Lesbian Woolcraft Show

I went this morning, with some of my knitting group friends, to The Annual Yandoit Lesbian Knitting and Woolcraft Show.

Outside the small hall were some gorgeous alpacas who were there to show off their wool. They were so placid and soft, I thought I might skip the show altogether and just spend the morning patting and cooing.

But when I saw this sign, I knew I had to go inside.

And I'm so pleased I did. I have wanted to knit a cosy for a chair like this, but all in red, for quite a while. Dear Meg Later, I am blogging this image as a reminder for you to do it.

I felt like a bit of a cheat, not being a lesbian and not knowing how to knit, but when I saw this knitting nancy, which is all I know how to do, I felt a lot better about being there.

My favourite craft of the day, and the item that received my Best in Show vote, was the Goodnight Darling banner above the kitchen. You can't really see from this photo, but each letter has been hand-sewn onto a rectangle cut out of a blanket and then pegged onto a string-line.

The tea and cake I bought from under it got my vote too.

Equal Love

Photo

Yesterday was the National Day of Action for Same-Sex Marriage, which culminated in 150 couples getting illegally wed outside the Australian Labour Party National Conference in Sydney.

I am ashamed of the Australian government's policies on many issues, but I am especially regretful of its refusal to budge on its homophobic Christian stance on gay marriage and same sex civil unions.

Have you seen that video that's doing the rounds at the moment of the couple and their bridal party dancing down the aisle? It's oh so cheesy, but I must admit that I have clicked replay on it more than once. There's something really lovely and liberated about the way the bride dances down on her own; no man to give her away, she's doing it on her on terms. My one wish for that couple is my one wish for all couples: that their love and commitment to one another be mightier than all the statistics stacked against them, and more honourable than our policy makers are.

Women!

Happy International Women's Day!

From one of my favourite female writers, Catherine Deveny:

It's International Women's Day this week and I'm wearing camouflage after my seven-year-old son handed me a tampon and said, "Here's one of your vagina bullets".

It's still a battle of the sexes. Quilting conventions, goddess weekends, hens' nights, book groups, chick flicks, women's studies and scrag fights aside, the gender war is still raging. The rumoured truce is a myth. Who said we're waving a white flag? Listen closely and you'll hear many still screaming blue murder. It's a bit hard to hear them, though, because most are gagged, bound and kept in cellars.

The gloves are off but we're still wearing the matching belt. Although I'm not one of the missing in action, I have war wounds and battles to fight despite my thin veneer of shock and awe and my reputation as a shoecide bomber.

The rest here.

ChillOut

I love living in a small community. It's like living in the heart of a city that doesn't have any suburbs.

I love this town's terrain and small population and I also love that it's a popular tourist destination that attracts weekenders in the thousands.

This weekend our lovely town is playing the hostess with the mostest to around 25,000 gay and lesbians who are here for the twelfth ChillOut festival, the largest gay and lesbian festival in regional Australia.

And today we played the hosts with the mosts to Sharon and Deb, who are visiting from their lovely home in Tasmania, next to my folks' place.

Bring on the Apocalypse

I have just finished reading this fantastic book by UK investigative journalist and gardener, George Monbiot. 

I say: Don't read this book! Don't read it if you are happy living your life in a bubble of abstraction. Don't read this book if you don't want your dearly held beliefs turned inside out.

Monbiot says: "The central mystery of the modern state is this. The necessary resources, both economic and political, will always be found for the purpose of terminating life. The project of preserving it will always struggle. When did you last see a soldier shaking a tin for a new rifle? Or a sponsored marathon raising money for nuclear weapons? But we must beg and cajole each other for funds whenever a hospital wants a new dialysis machine. If the money and determination expended on waging war with Iraq had been used to tackle climate change, our carbon emissions would already be in freefall. If as much money were spent on foreign aid as on fighter planes, no one would ever go hungry.

When the state was run by warrior kings, this was comprehensible: they owed their existence to overwhelming force. Now weapons budgets and foreign wars are, if anything, an electoral liability. But the pattern has never been broken."

I say: I often found myself wondering how Monbiot continues to be published when he takes no prisoners, exposing corruption and inequality in organisations ranging from local to national government, to armies, to corporatised scientists, to the church. 

Why aren't more journalists writing commentaries as hard hitting? Why am I even describing it as 'hard hitting', when he's just writing the facts? Where are our writers? What are they busy doing? Why does it feel as though the public conscience of our civilisation rests on the shoulders of a handful of people such as Monbiot?

Monbiot says: "The claim that homosexuality is “unnatural” is more interesting. This could mean one of two things. Perhaps the Pope is suggesting that it lies beyond the scope of “normal” human behaviour. If so, this has uncomfortable implications for an association of old men who wear dresses and hear voices."

Hats off too to our talented friends at We Made This, for the book cover design.

For Del & Phyllis!

Congratulations to all the same sex partners in California who, as of yesterday, are now legally allowed to marry each other.

It's the best international news I have heard in ages.

And congratulations for its progressiveness to the Supreme Court of California who overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage in a four-to-three decision.

Being one of four sisters, I feel I am an expert in how to love deeply a person of my own gender. And feeling how I do about PJ, I am an expert in love that gives you no choice; in love that shreds you, like a confidential document.

I miss you PJ, love Meg in Melbourne.