Thursday 15 July 2010

Baby spice comes to ABC Far North, and going a little bit gay

ABC Far North drive time presenter, Ginger Gorman, is off on maternity leave from next week.


However before she departs for a well-deserved break, Ginger has been busy putting together a number of interviews in a series she called Putting gender on the agenda, where she chatted with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender folk in our community.

An interview with Ben Woodward and Ricky Philbin will be broadcast this morning at 9.20am. The audio and story is also online.

"There is this assumption in society that everyone is heterosexual until they say otherwise which is called 'hetrosexism'. It means there is this continual coming out process," Ben Woodward says.

Ginger is also encouraging listeners to put their comments and own personal stories on the ABC blog.

The ABC series is all about telling "powerful, human stories about sexuality in our community, and about the hurdles and triumphs." You will hear stories of" pain, isolation, struggle, violence, humour and courage. You’ll be surprised and confronted."

The series of programmes will present first-hand what it’s like to come out. There's parents talking about having a gay child, and even what it’s like to change from a male to female and vice versa. The series attempts to learn how other people treat you if they think you are 'different'. "And we’ll find out how that affects physical and mental health if you’re cast as an outsider because of sexuality," ABC Far North says.

The series will culminate in a live one hour panel discussion on ABC Far North’s drive program this Friday from 4.30pm. Kevin Scott, health officer with QaHC; counsellor John Bal; and Vyvyen Wong, a lesbian woman, will reflect on the series, sharing their own experiences as well as the health issues in their community.

I wonder if the new baby Ginger spice will be straight after all this?


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