Rodney Croome . gay advocate

The new Santamaria

The future is Dreadful.

I'm out of web contact for three days at Lake St Claire National Park in the Tasmanian highlands.

I need some time away from phones and e-mail to catch up on chapter, speech and submission writing.

In the meantime here's some spirited responses to Dreadnought (aka John Heard's) criticism of last Saturday's National Day of Action.

First Homo au GoGo

There's two good reasons Saturday's turnout in Brisbane was a fizzer.

First, the venue changed about one day prior to the event, which made adequate notification impossible. Placing impromptu signs at the original venue was never going to compensate given the long distance between venues.

Secondly, by 9am Satuday it was raining in Brisbane -- which made repellent the prospect of spending some hours in an open unsheltered space on what had to have been Brisbane's coldest day of the year thus far.

I was appalled by the failure of the SMH reporter to understand the rift between the GLRL and rest of the country. Perhaps I shouldn't have been given that many reporters have no idea of the difference between civil unions and marriage, and often confuse the two in their reports. They simnply don't take this issue seriously.

As for Dreadnought I have only pity for him, given the self-hating brainwashing he must have received at the hands of the Church as a young 'un. For centuries all that hellfire and damnation has proved spectacularly successful in twisting young healthy minds and turning them to shame. One is reminded of a gay Catholic friend who eshews condoms because he fears they'd only compound the gravity of his sexual 'sins'. The church has done a lot of good, but it also has a lot to answer for.

And Kate...

I would have loved to have gone to the Melbourne rally. (I'm also a morally competent person) but I didn't hear about it until Saturday night, and none of my mates knew either.

There was a huge turn out for the 'mass wedding' at Midsumma last year, of couples gettin' hitched and of onlookers (like me!). Hopefully next time action will be publicised a bit more effectively. I didn't see anything in the papers the next day either...

As for Dreadnought, well, I managed to survive my Catholic school. Maybe he'll fall in love?

Many of the readers of this site are dismissive of Dreadie.

They explain away his unusual mix of far right wing views, extreme Catholic Orthodoxy and out gay identity, as the product of inexperience, immaturity, muddled-thinking, brainwashing or sexual frustration.

I can't wipe him off so easily.

DN's grasp of Conservative and Catholic thinking shows a highly developed mind. His creative writing shows his spirituality is heartfelt. Unless he is an excellent actor, his views on sex and love come from experience.

Dreadnought is too sophisticated to be dismissed as a precocious, petulant under-grad.

What illustrates this more than anything else is that he has an audience of lefty gays and lesbians across the country who are mesmerised and confounded by him.

"What about Dreadnought", they'll blurt out to me over dinner. "I disagree with everything he says but I can't stop reading his site!" (It may be time for an "addicted to Dreadnought" support group).

For all those people who expect Dreadie to tone it down, or desist altogether, when he "gets some life experience", or "finds the right man", or "get's trodden on by the Church", or just "grows out of it", forget it.

Cool, hip 60's uni students thought Young Liberals like Johnny Howard, Tony Abbot and Bronwyn Bishop would grow out of it too.

They didn't.

John Heard is not only here to stay, his voice will grow louder and more compelling as he grows older.

The only question in my mind is what this voice will become.

He has the potential to be an Australian lay Catholic propagandist and powerbroker, a new Bob Santamaria.

But my hope is that he won't be seduced by the fleeting power that comes from a silver tongue and an iron fist.

The American Empire has yet to find its Virgil, the Benedictine Vatican, its CS Lewis.

John Heard has the potential to be either.