 1990s nightclub pin-up threw organisers into a tizz after making an eleventh-hour change to her highly produced musical number featuring 40 back-up dancers. "Who knows why, but right before she was due to take to the stage she refused to go on with the dancers and said she wanted to perform solo," an insider said.

"The dancers were really shocked. They had been preparing all day. They ended up going out and performing the number anyway once RuPaul finished. They couldn't just waste having 40 dancers dressed, rehearsed and ready to go."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Kylie Minogue to Join Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras: VIDEO

Kylie Minogue announced today that she'll be celebrating the 25th year of her career by being the centerpiece of Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras celebration in March:

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras alongside its strategic partner Destination NSW, wanted to mark the acclaimed artist’s career milestone, K25, with a personal invitation to be part of the event, widely recognised as the world’s best celebration of LGBTQI pride and diversity and one that draws significant economic benefits to Sydney and NSW at large.

SGLMG will honour Minogue during the Parade with a spectacular K25 float that pays homage to her career and support of the LGBTQI community. SGLMG’s CEO Michael Rolik says Minogue’s RSVP to Sydney Mardi Gras 14 years after her last Party performance will once again make Mardi Gras go down in history.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

'Sydney Mardi Gras' Dumps 'Gay' and 'Lesbian' from Name in Rebranding Controversy

Sydney, Australia's annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has been 'de-gayed'. From henceforth, it will be known as Sydney Mardi Gras, organizers announced late last week.

Watch a video report on the name change, AFTER THE JUMP...

Writes the Sydney Morning Herald:

Insisting that the heart of the annual festival remained gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex people, Mr Urmson said Mardi Gras was inviting any and all comers who wanted to celebrate diversity and ''the right to be''. This would include opening parade floats to new faces who ''share our values''.

At the launch yesterday, Mr Urmson acknowledged that long-standing supporters might feel the new approach would water down the event's celebration of sexual difference but said Mardi Gras had to evolve with its community. ''I think that whilst we are first and foremost a GLBTQI community organisation, we also are very open to all of our friends that do not necessarily identify within that alphabet soup,'' he said.

Organisers hope that reaching out will rejuvenate the event, which has failed to attract younger people and lost relevance in its core community.

The changes have infuriated some.

Same Same reports:

Former Mardi Gras President Richard Cobden has been particularly vocal. “This morning’s Sydney Morning Herald front page sums it up: Mardi Gras goes straight,” he tells Same Same.

“Neither the organisation, and especially not this Board or staff, had any permission or mandate to make Mardi Gras straight. [Mardi Gras Chair] Peter Urmson says ‘this is our gift to the city’. It was not his to give.”

The most immediate and visible result of what they have done will be to remove the most frequent, favourable, beneficial and powerful uses of the words ‘gay and lesbian’, Cobden adds. “For 20-plus years we have been able to force the mainstream media to call it the GAY AND LESBIAN MARDI GRAS. They had to say the words. For a long time they did not want to but we made them. That has been thrown away.”

Check out a report on the relaunch from Bondi Beach, AFTER THE JUMP...