Shelley Argent
President of
http://www.pflagbrisbane.org.au/
Recorded 22nd
February 2007 at Shelley’s home,
Transcript of “Equal Age Of Consent Reform DVD” video
Interview and transcript
by John Frame, Ph: (07) 3350 1562
A
statement of support for equal age of consent reform in
Go Back to the Equal Age Of Consent in
Queensland homepage
Shelley Argent:
My name’s Shelley Argent and I’m the mother of a 30
year old gay male.
I’m President of a support group called PFLAG – which stands
for Parents and Friends of Lesbians And Gays, and is a peer support group for
parents who are struggling to understand their child’s or son’s or daughter’s
sexual diversity.
In 2006 I received an OAM for my work in the gay community
for encouraging understanding and acceptance.
And I’ve also written quite a few booklets – one was for
young people who are questioning their sexuality and another one called
“Sexuality Is Not A Choice”. That was written for
parents who are struggling to understand their child’s sexual diversity and it
also hopefully hastens to encourage their understanding and acceptance.
Also too, in 2006, I wrote a
information package that was sent to all the school-based health nurses around
So that’s basically me, and I would like to say that I’m
very glad today to be giving my opinion, and PFLAG’s
opinion, on equality regarding age of consent.
John Frame:
OK. Could you share with us that opinion?
Shelley Argent:
Well what I’ll do first, if you like, is I’ll just read the general statement
that PFLAG parents put out and that is that we believe that the equality
regarding age of consent is discriminatory here in
Same sex attracted youth are having underage sex – whether
we like to think they are or not – and the problem is it’s without the benefit
of legally accessing information to keep them safe.
Health workers also, it’s another issue for them, because
health workers are unsure about the legalities and the repercussions regarding
providing safe sex information to these young people.
Under-age gay youth are hesitant also to seek the
information and have sexual health checks – which is
very important, we all know – because of fear of embarrassment. And also too,
there’s the issue that if they did get an STI or have some health problem,
there’s the fear that they may have to disclose the partner’s name. And then
again that has more repercussions because then that person, if they’re over the
age of 18 could then be charged with having sex with a minor. And so because
the young person doesn’t want to implicate their older partner, if he is older,
it puts the young person in a very dangerous position.
Also too, regarding sexual predators and the exploitation of
gay youth - with all the research I’ve done over the years, I have found
absolutely no proof to suggest that sexual predators are an issue regarding gay
youth if the age of consent was lowered.
Equality regarding age of consent also – we believe doesn’t
mean that gay youth will become more promiscuous. We believe that it means that
they will feel more confident to access reliable information before engaging in
a sexual act.
Also too, research shows that if young people are informed
properly regarding safe sex activity, they don’t necessarily have sex at an
earlier age. Very often they have it later. And also too, if they do have it a
young age, which a lot of kids are these days, they have the information and so
they do engage in safe sex practices – which keeps
them, again, safe.
We also believe that equality regarding the age of consent
neither encourages nor promotes homosexuality. And research shows that
homosexuality poses no threat to society. We believe that this law, as it
presently stands, is not protecting our gay youth and it’s actually endangering
their lives.
As a parent who, when my son did “come out” at quite an
early age, I – like an awful lot of PFLAG parents – were quite fearful about
the issue of safe sex, and HIV and things. And I didn’t have the benefit of
even having the child under 18 have the safe sex practices. And I think this is
a real issue for a lot of people these days. The parents, they’re all fearful –
because as a parent, we don’t know about safe sex with homosexuality, because
we’re not homosexuals. So we can’t give our children that information. So they
need to be able to go somewhere who can give them that information, keep them
safe, and not have the fear that they themselves will get into trouble by
providing our young people with safe sex information.
John Frame:
Excellent. So do you also see that it’s important that parents, we would
expect, would want to see all their children being equally protected and
supported – not just their heterosexual children?
Shelley Argent:
That’s right. No. I mean equality isn’t just for some of our children, it’s for
all of our children – and it should be across the board. And we all know that
safe sex is a very important thing for everybody, regardless of your age. And
also too these days young people, whether they’re straight or gay, are engaging
in sexual practices at an earlier age – and our heterosexual young people, they
do have the benefit of safe sex education or relationship education, because
it’s there in the high schools all the time. But our homosexual or same sex
attracted youth, they don’t have that benefit. They’re getting very little
information and most of it is negative. And again a lot of the same sex young
people, they’ve got low self-esteem because they’re hearing all the time that
to be gay or lesbian is bad. And so again, if you’ve low self-esteem you’re not
going to look after yourself like you would if you had confidence and you’re
not going to have the same respect for your self.
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(end of interview)