VIC
JOY 94.9 gets the keys to Victorian Pride Centre
Australia’s queer radio station JOY 94.9 will begin broadcasting from their new home at the Victorian Pride Centre in the new year. Victoria’s Equality Minister Martin Foley recently joined Pride Centre Chair Jude Munro AO for a symbolic ceremony handing the keys to JOY staff. The radio station will join LGBTIQ youth organisation Minus18 as …
WATCH: This gay couple got married live on radio station JOY 94.9
Melbourne queer radio station JOY 94.9 has hosted its first legal same-sex wedding live on air. The radio station’s drive shift presenters, David Hunt and Sue Wilkinson, came up with the idea after Wilkinson registered as a wedding celebrant earlier this year. JOY 94.9 then held a competition offering the wedding. Local couple Daniel Syrus …
Grindr user sentenced after attempting to rob former classmate
A Victorian man who used a fake name to hunt for victims to rob on Grindr was foiled by a former high school classmate who notified police. Thomas Samas sent “sexualised” messages to 37 Grindr users under the pseudonym “Timothy Hines” in March this year, the Whittlesea Leader reported. The 22-year-old asked the Grindr users …
Victim of bungled gay bookstore raid calls for police accountability
Nik Dimopoulos, the Melbourne man who suffered a serious shoulder injury during a botched Victoria Police raid, has demanded more police accountability on use of excessive force. On May 11, Dimopoulos was asleep in an apartment above queer bookstore Hares and Hyenas in Fitzroy when he heard intruders in what he feared was a home …
Anglican priest marries partner in regional Uniting Church wedding
Ordained Anglican priest Father Noel Richards has married his partner Drew Reid in a church ceremony, in a first for the regional Victorian city of Bendigo. The couple have been together for more than five years and tied the knot at St Andrew’s Uniting Church last weekend. It’s the first same-sex wedding ceremony in a …
Attorney-General denies ‘conversion therapy’ risk in religious freedom bill
Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter has hit back at claims by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews that the draft religious discrimination bill could make it harder to outlaw “gay conversion” therapy at a state level. “Conversion therapy” refers to harmful and discredited practices to change or suppress an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, using psychological or …
Greens Senator Janet Rice mourns death of wife Penny Whetton
Dr Penny Whetton, climate scientist and wife of Victorian Greens Senator Janet Rice, has died suddenly at age 61, the Senator announced. Senator Rice wrote in a tribute on Facebook: “My darling beloved Penny passed away suddenly and apparently peacefully at our house in Sisters Beach Tasmania on Wednesday evening 11 September. “The last anyone …
Teacher sues Christian school for religious discrimination
A teacher has filed a discrimination complaint against a private Christian school, claiming she had to quit after refusing to accept its policy opposing same-sex marriage. Rachel Colvin claims Ballarat Christian College discriminated against her due to her political and religious beliefs, including her support for same-sex marriage. The married mother of three alleges she …
Anglican leader intervenes to delay blessing of gay priests’ marriage
Two gay Anglican priests who married this week won’t have their union officially blessed in a Victorian church following a legal challenge. Priests John Davis and Rob Whalley (pictured above) married in a civil ceremony on Tuesday. Wangaratta Anglican Bishop John Parkes previously announced he planned to bless the couple’s relationship in his regional church. …
Archbishop blasts Anglican priest’s blessing of same-sex marriage
Sydney Anglican Archbishop Glenn Davies has said a move to allow Victorian priests to bless same-sex marriages will “fracture the Anglican Church of Australia.” Last weekend, the Wangaratta Anglican diocese in regional Victoria voted in favour of giving churches the option of blessing same-sex married couples. The vote was brought on by retiring priest John …