![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Apparently Archbishop Jensen repeated the lie that gay mens' lives are twenty years shorter than their straight counterparts. I say apparently because I didn't actually watch Q&A and I haven't confirmed exactly what Jensen said yet; Jon had it on with the sound off and was reading out the more amusing Tweets, which sent me to Twitter for more commentary. Many people complimented Jensen on his calm and reasonable demeanour, and while that's commendable, false witness does not become true when it's borne politely.
The most maddening thing about the context of all this is the discussion about gay marriage. Surely if anything reduces a person's chances of contracting HIV, it's monogamy?!
Anywho the transcript will be up this arvo.
ETA: And here we are:
"Now, I think it is true to say - I think it is true to say - it's very hard to get all the facts here because we don't want to talk about it and in this country censorship is alive and well, believe me. So what I'm about to say, I don't want to say because I know I'm going to be hit over the head for the next 100 years about it so - and it's a virulent censorship. Now, I will still go ahead. What I want to say is that as far as I can see by trying to get to the facts, the lifespan of practising gays is significantly shorter than the ordinary, so called, heterosexual man. I think that seems to be the case. Now what we need to do is to look at why this may be the case and we need to do it in a compassionate and objective way. Some people say it's because of the things I say and the position I take and that creates, for example, a spate of suicides. That may be true but how can we get at the facts if we're never willing to talk about it? Now, there may be other things as well."
I'd like to point out that Jensen was remarking about the "virulent censorship" of his views while speaking on a national public TV program, and that Wallace's use of the same lie was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, a newspaper with a circulation exceeding 200,000.
tbh, I think that in this case "censorship is alive and well" and "it's very hard to get all the facts" are euphemisms for "inconveniently, I cannot find any evidence to support my claim".
The most maddening thing about the context of all this is the discussion about gay marriage. Surely if anything reduces a person's chances of contracting HIV, it's monogamy?!
Anywho the transcript will be up this arvo.
ETA: And here we are:
"Now, I think it is true to say - I think it is true to say - it's very hard to get all the facts here because we don't want to talk about it and in this country censorship is alive and well, believe me. So what I'm about to say, I don't want to say because I know I'm going to be hit over the head for the next 100 years about it so - and it's a virulent censorship. Now, I will still go ahead. What I want to say is that as far as I can see by trying to get to the facts, the lifespan of practising gays is significantly shorter than the ordinary, so called, heterosexual man. I think that seems to be the case. Now what we need to do is to look at why this may be the case and we need to do it in a compassionate and objective way. Some people say it's because of the things I say and the position I take and that creates, for example, a spate of suicides. That may be true but how can we get at the facts if we're never willing to talk about it? Now, there may be other things as well."
I'd like to point out that Jensen was remarking about the "virulent censorship" of his views while speaking on a national public TV program, and that Wallace's use of the same lie was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, a newspaper with a circulation exceeding 200,000.
tbh, I think that in this case "censorship is alive and well" and "it's very hard to get all the facts" are euphemisms for "inconveniently, I cannot find any evidence to support my claim".
