My daughter's best friend is going to Brisbane as an exchange student. He is gay and now she is worried how they are going to treat him. She has heard that Aussies are very machissmos?
I don't know, I thought they were quite the opposite in a lot of cases - take people as they are sort of thing. Isn't there a huge gay parade thing in Sydney every year?
I suppose in many countries there's a huge difference between countryside and the bigger cities. Friends of ours just emigrated to Brisbane... The parents of one of my daughter's kindergarten companions to be exactly. I could mail them, or establish contact between them, so he could ask them a few questions himself. I'm sure they wouldn't mind (the already spent two years in Brisbane in the late nineties). That could be helpful for a lot of reasons.
I won't lie and say that Australia doesn't have its idiots who will give him a hard time for being gay... but no country can say that they are without those gooses. SYdeny has the 2nd highest proportion of gays in the world (2nd to San Francisco those pansies) and it holds the worlds largest gay parade every January (The Gay and LEsbian Mardi Gras). Brisbane is in Queensland and they are all a bit weird but by and large Australians are of the opinion that whatever you do in your own time is yours to do as long as it doesn't effect me, you can blow darts out you arse and pop balloons, but don't do it front of me and I don't really want to know. He'll be fine. Don't worry.
Humm... so being gay and blowing thing out of your bodily orifices is ok in Auz... I really must watch Priscilla again... and take notes
[quote:2eaf9536d2="spiky"]I won't lie and say that Australia doesn't have its idiots who will give him a hard time for being gay... but no country can say that they are without those gooses. SYdeny has the 2nd highest proportion of gays in the world (2nd to San Francisco those pansies) and it holds the worlds largest gay parade every January (The Gay and LEsbian Mardi Gras). Brisbane is in Queensland and they are all a bit weird but by and large Australians are of the opinion that whatever you do in your own time is yours to do as long as it doesn't effect me, you can blow darts out you arse and pop balloons, but don't do it front of me and I don't really want to know. He'll be fine. Don't worry.[/quote:2eaf9536d2] I agree, I don't think he'll have a problem - I travelled with some Gay blokes while I was in Oz- Infact one of my friends 'came out of the closet' while he was there- Believe me it's probably much easier 'coming out' there than it is in small - town Ireland! He never had a problem with biggotry from anyone when he was there. Mardi Gras in Sydney is really good. As a hetrosexual I didn't feel like I was intruding into a different way of life- people of all walks of life went to see it. I think it's usually on in March so perhaps your daughters friend may be able to get a cheap flight with virginblue.au (low cost internal airline) to go and see it!
Now i'm going to tell her that she can stop worrying, it sounds like Sweden, accepted by most but hated by some reptilebrained, and Hsing that sounds very nice. I'll be in contact.
Actually I've got a straight (more or less) male friend who went to Australia, slept with a man, and then came home and carried on being more or less straight. Maybe it's something to do with being in the Southern Hemisphere, everything's reversed...
[quote:121f9ec032="Trollmother"]My daughter's best friend is going to Brisbane as an exchange student. He is gay and now she is worried how they are going to treat him. She has heard that Aussies are very machissmos?[/quote:121f9ec032] I live in Brisbane, and I can tell you that your daughter has nothing to worry about. The "typical" Aussie male [u:121f9ec032]USED[/u:121f9ec032] to be a very macho type of personality, but now days it's all very metro-sexual. If this young man is over the age of 18, tell him to visit a nightclub called 'The Beat' in Fortitude Valley (an inner-city suburb of Brizzy), he'll feel right at home in no time.
Super I'll ask her to tell him right away. He is 25 and is going to do a "finishing job" before he gets his exam. (I don't know what it is called in English but I guess you understand what I mean.) To know where to go before you know someone is worth gold.
