Triggers

Coming Out

Thank goodness we’ve got Andrew Dillon (AFL Supremo) to usher us towards moral rectitude. The self-appointed guardian of public ethics (despite paying himself millions of dollars in personal remuneration each year for running a monopoly), has come out gushing in praise of former West Coast journeyman, Mitch Brown, for publicly acknowledging that he is bi-sexual. Not exactly gay, I guess, but partly gay. All apparently a consequence of the great shaming of young indigenous star, Izak Rankine, who made an offhand in-the-heat-of-the- moment remark that almost no-one heard. But the one who did, felt obliged to report it (name calling used to be shrugged off once). No-one seems to have noticed that the same clubs kick off their finals’ campaigns playing each other next weekend. In a game in which one side’s chances are severely hindered by the absence of their star playmaker. Hmm, motives are at the very least interesting, I would have thought. But nary a mention in the mainstream press.

Anyway, we are all now the better for knowing that an unheralded and unexceptional footballer named Mitch Brown is half-gay. And in making his public pronouncement we have all been elevated. Not precisely sure how, but I guess we just have to take young Andrew’s word for it. But at this juncture, I’d like to give a big shout out to an old football team mate who made no secret of his sexual preferences (about which no-one cared and no-one judged) back in 1976. Andrew, I know maths is not your strong suit (actually what IS your strong suit, other than a slavish adherence to the Woke playbook?), but that happened just shy of 50 years ago. So, Peter, well done. Really well done. I remember you fondly. In an era when gay men were being thrown off cliffs in Sydney, you were honest about your sexuality. When it mattered a fair bit more than it does now. Because now we’re paying self-identified gay men nauseating amounts of dosh to complete f*ck up our national flag bearing airline.

Young Mitch has been pretty active on social media since his “ground breaking” announcement. Berating AFL clubs that have not immediately issued messages of congratulations and support. To him! In different circumstances, we might be inclined to think Mitch a little bit of a publicity addict, a little self-obsessed perhaps, what the more vulgar among us might describe as an attention slut (oh, God, that’s got to be another verboten word!). But there he is in his new found fame issuing edicts for AFL clubs to shower him in messages of adoration. Perhaps less gay than narcissistic.

Bible Studies

Amidst all the moral posturing that the Woke police have managed to engender (there has not, to my knowledge, been a single voice of dissent in the evaluation of this sorry saga), there has been no criticism of the role of the Judeo-Christian philosophy that so many are so keen to claim underpins Western democracies. Leviticus (the third book of the Old Testament) is rather adamantine about homosexuality. But here’s a couple of references to remind everyone:

Leviticus 18:22 ~ You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Leviticus 20:13 ~ If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

And then, of course, there is St Paul, the convert on the Road to Damascus, writing to the Corinthians with his customary gravity and faux sanctimony (have you noticed how the worst religious bigots are so frequently the late converts?):

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 - Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And then Paul was at it again in his letter to the Romans:

Romans 1: 32 ~ Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Andrew, Andrew, have you not read the sacred texts? You’ve been approving these unrighteous acts, my man.

Triggers

It’s a word that’s crept into the vernacular, trigger. A psychological event that occurs when you are reminded of something deeply offensive or which causes hitherto buried memories to resurface. In a mentally damaging way. I’m thinking of devoting an entire blog to the phenomenon, because I can tell you, I get triggered all the time. As does the gay community we’re led to believe.

Now as those of us unfortunate enough to have been brought up regularly attending church know full well, the very documents that contain these vile condemnations are carried into the Mass with great reverence, quoted at length and even kissed. Surely the whole gay community must be triggered every time they drive past a Christian church. Knowing that these “moral teachings” are venerated so. A throwaway taunt by a young indigenous football player (again, have I mentioned, that no-one apart from his direct opponent actually heard) seems not just pale in comparison, but almost unnoticeable. I say unto you, a veritable pimple on the ass of an elephant. To make matters worse, much worse, I presume the gay community is well aware that on football fields across the country on every weekend, there are certain slurs being bandied around indiscriminately. Including that one that references sheaths of sticks. That is not to say that the use of such terms should be condoned, but just that the arrival of every weekend MUST be triggering for the gay community. They do know that, don’t they?

Furthermore, I am led to believe that there is a sizeable contingent of the gay community who are, in fact, practicing Christians, to the extent they’re allowed to be, of course. How triggering to them must be the carriage of the sacred texts down the aisle before every Mass and every Eucharist. Sundays must be excruciating. They must squirm in the pews. I don’t recall Izak Rankine ever saying that gays are benighted, condemned to eternal hellfire and beyond the mercy of God. But it’s all there in those texts (does no-one read them anymore?).

Monty Python

I was reminded the other day of the classic Monty Python skit, the Australian Bruces. Now this was a skit with multiple triggers, particularly for a sensitive young Europhile that despaired at the shallowness of Australian culture. And yet that same person has come to regard the skit as one of the greatest in a long list of searing satirical pieces conjured by the incomparable comedic purveyors known as Monty Python. But, God, was it triggering! For those who have forgotten, or worse, never worshipped at the alter of MP, a reminder of the Faculty rules so brilliantly recounted by John Cleese. The Faculty in question was of course the Australian Department of Philosophy in which all “academics” shared a common first name. Bruce. The skit was so profoundly affecting that I still have a photo of the aforementioned sensitive Europhile at the age of twenty-two leaning nonchalantly against a town signpost in a remote part of New Zealand. The town in question was called Bruce. I was there with a mate, Bruce (or so he called himself). We were wearing football jumpers, he Essendon and I Melbourne. And, of course, we each had a football in one hand and a can of Fosters in the other. Ah, simpler days. Anyway, back to the Faculty rules:

Rule #1: No poofters

Rule #2: No member of the Faculty is to maltreat the others in any way whatsoever.

Rule #3: No poofters

Rule #4: I don’t want to catch anyone in their room not drinking after lights out.

Rule #5: No poofters

Rule #6: There is no Rule 6

Rule #7: No poofters

Now there are any number of ways of interpreting this skit. Remembering, firstly, that it is satire. The laziest is to describe it as a piece of blatant homophobia. After all, the word, poofter is surely triggering. To someone, somewhere. The depiction of Australians as crass, mindless, moronic philistines is another. Now, where’s the number of my counsellor when I need it?

“Don't allow triggers

To rob you of sound judgement.

Question your feelings.”

- Sanjo Jendayi