Latest news with #LGBTIQA
7NEWS
09-05-2025
- 7NEWS
LGBTQI+ community warned after more than 30 people charged in string of dating app attacks in Victoria
Police have urged members of the LGBTQI + community to be vigilant following a string of attacks on men using dating apps and social media. The series of attacks in Victoria involved men being lured to meet with the alleged offenders and then allegedly robbed, threatened and subjected to homophobic comments, the state's police said. Other victims were allegedly filmed, with the videos posted online to social media accounts. 'There is absolutely no place for this type of concerning behaviour in our society. It will not be tolerated,' Acting Superintendent Carolyn Deer said. 'Everyone has a right to go about their lives, meet new people and start a relationship in safety.' Police said more than 30 arrests have been made since October last year, some allegedly acting in groups, with charges ranging from armed robbery, to kidnapping and false imprisonment. The alleged offenders were mostly young males aged between the ages of 13 and 20, police said. 'We know this has been a distressing situation for the victims involved — and these arrests show just how serious we are in holding offenders to account,' Deer said. 'As when using any app or social media platform, please always remain vigilant by protecting your identity and location and verifying the other person's identity before meeting up. ' Victoria Police is committed to the safety and wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ communities, and we take any report of this behaviour extremely seriously and investigate.' Dating app users are warned that reporting incidents to the app does not mean it will automatically be reported to police. Police can request information from dating apps to help solve investigations and conduct criminal investigations, even if one user has blocked or deleted someone from the app. 'Police are continuing to work with selected dating apps as part of the investigation, including to publish proactive safety messaging on the platforms with reporting options and support services,' they said. In an emergency, call 000.
The Guardian
20-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Dutton calling Albanese ‘limp-wristed' over Chinese ships ‘unsurprising', Wong says
Penny Wong says it's 'unsurprising' Peter Dutton would use an historical slur to attack the prime minister's response to China, noting the opposition leader had opposed marriage equality. In a statement, a spokesperson for Dutton said: 'It was a phrase that shouldn't have been used, and no offence was intended from Mr Dutton.' At an event in Sydney on Thursday, Dutton was asked what message Chinese president, Xi Jinping, was trying to send to Australia last month when the Chinese navy conducted live-fire drills in Australian waters. The opposition leader agreed with the event's host, Michael Fullilove, that it was a 'show of force' before launching into a tirade against Anthony Albanese. '[Albanese's response] was the weakest, most limp-wrist response you could see from a leader,' Dutton said. 'I think what was being tested was our response time, how we would engage, what we would say and I think the prime minister, frankly, failed every one of those tests.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The term 'limp-wrist' has been used historically as a slur against homosexual men. The Cambridge dictionary describes it as 'an extremely offensive word used to describe a man whose behaviour is thought to be typical of a gay person'. Speaking on ABC on Thursday afternoon, Wong defended Albanese's response to China before turning to the nature of Dutton's comments. 'We made very clear our views to the Chinese and publicly. We were very upfront about that. Defence put a number of statements out, the minister for defence and the prime minister and I all gave very public comments about it. And I raised directly with Foreign Minister Wang Yi our concerns about the lack of adequate notice,' Wong said. 'But in terms of Mr Dutton's choice of language, what I would say is this is a bloke who opposed marriage equality, so it's an unsurprising use of language from him.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Independent MP Allegra Spender also criticised Dutton's choice of words, writing on X his use of the term to characterise Albanese's response was 'completely inappropriate' and 'offensive to many in the LGBTQ+ community'. 'By all means criticise the govt response, but don't do so in a way that plays into offensive stereotypes about gay men,' Spender wrote. A spokesperson for Australia, Rodney Croome, condemned the comment from the opposition leader. Croome suggested the term limp-wrist 'is widely known as a derogatory term for gay men' and that its use by Dutton may be heard as a 'Trump-style dog whistle to homophobic prejudice'. 'I call on Mr Dutton to apologise for using the term and commit to an election campaign free of prejudice against LGBTIQA+ Australians,' he said.
The Guardian
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line by Elizabeth Lovatt – a heartfelt history of the gay community
Elizabeth Lovatt, 28, is writing 'a list of all the signs I might be gay'. She lists, among other characteristics many queer women will recognise (including this reviewer): 'Tomboy growing up … Likes plaid … Beer/shandy? . … Penises look weird (do all women think this?).' Thus opens Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line, Lovatt's debut: part memoir, part historical document and part creative nonfiction. Her journey into the world of lesbian telephone helplines begins in London at Finsbury library during her time as writer in residency for Islington's Pride. In the archive, among much other ephemera, she finds a shiny black A4 journal entitled Women's Line Logbook. This book, filled with handwritten logs from the diverse range of callers to the lesbian telephone helpline, old and young, single and married, terrified and joyful about their sexuality, between July 1993 and July 1998, sets her on a path of discovery, not just about the lesbian experience (more of the complexity of this definition later) but also her own experiences within the community. It's an ambitious undertaking and a largely successful one. A compelling, funny, intelligent read that any queer woman (or reader) will be lucky to come across, it recounts the stories of lesbians and the queer community from the late 70s all the way through to the 00s with warmth, rigorous research and a touching earnestness in striving to be inclusive – which feels very fitting for this project. Lovatt is often witty, writing about the often transitory 'pop-up' nature of lesbian clubs; of her personal favourite she says: 'Passionate Necking (RIP), hosted on the last Friday of every month at the Montague Arms (RIP) in Peckham (still going).' Anyone who identifies across the LGBTIQA+ or activism spectrum will find much that resonates. I often found myself retreading my own footsteps: the First Out cafe off Tottenham Court Road, the Housmans bookshop, Diva magazine, the Candy Bar and, inevitably, The L Word. I also discovered new gems that had passed me by such as the film The Watermelon Woman, written, directed and starring black lesbian Cheryl Dunye, and the kd lang and Cindy Crawford Vanity Fair cover (as Lovatt suggests, I will also wait while you Google it – you won't be disappointed). Throughout, Lovatt seeks to explore her own identity and the broader lesbian one through the prism of the history of London lesbian helplines and the archived entries in the found logbook. While initial chapters are pragmatically titled A Brief History of Lesbian Lines and Gay, Lesbian, Woman?, the second half of the book tackles thornier issues in the chapters White Fragility and Our Failure to Listen, I Don't Want to Talk About Wanking in That Way, and Trans Lesbians Exist: Get Over It. It is, as I mentioned, an earnest book, but also a deeply thoughtful one. It is clear that Lovatt has carefully considered, agonised even, over representation within this book, plus the ethics of sharing the archives of what was always meant to be an anonymous helpline. To circumvent this difficulty, she admits to intervention in telling these stories: all names have been changed, and often what was left in the logbook, it seems, was no more than the seed of a story or person. Here, Lovatt creates character sketches of the lives of the callers and the women taking the calls that punctuate the main text. The definition of what lesbian is comes up often. The book spends much of its pages exploring the plurality, messiness and amorphousness of the lesbian experience, and Lovatt does not shy away from the difficult subjects. In the last third of the book, she examines the lesbian community's response to transgender lesbians, race and inclusivity. Of a brief, less than ideally managed, call a transgender lesbian makes to the helpline where the phone worker really has no idea how to support a trans lesbian, she observes that while some workers were happy to take calls from trans people it would seem others were not, and this lack of unity created a structure that kept trans people away. Transphobia by omission. She writes, too, that it would have been easier to pass over that log entry, and the lesbian line's issues around trans lesbian inclusion, but 'I felt like staying silent on the matter would also be to condone it. I set out to find my lesbian inheritance, a lesbian history, and this is part of it too.' Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line is a remarkable piece of work, no less a debut. A gift for those of us who have lived in our queer skins for many decades, and for young lesbians who are looking for a primer in lesbian history, an understanding of what it means to look for identity and place in our community. Lovatt has not only created her own sort of inheritance here but one that will resonate with so many readers across the spectrum of sexuality. She refers to lesbian helplines at the time as: 'A lifeline of solidarity, a lifeline, a phone line, a lesbian line' for other women. Lovatt writes: 'I want us to take the thousand splinters of life we are given, because nothing is given to us as whole and without work, and make a place for dwelling. A space to be.' In this thoughtful, moving book, the author too has created such a dwelling place. Kerry Hudson's most recent book is Newborn: Running Away, Breaking with the Past, Building a New Family (Vintage, £10.99) Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line: A Hidden History of Queer Women by Elizabeth Lovatt is published by Dialogue (£25). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at Delivery charges may apply
