The Informer

– Federal Parliament has passed Australia’s own version of Magnitsky Laws, which allows for targeted sanctions against individuals responsible for human rights violations. Emma Hoy spoke with one of the bill’s key supporters, Federal Greens Senator Janet Rice about the legislation, along with Nic Holas from the Victorian Pride Lobby about how they’d like the new legislation used to target abusers of queer people around the world.

– The Federal Coalition is pushing new legislation pitched as an anti-trolling bill. However, many have critiqued the legislation as doing little to stem trolling, instead they say, stifling free speech by making it easier for defamation lawsuits to be launched along with being a further erosion of online privacy. Pearl Cardis investigates.

– Discussions of the religious discrimination bill being pushed by the federal coalition often frames religiosity and queerness as mutually exclusive. That’s of course far from the case. There are many people of faith that are at risk of being impacted by the legislation. James Pembroke has spoken with several of them.

This is our final episode for 2021 and the last for Executive Producer Gavin Height at the helm. A massive thank you to all the hard work of The Informer team this year – Ryan Sambell, James Pembroke, Pearl Cardis, Emma Hoy, Hailey Pham, Chloe Macmillan, Shannon Colee, Dom Hennequian, Jack Cranjin, and Yuan Zhong. And thanks to you, our listeners, for tuning in. Have a great summer!

The post Aus passes Magnitsky laws, activists call for Chechen leaders to be targeted | Critics of proposed ‘cyber-bulling’ law say it will only make defamation lawsuits easier | Religious Discrimination Bill won’t protect those who face discrimination says gay Christian man | The Informer – 9 Dec 2021 appeared first on The Informer.

– The federal government has tabled its long-awaited Religious Discrimination Bill. The legislation would weaken some existing protections for LGBTQIA+ Australians and has been roundly condemned by queer advocates, among others. We speak to Equality Australia about what this legislation means for the community.

– Melbourne Queer Film Festival has been rocked by a boycott campaign after it refused to withdraw Israeli film The Swimmer from its program. Boycott organisers say the film, and allowing it to be aired, is pinkwashing, while MQFF says it has a duty to support a diverse range of filmmakers. We speak to both the campaign organisers and MQFF to find out what’s going on.

The post Religious Discrimination Bill legalises discrimination opponents say | MQFF rebuffs calls to cut film funded by Israeli gov | The Informer – 25 Nov 2021 appeared first on The Informer.

– World AIDS Day is 1 Dec so we look back at two stories from this season. One looks at exciting new research being undertaken in Melbourne into a potential cure for HIV, while in the other, we look into the concerning rising HIV infection rates in Indonesia.

– Continuing our retrospective – back in August when Australia pulled its last troops out of Afghanistan, unlike other western countries it refused to take in more refugees. Months later the Australian Gov has still not changed its policy, despite wide-ranging criticism. We spoke with Dennis Altman at the time who wrote an open letter to Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne.

The post World AIDS Day | Dennis Altman on Aus Afghan refugee refusal | The Informer – 2 Dec 2021 appeared first on The Informer.

QueersInScience has been running a series of science lectures featuring scientists from the LGBTIQA+ community, and we have a short taste of one right now. What you’re about to hear...

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The post How did homosexuality evolve? appeared first on The Informer.

Dorìan Electra is coming to Melbourne. This super smart and super talented artist blends genres, genders and ideas to make truly unique creations. Informer Executive Producer Aríon Potts spoke to...

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The post Dorìan Electra – super-smart super-star appeared first on The Informer.