blackshirts on parade

I know another moan. I have just found out that apparently I am supposed to feel grateful for the opportunity to organise this conference. So thank you very much for increasing my workload, halting my opportunity to get anything else done and generally leaving me floundering out of my depth in organizational responsibilities. Apart form also having the heaviest teaching workload, having to do the high school visits stuff which also meant extra teaching..... Beware when opportunity knocks at your door... It could be a home invasion.

In other news, Destiny Church marched on parliament to protest the civil union bill. I wish that they had put more thought into their presentation because they give free speech a bad name. Radically conservative Christians are very hard to take at the best of times, but I think their rights to advocate their views must not be tampered with. But dressing up in black pants, boots and black t-shirts did themselves no favors. If you want to convince a poof like me that I am not capable of loving, marching as fascist shock troops is not going to work. In fact they were frightening. A 7000 strong contingent of largely Maaori men and children under ten who probably are not fully aware of sexuality in general never mind their own desires is pretty hard to take. Maaori have fought hard for their rights in this country, and have dealt with a lot of resentment regarding land claims and issues of the treaty, and yet here are some of that population wishing to deprive rights from others.
counter-protestors including a very sweet contingent of high schools held up their banner, 'hate is not a family value.... How I would like to believe that despite the fact that it appears to be untrue. Hatred must be taught in the home, and homework is set in the shape of domestic violence and abuse.