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Written by fiona patten
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Tuesday, 25 August 2009 05:39 |
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This month I have attended a fabulous variety of events.
The month kicked off with a long 'Alpha-Girl' Friday fundraising lunch for the Australian Sex Party. It was a great afternoon that of course continued into the evening. There was a great and wide variety of women lawyers, academics, town planners and business women. All sex positive women ranging in age from 25 to 65 who realise that so many government positions are out of step with themselves, their families and their customers. While lunching in Kings Cross and raffling sequined feather whips and silk-tasseled pasties, it seemed incredible that the local adult shops were banned from selling adult films. One woman who was there recalled how her father made some of the first adult sex books in the Cross back in the 60's. If those pictures were on a film they would be illegal to sell now in Australia except of course in the ACT and parts of NT.
While we sipped away in the sun we discussed politics and sex, the economy and sex and the importance of sex in our lives.
On Saturday morning we donned our yellow t shirts and sun screen and headed to theTown Hall to take part in the Day of Action for same sex marriage. It was a wonderful and joyous day as any wedding day should be. The mood was positive and for the most part, people were pretty happy. For me the day was not so much about weddings but discrimination. I mean I don’t want to get married but I strongly believe that Australian laws should not discriminate against people on the grounds of their sexuality. I do have to mention one unhappy camper at the day of action. He approached me and asked me to "move on". At first I thought I was in the way of a photo but then he said words to the effect, “We don’t want your sort around here! You are just here to promote porn and smut". Well I told him that we had moved on from that. I said I was there to show my support for an end to discrimination. He replied that the Sex Party was all about sex and smut. I replied that I thought sex was a very important part of all of our lives and maybe he didn’t realize but the sex party was a political party. This didn’t improve his demeanour so I thoughtfully offered him a brochure. This caused him to nearly spit and walk off! Oh well...you can't keep everyone happy.
To mix it up I joined the mob from Atomicmpc.com.au for a few beers and computer talk. These guys are hardcore, avid gamers so of course we discussed why Australian adults cannot buy adult games in Australia. Of course they can buy any of these games on line at sites such as Amazon. I had to stick to censorship as I know very little about the computer games people play. I got addicted to Tetris 15 years ago and that was the end of computer games for me.
SA Attorney General Michael Atkinson ear’s must have been on fire. It was great to meet such a diverse range of intelligent people with a strong common interest and again just highlighted the madness of laws in Australia. Sure you can play live strip poker - just not on your computer!
The other week I drove to a distant and lovely place called Ringwood to attend A Sex and Disability forum featuring two of my favourite sex activists Dr George Taleporos and Christian Vega. The forum was attended by a couple of hundred disability sector workers, carers and people with disablities. The first time I attended a similar forum less than 20 people attended
Christian from Rhed, (www.sexworker.org.au/) spoke eloquently about the relationship between professional sex workers and people with disabilities. The services that they can offer and what they can’t He was able to provide some very interesting advice on the logistics of engaging a sex worker and the pros and cons. Of course this is all very well in a state where prostitution is generally legal and well regulated but in other stats such as South Australia not only could the sex worker be liable if they provided such a service but so would the carer who might have arranged the booking and even the person who was receiving the service could be arrested! No surprises that Michael Atkinson covers the regulation of prostitution in SA.
Dr George gave a very thoughtful presentation about issues that carers should consider when working with sex and sexuality. First and foremost we are all sexual creatures despite disability. He presented a Rights Framework that includes the right:
-to be treated as an adult
-to be informed and given knowledge on sex and sexuality
- to take risks
- to be protected form sexual abuse
- to privacy
- to not be at the mercy of the social attitudes of others
Towards the end of the afternoon we broke into groups and were given a range of scenarios to discuss. One in particular was what to know about buying a vibrator; enabling someone to use one for you and using it on a person. This raised a wide variety of responses and concerns such as what to do when a conservative parent controlled the person’s finances. One thing we were all in agreement on was that using a vibrator on someone should be left to the experts – sex workers!
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