Josh and Emily told me I had to update this blog again. So here I am. Updating. Yes.

Sadly, I can't actually remember what they told me to update it with, so until I'm reminded I'll just have to ramble about something else.

I've been living in Brisbane now for maybe five months? Maybe more, maybe less. I could work it out, but I'm a little bit lazy tonight. This entry is dedicated to the people I've left back in Toowoomba. I can hear you all now "Awww, how sweet", well not quite.

While I miss you all, and think about Toowoomba most days, sometimes I even miss the old Garden City, there's just something I'm itching to say.

I'm getting really quite tired of the way people judge me, (and maybe I'm just being a little too sensitive) about my uni life, my work life and my social life. I doubt you even know you do it, but sometimes it just bugs me. If I hear one more person ask me "Why aren't you out partying?" or "What do you actually DO in Brisbane?" I think I might scream. One other enlightened soul had the audacity to tell me that I wasn't doing enough to make new friends.

Us ex-Toowoomba folk, well, we're out on a limb here, fending for ourselves. Realising that if you put that fucking heater on, it costs you money! Sleeping through that alarm and realising that you're just late for uni. No mum to wake you up or drive you there. You sleep through a tutorial, tough luck. Coming to terms with the fact that if you're too lazy to cook, you don't eat. But we cope! Yes, we do!

I really wish I could say we all come together once a week, bond and have a gay old time, but we don't. It's pretty hard to get around without cars. Some of us have them, but then there's the petrol money factor. So we rely on public transport. And so the story goes, the biggest meeting of ex-Toowoomba people I've had was at Tegan's house last month to celebrate Carli's birthday. So that was Tegan, Hailie, her sister, Leisa, Gede and Michael. We all tend not to travel in packs. I see Michael pretty frequently, and Josh ever day of course. I see Emily around as well. But that's when my regular social contact with these people end. I don't see Degan nearly as much as I'd like, and that goes for Leisa and Gede as well. Hailie and Tegan I see occasionally at uni, and God knows there's probably someone I'm missing out.

So I just wanted to make those things clear. We don't party every night, but we DO actually do things and we cope. Just fine thanks.

Gay Marriage

It's about time I got on my soapbox about something, and what better issue is there than gay marriage?

Our politicians and other big-wigs in the last week have been voting, quoting and carrying on about the ACT's decision to allow gay civil unions, which of course was defeated, but we won't go there.

The thing that bothers me the most about this whole debate, is the "open minded" people who are not "homophobic in the slightest" but yet they pull out quotes like:

"I'm all for gay civil unions, but I don't think they should be allowed to get married."

"Civil unions are fine, but marriage is for men and women only."

I am very sorry, but that just doesn't wash with me. Why is a civil union acceptable between two men or two women, but when it comes to using the word "married" it's back to the 1950's way of thinking? Some might say it's got something to do with religion, and maybe that's true. But the people who have quoted the above lines have not once mentioned that religion was the reason behind that opinion.

It seems that all too often people claim to be "open minded" but when it comes to the crunch, they're just as narrow minded half the members of our parliament.

This little fiasco hits a little close to home for me. In the last few months my dear friend Gede has moved in with his boyfriend, as they plan to get married. Actually, knowing Gede they may already be married as he seems to do these things without letting people know! Now, when I say "married", I of course don't mean some big legal binding document, but instead a Pagan "handfasting" ceremony. Now, I can guess pretty much say for certain that this ceremony will mean more to him than any legal document ever could - and that would be no different to a Catholic heterosexual couple valuing their actual wedding ceremony more than the piece of paper - but what I don't understand, is that why, in 2006, is it good enough for a man and a woman to have a stingy, rotten piece of paper declaring to the world that they're married, but two men who love each other can't?

Look I know you can all say "but a civil union is as good as a marriage in legal affairs", but I really don't believe that's the issue here. Wikipeida says "A civil union is a legal agreement between two people". Nothing about love, nothing about relationships. It's just not good enough.

I need to go back to Naomi Robson here - "And let's hope that common sense prevails"

Amen to that.

PS. Maybe not Amen, unless you're from the Uniting Church...