Comments on: Heffernan appearance sincere

By: Brenton

Brenton — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 04:48:19 +0000

Al least Heffernan attended and hopefully may have learnt something new! Send Barnaby an invite! lol Now there is a guy who really needs to attend!

By: MIchael

MIchael — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 22:01:12 +0000

I don’t care who was there and what was said with what nuance – Heffernan needs to make good on some shoddy, illegal behaviour if he wants to interact with our community. Let him use parliamentary privilege to raise a bill in support of gay marriage, or let him publicly address an apology to the broader GLBTQI voters of this country about his behaviour over comm-car and go further than what Howard “required” of him. Heffernan can be linked to the backward movement on same sex attracted equality from A-Z (not just a few letters Sal) and he has plenty of time to show some positive action.

By: Sally Goldner

Sally Goldner — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:11:31 +0000

As someone else who was there, I can add that I explained the issue of “forced trans divorce” re the marriage issue and it seemed to result in a small paradigm shift for Senator Heffernan.

With great respect to Andrew Potts, some of the remarks used were more than “inappropriate use of terminology” – they were downright offensive. However, some direct plain talking as part of a range of communication approaches resulted in a light bulb coming on (maybe only a 25 watt bulb, but a light bulb all the same).

The remarks show exactly what the need for the Parliamentary friends group is: to educate, communicate and improve understanding about our rainbow community, especially T, I and B which currently seem to be have less understanding than G and L. In turn, this reinforces the need for comprehensive Federal Equal Opportunity law and gender centres covering all of Australia (currently only in existence in NSW) to respectively protect and proactively educate.. If Senator Heffernan can attend – and I believe it was in good faith, even if he isn’t exactly a SNAG (smile) – and move forward, then this is a good sign of exactly what such education and communication can achieve.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 08:56:58 +0000

I was there and spoke with him. He seemed genuinely interested, and is someone we need on our side, especially if we want the Marriage Act to change. That’s how it works.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:54:50 +0000

Call me a cynic but I have no confidence this was a genuine gesture by Heffernan. He is renowned around Parliament House, including by his Liberal Party colleagues, as a homophobe.

By: Rich in Sydney

Rich in Sydney — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:07:40 +0000

Well done Mr Heffernan. Glad you’re well on your way to understanding.

By: Jo

Jo — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:40:11 +0000

This leaves out a lot about what really got said and how people felt. I was there and heard his incredibly offensive comments. One week after the event I still have yet to see anything acknowledging that aged care was raised by all the MPs who gave speeches and is a priority area for the Friends group. Is this really more important than that? No of course it’s not. Who sets our agenda? Senator Heffernan? No of course not. We do. I hope we do.

By: JackAlison

JackAlison — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:24:07 +0000

Don’t hold ur breath
Heffernan is a villain and a sly fox.
He has never done or said anything that would endear himself 2 any minority.
Please remember all of his false allegations against former High Court Judge, Justice Michael Kirby, accusing him of using commonwealth cars to pick up rent boys.
COMPLETE AND UTTER FALSIFICATION AND LIES DONE UNDER PARLAIMENTARY PRIVILEDGE.It all came undone of course. But this calumny and attack was gay hatred at its worst designed to destroy a prominent high profile gay man who happened to be a high court judge.
He is a horror of a human being.

By: The Real Michael

The Real Michael — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:59:23 +0000

He’ll have to do a lot more than that!

By: John Wilson

John Wilson — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 08:54:21 +0000

OMG – is hell freezing over?? This has to be the surprise of the year for me.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 08:23:54 +0000

The winds of change are blowing!