Thursday, August 20, 2009

Interesting News From The Land Of Lou


I always stop by The Quiet Life to see what Lou has to say. It's always interesting to see how the other half......of the world......lives, and Lou's New Zealand perspective is always a treat.

So, imagine my surprise when a bill to abolish the so-called 'gay panic defence'--that's how they spell it Down Under--has passed its first reading in New Zealand's parliament.


The Crimes Provocation Repeal Amendment Bill was unanimously passed on Tuesday night and, if it becomes law, it will remove the ability for people charged with murder to claim they were provoked.

Provocation, or the Gay Panic Defense--that's how it's spelled Up Top--occurs when a person charged with murder claims they were driven into a state of violent temporary insanity by a sexual advance from the victim.

In one such recent New Zealand case, Ferdinand Ambach killed Auckland gay man Ronald Brown by shoving the neck of a banjo down his throat. Ambach said he thought Brown was about to rape him.

About.To.Rape.Him.

Howsabout turning and walking, or running, away? Howsabout saying 'No, thank you, I don't take it up the bum.'? Howsabout not killing another human being?


Justice minister Simon Power said allowing people to use the defence of provocation sent out the wrong message:
"The defence assumes that ordinary reasonable people when confronted with severe provocation will react with a homicidal loss of self-control, when, in fact, ordinary people do not."

Green Party MP Kevin Hague, who is openly gay, said: "The ongoing existence of this defence is a signal that violently taking the life of a gay man is of less consequence than of taking the life of another. That is obnoxious in the extreme. It increases the actual physical danger faced by gay men, and it signals in the most graphic way possible both to gay men and to everyone else that our lives do not have the same value as the lives of others."

Wouldn't it be a great thing if this catches on? How wonderful it would be if the US justice system believed that the life of a gay man or woman was just as important as the life of a straight person.

Nice place you have there, Lou.

3 comments:

  1. New Zealand is my second favourite place on this planet (for many reasons). Lou does live in a fabulous country.

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  2. Wow, that is very encouraging. Once it passes, we can add it to the long list of progressive moves (like same sex marriage) the rest of modern civilization observes but the US does NOT observe.

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  3. This makes me want to cry.

    "Wouldn't it be a great thing if this catches on? How wonderful it would be if the US justice system believed that the life of a gay man or woman was just as important as the life of a straight person."

    We shouldn't live in a world where this is an issue. It should be a given and needs to happen.

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