Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance

Dedicated to the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. This monument was erected to honour those Australian servicemen and women who served during world war one. Here you will find snippets of information not found in any tourist guide book!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Gayllipoli?!



Melbourne's Gay and Lesbian magazine 'MCV' has, this week, ruffled a few feathers at the Shrine!
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In accordance with the Shrine of Remembrance regulations, it is an offence to use an image of the Shrine or it's monuments without the authorisation of the Shrine trustees. This is to prevent the Shrine from being associated with any inappropriate organisations etc or it being portrayed in a negative fashion.
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Issue no.327 of 'MCV', which 'came out' on the 12th April 2007, has a full page spread promoting a gay night club ( The Peel ) which will be open on the eve of ANZAC day until dawn.
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The advert pictures a Shrine guard standing to attention in ceremonial uniform with a 'buff', naked man wearing only an Australian army 'slouch' hat. It appears as if the man is looking down at his genitalia. The word 'ANZAC' is used, as is the Australian Army badge! To make matters worse the advert concludes with a mis-quote of the famous 'Lest we Forget'.
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Channel Ten ran with the story on it's evening news and stated that the RSL ( Returned Serviceman's League ) was horrified by the magazine's contents and were demanding an apology from the magazine's editor, Richard Watts. The Shrine of Remembrance's CEO, Mr Denis Baguley, was also equally offended and has hinted that the Shrine may attempt to prosecute the magazine using the Shrine of Remembrance act and it's regulations. If successful, the magazine will have to pay a paltry fine of $200.
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The Shrine Guard pictured in the magazine was unavailable for comment but a close source has said that he was deeply upset by his association with a gay and lesbian magazine, and wanted to make it public knowledge that he is not a homosexual.


3 Comments:

At 12:59 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

As a Melbourne LESBIAN I will be boycotting Anzac Day this year and every other year to come, along with a lot of other straight and QUEER folk. They weren’t fighting for FAGGOTS.

Does it matter if it was a GAY club or a STRAIGHT club/magazine? And if so, why?! When a story is televised or written about a STRAIGHT club it’s not stipulated that it caters to a HETERO crowd. Why? Because heterosexuality is “the norm”, the social benchmark. So, in saying that, to mention that the club in question caters to a gay crowd is to say that there is something wrong with that.

I think Network Ten and anyone else affiliated with this story should be very careful. Discrimination of ones sexual preference, age or race is not regarded too highly these days. The fact that Network Ten televised a person saying, “I’m not gay. I don’t have anything against gays, it’s just not for me.” says it all. It says enough about the face of the network that my entire family and my partners’ family and families around ours will not be viewing Network Tens’ news ever again.


I want to leave you with an example:

“Today, an African American man was found guilty of rape”

“Today, a Caucasian man was found guilty of rape”

“Today, a Ringwood man was found guilty of rape”

There are two unnecessary sentences there and one with necessary fact- you decide which is which and which would be hailed as OFFENSIVE.

 
At 4:16 AM, Blogger Marvin B. Stokes said...

Thanks Tara for your input. Every person has an opinion about this subject and it appears that you have quite a strong one. The main issue here, however, is that the Shrine was used to promote a commercial business, ie the club. This is not what the Shrine was built for and many people find this more offensive than the fact that the club caters to the homosexual community of Melbourne. We must not lose sight of this fact 'less we forget'. Thanks again.

 
At 4:26 AM, Blogger Marvin B. Stokes said...

Correction: " Lest we forget!" :{

 

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