Dianna Edwards and Writing
  • About me
  • Short stories
    • Death in the Desert
    • Secrets
    • Airport Drama
    • Acacia
    • Two Chooks in December
    • A Darned Surprise
    • The Sunset Mermaid
    • Friend or Foe?
    • At Rainbow's End
    • Sisterly Love
    • Good Times to Come
    • Being Famous
    • Something Special for Dinner
    • Walter's Secret
    • The Visitor
  • Children's stories
    • The Red Silk Kite
    • The Singing Tree
    • Beatrice Barnfeather
    • Garth's bath
    • Little Dog Tambo
    • Flowers For a Special Day
  • Non Fiction
    • Letter to a Soldier
    • The Body
    • Autumn Saturday
    • A Year With Billy
    • Lunch
    • Harry's Story
    • 2007 bushfires
    • My Father's Kite
    • Death of a Chook
    • Gentle Heartache
    • Shopping with Sisters
    • When I am Old
    • Matilda
    • Fragments
  • Blog

BLOG

A different sort of inequality

6/4/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Last week I stopped following a (usually interesting) person on Twitter. His tweets were leaning more and more solely towards the (to him) worries faced by the LGBT community, and I was becoming tired of it.
 
Now...I’m happy that people have been able to ‘own’ their sexuality. It’s great that the stigma seems to be disappearing from the labels and the former insults and so forth, but, when ‘owning’ their sexuality, do these people have to shout quite so loudly?
Sure, some LGBT people have experienced some difficult times but…BUT…there are other groups of people who (IMO) have experienced much more difficult situations AND there are so many more of them.
BUT these people do not have the ability or outlets to be able to shout out their situation -  and are unable to gain similar attention as that generated by the LGBT community.
 
Lately, the Australian Marriage Equality group has begun ‘inviting employers to confirm that they grant full recognition to the same-sex marriages of their employees and customers and do not reclassify these marriages as domestic partnerships, de facto relationships or something else that they are not.’
Dozens (maybe hundreds?) of business and large corporations are now choosing ‘to treat all their employees and customers with the same dignity and respect, regardless of their sexuality or gender.’
 
It’s been announced as quite big news.
 
Dozens (Hundreds?) of big name companies are doing this…..Well, great! But is this truly necessary? And, what (or who) is behind such moves?
And for what purpose?
Isn’t it just a bit over-the-top?
 
Let me quote some statistics. (You can find your own if you wish…they’re all there in one way or another on-line).
Currently, in Australia, 1.8 of men self-identify as gay and 0.4 as bisexual, and 1.5 percent of women self-identify as lesbian and 0.9 percent as bisexual.
Not that many really.
And, how many of these people are desperate to be married? 
 
Okay, tell me I’m bigoted – or ignorant or just wrong – but I would like to offer a few examples of other groups that might need our attention.
 
Here are some groups of people, who may need their voice to be heard.
 
Disabled:
At the most recent count, from the Australian network on disability, there is estimated to be over 4 million people with some form of disability.
That's 1 in 5 people.
Certainly some (perhaps many) have only a slight – and manageable – disability, but there are still many profoundly disabled people who need the community to take notice of them.
 
For instance, in the count of disabled, there are approximately 34,000 people living with cerebral palsy in Australia.
These people do not have the ability or means to join together in an outspoken community – and, even if they did -  and they managed to dress up and parade in glittery rainbow colours, most people would only look away in an embarrassed fluster of awkwardness. (That’s the way it works!).
I seriously doubt that there would be any celebratory parties or announcements by international corporations about supporting them
 
Think about it.
 
Then there are the carers; people, usually family members, who care for disabled people.
In 2015 there were 2.7 million unpaid carers in Australia. Now that’s a huge amount of people (remember, unpaid) who are working under difficult circumstances – and mainly for LOVE…and necessity. 
The Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that around 856,000 carers (32%) are primary carers, those who provide the most informal assistance to another individual.
How about that?
Do we hear much about these valiant folk?
No, because they possess neither the time, nor the energy nor the money to exhibit their plight.
Compare that with the very loud and visible LGBT community, with their voice, their money and (now) the audience.
 
The disabled and their carers have few opportunities to grab the public’s attention…And yet isn’t their plight somewhat needier than that of the LGBT community?  But who gets the attention? Who do we (usually via the media) take notice of?
 
I could go on.
I have not mentioned needy people who are simply the poor in our midst. It is perhaps enough to offer the Oct 26, 2016 report by ACOSS (Australian Council of Social Services), that states that poverty is growing in Australia with an estimated 2.9 million people  -  or 13.3% of all people  -  now living below the internationally accepted poverty line.
 
Heck!
So, where’s all the attention that should be given to that awful fact?
Hello?
Can someone please start a publicity campaign for all those truly in need of attention in our community?
Anyone?
No?
Oh, well, didn’t think so.

 
 
 
 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author notes

    I choose to comment on social issues and write creatively on a variety of subjects -  for a variety of audiences.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012

    Categories

    All
    Childhood
    House
    Kindness
    On Death
    Social Comment
    Writing

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • About me
  • Short stories
    • Death in the Desert
    • Secrets
    • Airport Drama
    • Acacia
    • Two Chooks in December
    • A Darned Surprise
    • The Sunset Mermaid
    • Friend or Foe?
    • At Rainbow's End
    • Sisterly Love
    • Good Times to Come
    • Being Famous
    • Something Special for Dinner
    • Walter's Secret
    • The Visitor
  • Children's stories
    • The Red Silk Kite
    • The Singing Tree
    • Beatrice Barnfeather
    • Garth's bath
    • Little Dog Tambo
    • Flowers For a Special Day
  • Non Fiction
    • Letter to a Soldier
    • The Body
    • Autumn Saturday
    • A Year With Billy
    • Lunch
    • Harry's Story
    • 2007 bushfires
    • My Father's Kite
    • Death of a Chook
    • Gentle Heartache
    • Shopping with Sisters
    • When I am Old
    • Matilda
    • Fragments
  • Blog