A spat has broken out over a bid to exclude anyone other than female-born lesbians from attending or working at a national lesbian festival.
Organisers of Lesfest 2004, to be held at Daylesford in country Victoria, today had an exemption from equal opportunity laws revoked in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal (VCAT).
The tribunal decision made earlier this month had allowed organisers to advertise for only female-born lesbians to attend or work at the seven-day conference.
But the exemption was today overturned because the organisers had failed to notify the tribunal about a complaint.
The Australian WOMAN Network (AWN), a transsexual lobby group, had applied to revoke the exemption because the term “female-born” was offensive.
[Full Story]
13 comments
I started reading that and thought that “other than female-born lesbians” sounded oxymoronic. As a male hetero, I thought perhaps I was being discriminated against.
I thought at first it was the Jester jesting. But is this in jest, Jester?
sadly mateys, this is not in jest. this is the country in which i live.
I am a male who likes females. A lot. ‘Specially my wife. Does that make me a male-born lesbian?
Oooo, head hurts…
How timely! I discussed homo-homophobia at summa mamas just this evening. Well, I’m not anything like these lesbians — except for the fact that i was actually female-born. But, surely that doesn’t make me a lesbian.
Micki – how do you know?? Maybe you’ve been repressed by the male dominated Catholic Church and you haven’t had the opportunity to be sure you’re not a lesbian. Maybe me too. Oh no! We need to get the word out – maybe all women are truly lesbians. Obviously kidding – hopefully obvious.
Well, you see (warning: take a deep breath before going further), male-born lesbians are mocking and reinforcing female oppression by voluntarily taking on culturally-bound feminine gender roles. Their identification as lesbians is really a reassertion of male dominance over, and infiltration of, women-only space.
Translation: Once a boy, always a boy. Boys are icky. No boys allowed. No fair dressing like a girl to get into the girls’ treehouse.
(Further translation services available on request)
The funny thing, this is really not new. Reading this reminded of similar arguments from 15 years ago and more!
DCM
Great site! I do a Catholic column called Brutally Frank. It appears in Catholic publications throughout the US. It’s usually done reverently, but I do have my wiseass side. God bless! Frank
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