I’m Not Obsessed with Sex, I Promise! God’s Honour!
Fiona Patten, Former Sex Worker, Advocate, and Impressive State Member of Parliament, Victoria.
Historically Christianity struggles with sex. The Catholics, with supposedly celebrate Priests, did it very well with large families to grow their congregations. Protestants, without celebrate pastors, did so too but perhaps with not the same fanfare.
I was so privileged to interview atheist Fiona Patten, co-founder of the Reason Party (previously The Sex Party). Fiona exemplifies my belief that some of the best Christians you will meet, simply aren’t. I mean aren’t Christian.
Consider the story of Janice.
Fiona wrote a whole chapter about her good friend Janice in her book “Sex Drugs and the Electoral Roll — My unlikely journey from sex worker to Member of Parliament”.
Introduced by a mutual friend Fiona and paraplegic Janice
became close but their friendship was opposed by family and friends because Fiona dared to assist Janice in addressing a long-held dream.
As I run a disability support business, Fiona’s story was very close to my heart and I found it disturbing. You see, Janice has cerebral palsy and is wheelchair-bound with limited use of her arms and hands. Like other people, she craved intimacy and sexual fulfilment. But who
would want her? I’m sure there are many people who like Fiona would see the worth and value in Janice., looking past her inabilties. In kindness, and dare I say, love, Fiona explained that she assisted Janice by organising visits of a sex worker to relate to her respectfully. This was so helpful to her and she found that her depression was eased as her self-worth grew.
As stated, this was opposed by family and support workers, as if Janice was being corrupted by it. Then Fiona bought her a vibrator so that she could find satisfaction on her own. Never the subject of sermons I have listened to nor promoted in Disney movies, nevertheless human sexual fulfilment should be embraced and lauded, rather than the object of shame.
All that support workers had to do was to place the vibrator next to her bed so that could access it. Without that help, she couldn’t use it at all. Her support workers wouldn’t do it.
They used their moral or other judgement to prevent Janice from finding satisfaction and happiness in that moment. These days the introduction of the NDIS emphasised the right that service users have to speak up for their own need. The NDIS will, thankfully, even fund sex work when it is deemed necessary.
When Fiona told me about her experience with Janice in the interview I was shocked, saddened and angered. But I wasn’t surprised. Sex shame is everywhere and as will be seen in this article, it literally kills the possibility of joy and happiness for people, if not costing their lives as well.
Interviewing former Victorian Parliamentarian Fiona Patten for my podcast, “No Sex Please — I’m religious” was an absolute delight. Of course, I had read of her achievements in the Victorian Parliament as the Co-Founder of The Reason Party, formerly The Sex Party.
Her background as a Sex Worker and Advocate for Sex Workers was perhaps unusual but I reckon excellent training for the difficult world of politics. In 2015 when she made her maiden speech to Parliament, two-thirds were men who might have thought they ruled.
Today, women make up 55% of the Victorian Upper House (Victorian Legislative Council) are women and equal numbers is not far off in the Lower House (the Victorian Legislative Assembly). Victoria once again has a woman Premier the Honorable Jacinta Allen (only the second woman to hold that role).
“Sex, Drugs and the Electoral Role: My Unlikely Journey from Sex Worker to Member of Parliament” is the title of her memoir. I love that title. It alone should have been warning enough to the major Parties who opposed her that here was someone not to be trifled with.
Daughter of an Australian Naval Officer and a very British mother, Fiona could have been stifled by her Anglican schooling but there is a strength about her that could not be quenched.
She started her career as an independent fashion designer with the ironic name of “Body Politics”. In her maiden speech to the Victorian Parliament, she stated that during the 1990’s recession, (Prime Minister Keating famously called it “the recession we had to have”), she noticed that many of her best clients turned out to be sex workers.
“This led me to become an advocate for them, and also led to the successful
decriminalisation of the industry.” Ms Patten said.
Her next statement must go down in history as one of the best in any maiden speech.
“For a short time I even jumped the counter, as they say in the industry. Indeed I may be the first former sex worker to be elected to a parliament anywhere in this country, although no doubt the clients of sex workers have been elected in much greater numbers before me.”
It was during the year 2000, when much of the world was troubled by the threat of the Millenium bug, Y2K, and whether something like the recent Australia wide 16 hour Optus outage would be of no consequence at all compared to clocks stopping, computers seizing and the world as we know it ceasing to exist, that Fiona published her book “Hypocrites”.
Simple title, it listed all the church clergy in Australia who had been charged with a child sexual offence. Naturally, the book was a great success, lauded by media, politicians and clergy for the courage in
which Ms Patten had shown in outing those who publicly showed themselves virtuously above the law but privately had violated their oaths and the lives of too many innocent people.
I wish. Well, no, it didn’t happen — to our shame.
The fallout included death threats and recriminations from MPs around the country but led to Fiona and her partner Robbie Swann creating the Sex Party in 2009, being the first party in Australia to officially call for a royal commission into child sex abuse in religious institutions.
The terrible hidden stories, the too many suicides and wasted lives, and a litany of church and organisation denials that followed in the decades after forced the nation to face its truth, if not with appropriate and sincere compensation for victims.
Behind it all and providing cover for offenders is something quite insidious. Sex shame, like “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” throughout my life the subject of Sex has never been welcomed politely. This is the creature that escapes us and most needs dealing with.
My view on sex shame is simple:
If it’s not discussed, It’s disgusting.
So children and adults who are subject of rape or molestation are never free to discuss it. The shame that they bear, is unbearable, as if they are the ones at fault. Children who tried to tell their parents that Father whoever had molested them were sent to bed without a meal, or beaten for their lies.
Who would believe a child when the purity of the clergy was in
question? And so it went on. Imagine, that Fiona’s book “Hyprocrites” brought death threats because she dared to talk about the unspeakable and shame offenders.
Again: “If it’s not discussed, it’s disgusting!”
It is crazy to think that when human beings were created or evolved (depending on your views), into sexual beings this was something that couldn’t be publicly recognised. In so many societies even today people are still deeply ashamed of nudity, sex, and sexual identity. To the extent that only now are parents more willing to educate children about sex rather than expecting schools to do it or the playground.
In my podcast, I regularly ask the question as to how and where my subject first learned about sex. In almost every case it is through whispers and titterings from school friends.
So silly really.
Sex. It’’s not that difficult really to understand it without shame. Humans
reproduce ourselves through a simple act of procreation which unlike many other animals can be extremely pleasurable for all sexes. It can also be unpleasant in the extreme when consent is not involved.
Every child should be given adequate opportunity to discuss it openly at any stage of their growing up. Information and education available to the child relevant to their age and their ability to comprehend. Problem is if mum and dad are awkward about it, it can’t happen.
So, it’s not a gargantuan task. No means no. Yes means yes. We respect each other. We don’t invade each other’s privacy. That means churches and governments don’t spy and gossip over what people do in the privacy of their homes and that legislators only get involved with clear cases of unwelcomed violence and abuse.
Thankfully we now have same-sex marriage but there are still too many meddlers and buttinskys who need to be told to butt out of other peoples lives and stop interfering.
I have to ask why do religious and other people bicker about drag queens and trans folk? Why not focus on the reality of climate change that is likely to decimate much of the world’s population?
Why can’t they just live and let live, respectfully.
When gender dysphoria is found by science to be real in the brain of a person at birth, how viciously cruel is it that any society would persecute someone who identifies differently to their birth.
We need more people like Fiona Patten to speak truth to power in regards to many issues relating to humanity.
Her Great Great Aunt, Feminist Jessie Street
In her maiden speech, Fiona also acknowledged her great great aunt, feminist Jessie Street, who I’m sure would be very proud of her were she able to see her today. Jessie was an
Australian suffragette and feminist of the 1930s. She worked in 1914 in a London reception centre assisting other young women who had been arrested as prostitutes.
In 1916 she started the Social Hygiene Association in Sydney to promote sex education. (Wow!) And in 1930 she was elected president of one of the most influential feminist groups in Australia, the United Associations of Women, that ran influential campaigns in support of divorce law reform, the appointment of women to public office and to jury service, and the election of women to Parliament.
In 1933 Jessie was involved in setting up the first contraceptive clinic in Sydney. (Another “Wow!”) She also ran for public office three times but never quite got there. At least Fiona did.
Fiona Patten’s Achievements in Parliament (from her website) www.fionapatten.com.au
• Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in North Richmond
• Safe Access Zones from protesters around fertility clinics
• Voluntary Assisted Dying laws — initiated inquiry that led to this reform
• Sex work decriminalised • A Spent Convictions Scheme for criminal records in Victoria
• Uber and ridesharing legalised
• Pandemic Legislation for Victoria
• Leaving foster and out of home care age extended from 18 to 21 years
• Loneliness ministerial portfolio commitment secured
• Anti-vilification legislation, including online vilification of women, coming in 2023
• Lord’s Prayer removed from Parliament for next Parliamentary term
• Land tax changes applying to religious businesses
• A future cap on election campaign spending via review of 2022 election
• E-petitions to Parliament online
• Medicinal Cannabis Driving taskforce established
• Drug Use and Possession taskforce to trial a health response not a criminal one
• Established Parliamentary Inquiry into the legalisation of cannabis
• Electric Vehicle levy waiver and incentive payment
• Chair of Legal and Social Issues Committee, including reports into Homelessness and the Justice System
My podcast “No Sex Please — I’m religious” breaks all the rules by trying to support Queer refugees in East Africa, judged and condemned by conservative religion — TV evangelists and local preachers. Our work supporting these people could see us imprisoned for 21 years in Uganda and other countries. Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you? Not bloody likely. Please support us: https://chuffed.org/project/104005-the-10-campaign-to-save-lives
