Sex vs. Gender: Transgendered couples caught in Australia's messy marriage laws

"This thing ain't over. Not by a longshot" Paige Phoenix.
Photo: http://www.samesame.com.au/features/9754/Paige-Phoenix-This-thing-aint-over-Not-by-a-long-shot

Like so many young men Paige Pheonix considered marrying his long-term girlfriend Sara to
be one of the happiest days of his life. But just weeks after opening wedding gifts Paige
would open a letter that would make his stomach churn.

“It was devastating. The happiest moment of my life was effectively taken away from me. My
legitimacy as a man was called into question. My relationship was also delegitimated,” he
said.

The letter from the Victorian Government informed Paige that his marriage had been
annulled.

Paige had been labelled female at birth but had transitioned to male before he had even met
his wife. His passport and all of his legal documents recognised him as male. All except for
his birth certificate, but that was the one that mattered. By Victorian law the gender marker
on a birth certificate can only be changed after full sex reassignment surgery. However an
adrenal insufficiency called Addison’s Disease made getting this surgery an impossibility for
Paige. He’d already asked the Births Deaths and Marriages office for an exemption on the
grounds of disability but had been refused. Having provided an Australian passport, one of
two options for identification when applying for a marriage, Paige assumed his would be
approved.

“I think somewhere in the back of my mind I thought that it was a possibility, but being the
holder of a valid male passport and that being the required document, an annulment seemed
unlikely. I was already recognised as a man on a federal level. You would think that trumps
state…” he said.

For people like Paige who are legally unable to marry because the law doesn’t recognise
their gender, being refused for marriage is about more than the absence of a legal
document. Paige says having their marriage voided created a wealth of pressure both
internally and externally.

“Having your relationship, and your gender challenged is awful. Going through all the
consideration and care (not to mention the expense!) of committing to someone and then
planning a wedding only to have a bureaucratic issue render it void generated all kinds of
tensions for us as a couple, not to mention concerns about how our relationship and my
gender was then viewed by society and family members. It was just horrible.”

Paige’s thoughts are echoed by Harrington Family lawyers partner Stephen Page who
specialises in LGBTI+ matters.

“What could be worse than making wedding plans and then discovering that your celebrant
won’t officiate at your wedding because they believe that you’re the wrong gender, or you
haven’t had enough surgery, or you haven’t met some technical requirement? I’ve seen that
happen and that’s just awful. I couldn’t think of much worse than that. Not being able to get
married even though you believe you’re in full compliance with the law,” he said.

But Stephen’s concerns go deeper, Australia’s marriage laws mean couples also encounter
problems if a person decides to transition once they are married. In Queensland to legally
change their gender a person must not be married. This means that if a couple is already
married, and want to stay together, they are forced to decide between their marital status
and their legally recognised gender.

Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson is working to change Australia’s marriage laws to
prevent such complications.

“It is morally reprehensible that the law should forcefully divorce couples in resilient
relationships,” he said. 

As part of his solution Tim has written a proposal for a change to the marriage act that
separates legal and religious definitions of marriage.

“Some people wrongly argue that religious freedom ends at the temple door. It doesn’t, in
the same way sexual orientation doesn’t end at the bedroom door. But a necessary
precondition for your rights being respected is that you must respect the rights of others. If
religious Australians want the law to preserve religious marriage and be free to act
consistent with their conscience, then they can’t concurrently deny same-sex couples a civil
marriage,” he writes in his proposal.

Tim’s aim is to work with both sides of the marriage equality debate to find a solution that
meets the needs of both parties. Last month he proposed a separation of “civil marriage” and
“religious marriage”.

“A civil marriage then could be defined as a union of two people, while a religious marriage
could be defined as a union between a man and a woman, unless specified otherwise by a
faith,” he wrote.

Australian Marriage laws have been at the forefront of many conversations after the US
Supreme Court legalised same-sex marriage across all states and the Irish government
amended the marriage act of their constitution by way of referendum. The issue seems to be
pressing on Australian politicians with a certain inevitability felt toward the change to the
marriage act. Often on the outer rim of the issue are those in heterosexual relationships who
are unable to marry because one of them was assigned the wrong gender at birth. Tim
doesn’t agree that a change is inevitable, but he recognises a clear cultural shift toward
equality.

“Nothing is inevitable. But I do believe that a key divide in this issue is intergenerational, and
over time the degree of support for a change in the law will only increase,” he said.

AN ABRIDGED HISTORY OF HAPPINESS

 See the full version of the story here 

Written with Sam Weston and Ashleigh Whittaker.

A look into the lives and smiles of the people of Vietnam and Cambodia in 2015

Chapter One: Light in Dark Places

Vietnam, 1955-1975: Up to 2 million Vietnamese civilians die during the Vietnam War.
Cambodia, 1970-1975: Between 1.7 and 2.5 million Cambodians die during the Pol Pot-led Khmer regime, known as the Khmer Rouge.

Thirty years on, these two neighbouring nations continue rebuilding from two of the 20th century's most destructive conflicts. Remarkably, Vietnam was named the second happiest country in the world in a recent study. And in Cambodia, virtually an entire generation is eerily missing- but its young generations are upward bound, refusing to dwell on the past. Instead, they are pushing relentlessly to develop their country.
For outsiders, it is scarcely fathomable how a country can overcome such horrific histories to prosper once more. The conflicts loom over the two, spectre-like, but from Hanoi to Siem Reap, life moves on. Smiles have returned. So how do we measure our happiness as outsiders to people who've experienced such terrible things? Is there is a discrepancy between what the word 'happiness' means to us Westerners and what the word represents to the people of Vietnam and Cambodia?

In Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, a cluster of ugly buildings lies set back from the cacophony of peak hour traffic.

Scores of Vietnamese youth are growing up behind these grey walls, belonging to the Thanh Xuan Peace Village. They are being educated, nurtured, cared for. They sweat and howl in the oppressive heat of midsummer. Students and volunteers play with them and placate them. These children are the most terrible legacy of the ‘American’ war. They are, indeed, the all too forgotten legacy.

Thousands of Vietnamese children are born handicapped every year; even now thirty years have passed since hereditary effects of their ancestors’ exposure to the dioxins in America’s mutagenic pesticide, ‘Agent Orange’. Most of the kids we meet suffer what we would call autism or Downs Syndrome. They are the lucky ones: dreadful physical deformities are the trademark of Agent Orange.

The Peace Village was established in 1991, to help victims of a problem that has decimated swathes of family bloodlines across the nation. The war had so many victims the government cannot give enough to every organisation of this kind. Annually, it receives less than $13,000 from the government. Instead, it relies on the assistance of volunteers, both Vietnamese and foreign visitors.

We are a group of around 12, armed with expensive cameras and recording equipment. We march through the classrooms. The children's reactions to our strange presence are varied. Some laugh bemusedly, some stare or look away. Some are visibly distressed by us being there. They are comforted by the high school students who act as makeshift older siblings. 'Happiness', here, is another concept altogether. What can you possibly do to make these children happy - truly, happy? Some volunteer, others give money.

A student with Downs Syndrome uses our camera

 Thanh Xuan is hardly a sanctuary. It is a grim place. But it is, at least, a reminder that people care. Happiness equates to being comfortable; being accepted. Even in these darkest of places, there remains a defiant sense of looking after one another. These children, unlike many less fortunate than them, are not alone. For happiness, this is enough.

Chapter Two: The Happiness Gap

Part 4: The Return

While in country if feels like a million things are happening at once; where am I? What am I doing here? And who are these people around me? It's hard to take a step back and look at your work objectively while you're still in the middle of it and your brain is going at a thousand miles an hour trying to work out the answer to just one, let alone all, of these questions. Looking back on your work and thinking about your experiences from the comfort of your own home leads you to see it in an entirely different way. Was this the best work I have ever produced? No. But did I do as well as I could under the time, cultural and personal pressures as I could? I think so. Did I improve from start to finish? Absolutely.

This hasty video shows where I was when I began this project. The ideas were there but the execution was haphazard. While I really do wish I had a usable version of this for my final project, it's a good starting point to show what I have grown from.

Looking back
In my first blog post I cast my eyes forward and attempted to predict some of the key struggles I imagined I might face. Personally I thought I would struggle with doing work while abroad- with so many things going on at once. As you may have guessed from my opening passage, this was something I did find difficulty in. The high quality hotels aided in mentally removing us from the hectic scenes in the streets below, allowing us a better opportunity to focus on our work. However no amount of clean white sheets or comfortably air-conditioned rooms could save us from the weight of our eyelids after days that began at 4:30am and often lasted until after 11pm. More than this the days were exhausting in and of themselves, we were constantly mentally drained from our work and communication with locals. And it was hot. These challenges are something that I will continue to face in this kind of work, and it will only get worse. I can only hope that as I gain experience I will develop ways to deal with this and get my overseas work to the standard that I produce at home, if not better.

Technically I was concerned by the noise pollution I might experience when recording interviews. This didn't turn out to be as great of an issue as I anticipated. My audio recorder was fine but Sam's iPhone was of about equal quality and more convenient so we used that most of the time. Given the areas we were in it was usually easy enough to move somewhere quiet for interviews.

The biggest technical problem I encountered was with photography. My camera is old and can still take good photos when you have the time, lighting and ability to get the right shot. However, while on the move I didn't have these luxuries so unfortunately I was pretty unhappy with the vast majority of the photos I took.

This is one photo that I don't mind

Photos that weren't taken in natural light came out grainy

Looking back on my errors now I see that a lot of my problems may have been avoidable with more research and better camera know-how. While abroad I made many basic photographer errors outlined by Meyer (2014) such as dismissing opportunities as missed because my camera wouldn't have been able to shoot what I wanted instead of trying to figure out a way around the problem. Additionally as noted by Meyer I perhaps should have utilised my tripod more and should have done more reading into the functions of my camera before taking it with me.

In my initial blog post I mentioned concerns for how I would be able to work effectively on my own and my fears for my equipment usage, I neglected to mention concerns over group work. This is likely because I had very few. I assumed that anyone on the trip wanted to be there and would be willing to put in the effort and therefore group work wouldn't be a problem. I was absolutely right in that everyone on the trip was dedicated and willing to put in the work required. What I failed to account for was the delegation of roles and a lack of communication within our group. University of Melbourne list these among many other tips for effective group work that would have been highly useful before embarking on this trip.

The role of my reflective practice
At the end of each section of the trip (before leaving, Vietnam and Cambodia) I reflected on how I was feeling personally and about the work I was producing in this blog. In short, the idea is that by reflecting on such things we are able to improve on our actions in the future and develop professionally (Hill, S. 2007). Expanding on the ideas of Dr. Ojomo (2015), reflective practice can be used effectively with internships and real world experience such as that gained on this study tour, as a way of improving ones work by applying theories and frameworks obtained in the classroom to past scenarios and analysing how they might be utilised in the future.

While I am quite introspective Hill (2007) was accurate in his analysis of the use of reflective practice in journalism. Journalists are, by nature, constantly working towards deadlines. As soon as one deadline is met it's all about working towards the next. This is very much how I felt about my reflections while abroad. While I tried to take the time to reflect on what I was producing I was still very much in the middle of producing it and that was were my head remained. It is only now after returning from the trip that I feel I have the time and peace of mind to fully reflect on my work and my experiences. 



References
http://newjournalismreview.com/2007/05/05/reflective-practice-for-journalists/
http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_5_No_4_1_April_2015/12.pdf
http://petapixel.com/2014/05/06/15-easy-ways-improve-photo-skills-without-buying-new-gear/
http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au/lasc/professional-skills/tips-for-effective-teamwork   

Part 3: Cambodia

Over the last week I've noticed a lot of differences in the things I shoot and the way I shoot them. Some of these are good but some may also have there downsides. The first is that I have gotten a lot more confident behind the lens of a video camera. It no longer bothers me to hold a video camera in social situations and just film the conversations and interactions occurring. I am however still getting use to this so some of my shots aren't as good as they could be but this is something that will improve with time and practise. Having the confidence to film these interactions is both good and bad as it means that I have more content to work with and am less likely to miss valuable moments but it also means that looking through my content to find grabs and shots that are relevant to our final piece will be time consuming. However this is probably better than missing shots entirely. I'm really excited for the possibilities that being able to shoot candid conversations will have on the impact of my work as I feel like some of the best content comes when people are involved in casual conversations and not thinking about speaking to a camera.

In front of the lens has been one of the areas I feel I have improved on the most. Where this use to be one of the most terrifying areas for me I am now able to approach it with a far more clear mind, allowing me to focus on what I am saying and how I am delivering it.

Photo: Paxton Roth

My new confidence in front of the came has also opened up new opportunities to do impromptu pieces to camera, even in some of the most challenging situations. These stand ups still need a lot of work but having the confidence to do them is something I wouldn't have felt was possible a week ago.

The area that I have found I am still the weakest in is photography. The combination of not having a good quality camera and having no training on how to produce a good quality photo lowers my confidence and adds to the poor quality of photos I am taking. Photography is also just not something I find enjoyment in the way many other on this trip do. I feel like being able to take powerful photos would be an extremely valuable tool to have but it is just not something I enjoy and at this stage in my training I would prefer to work hard on improving the skills I have and enjoy such as speaking to a camera, than spend time working on photography.

Another challenge I faced in my photography was my desire to take photos without tourists, which was obviously hugely difficult in such a busy tourist area. This resulted in lots of photos being poorly framed or disrupted by tourists.

 

 

Being in places like Cambodia and Vietnam as a journalist rather than a tourist gave me a heightened ability to step outside of my own moral and ethical codes and the opportunity to understand what has happening around me from a different point of view. As a journalist your job is to tell stories without imposing your own standards upon the situation. This is a difficult thing to do but definitely something that is becoming easier as I mature as a journalist.

Part 2: Vietnam

“Experience is a brutal teacher” – Oscar Wilde

There have been struggles from the beginning, and no doubt there will continue to be struggles. But as long they are different, I am okay with that. It’s from these trials and tribulations that we are able to grow and that is what is most important. 

We began day one with little idea of what to expect, let alone what we were doing. We arrived in a room with more bed than floor, there had been confusion over our sleeping arrangement. Should we just run with it or ask for it to be fixed? We ran with it. When working as a journalist in country things don’t always go to plan and you can never plan for everything. When things go wrong you often need to just run with it and hope for the best. On our first full day in Vietnam we were dumped at Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum with the task of retrieving an interview with a local about Ho Chi Minh. This wasn’t time or place to be myself, a shy small town girl, here I had to be who I wanted to be- a fearless international journalist. Approaching complete strangers who spoke little to no English for interviews tested our confidence but got easier with every approach and I am sure this trend will continue.



When reviewing the interviews I found that a lot pf background noise had been picked up. I have attempted to remove some of this but am now noticing something that sounds like microphone feedback. It'll take a bit more work to find a good midway point.

Professionally and personally the biggest challenge for most of us was our time spent at the peace village. As we entered the classrooms we were challenged by thoughts of whether we had the right to be there, were we doing more harm or good and how we could deal with the situation in an ethical manner and still come out with the best material possible. The classrooms were loud and crowded with 14 of us pouring into the small rooms already filled with children with varying levels of disabilities. At the time we were incredibly torn between treating the children like dignified humans and gathering as much material as we could in our dauntingly short amount of time. We all dealt with this pressure differently, I began my visit running around taking photos and recording ambient sound and interviews in as many areas as possible. Later, as my empathy took control, I sat with a boy and played blocks with him.

 

Reflecting on these stand ups I can see that I still have a long way to go to improve my stand ups. Mainly I need to work on my confidence and ability to relax in front of the camera. I see myself rushing through the words making them come out flat and without breath. Additionally, particularly in the second stand up the background noise is distracting. This may be able to be removed in post-production but it would be better to minimise it at the time of recording.

Photos have been one of my biggest challenges as I don't have a good quality camera or much experience behind the lens.

As my camera isn't the best quality I have faced challenges where photos that may have otherwise captured nice moments have been lost.

My camera's slow shutter speed has also mad shooting moments with movement difficult.

I'm still not entirely sure what went wrong to worsen the quality of this photo but I believe it could have been good were it more clear- though the sky in the background is blown out.

Despite these challenges I feel as though my photography has improved through the week.

 The week has been challenging in many ways but I can already see many of my skills being built on and I am sure this will continue over the week to come.

Part 1: Before

On Saturday evening I will be embarking on the trip of a lifetime- this is my first time traveling abroad as a journalist. Saturday's flight will take me to Kuala Lumpur where I will get all of my touristy desires out of the way before the work begins. The following week I'll meet with my team in Singapore, from there we'll head to Hanoi as journalists.

I'm nervous because this will be entirely different to the backpacker lifestyle I've grown accustom to. For the first time there will be work to be done while I'm abroad. During this time there will be a lot going on and it's important to reflect on what we are doing. This blog will serve as a place of reflective practice.

“Reflective practice is an active, dynamic, action-based and ethical set of skills, placed in real time and dealing with real, complex and difficult situations (Moon, J. 1999).”

While in country I will be using reflective practice to explore journalistic theories and frameworks and to apply them to my experiences. Using a process flowing from reading about journalistic processes, asking questions about how things are done and why, talking with my peers about our views and experiences, and thinking and reflecting on what I have done and what I would do differently in the future I will be able to better my future work from the gained understanding of my processes and how they can be improved (Thompson, N. 1996).

Looking forward there are a number of challenges I can foresee in obtaining the best media possible. When recording sound I anticipate one of my biggest challenges will be to adequately capture clear voice over loud city sounds, or whatever ambient sound there happens to be. To test my equipment for these problems I did a demo recording on the Story Bridge at lunch time. To set the mood and gain a greater understanding of what I might face in-country I read the opening passage from Loung Ung’s First They Killed My Father, a novel written about the Khmer Rouge. I recorded first using my lapel mic and then again using the attached mic. The best version was recorded with the lapel microphone. There seemed to be a clearer distinction between dialogue and background sound.




When in country I know that we will be faced with a number of different terrains and levels of lighting in the places we are trying to shoot. In preparation for this I tested a number of setting on my camera in the rainforest of Mt Tambourine.

The cost of fair report

The prisoner, skeletal and hallowed like he has endured months of torture, kneels on the ground and hands bound behind his back. His orange robes hang off him giving the appearance they once fit the man he used to be. Beside him stand an Islamic state militant, clad in black, a balaclava covering his face. In his hand a haunting machete. We’ve seen it all too many times before, we know how this story ends. But still we watch.

Of course we watch, or listen, the message the videos are exactly as terrifying as they are meant to be. There is no reason we wouldn’t be scared and that’s exactly what they want.

In the past journalists have been used as Joe Blow’s window to the war. Previous military campaigns saw journalists play a vital role in showing the average white collar worker what was going on in distant lands where fighting took place. They often strived to bring home news of triumph and victory. But as the nature of both war and journalism have changed in recent years and perhaps it is time we reconsider the role of journalists in conflict.

While most of the wars the world has seen until now were about on the ground fighting, dropping bombs and governments exchanging threats, the conflict with the Islamic State is something entirely different. IS are an extremely tech-savvy organisation that employ strong social media tactics in almost everything they do from recruitment and propaganda to executions. It is not uncommon for IS militants to make social media declarations before, during, or after attacks. It is clear they are using it as a way to promote fear and exercise power. US security expert, Brian Jenkins once said that “terrorism is theatre” and this is exactly what he meant.

Scholars Alex Peter Schmid and Janny de Graaf explained terrorism in terms of communication. The success or failure of an act of terrorism is determined by the size of its audience, not the number of casualties. Using this logic we should think that if the media were to seize reporting on acts of terror by IS they might just seize to have the impact and influence they do.

But why then do we continue to feed into this terror cycle? Put simply, it sells. Of course there are more philosophical reasons about the public’s right to know and the duty of the journalist. But perhaps it was time we had the discussion of whether it is worth the toll it is taking.

Environmental Refugees: the discussion we need to have

Two of the most hotly debated topics in Australian news media are that of refugee intake and the impacts of climate change. So why is it that we never hear of them together? The United Nations High Commission for Refugees says that 36 million people globally were displaced by natural disasters in 2009 – the last year that a report of this nature was produced. While we have always had, and always will, have natural disasters, climate change is increasing their severity. Scientists are predicting that the number of environmentally displaced persons could rise to anywhere from 50-200 million by the year 2050. More than just natural disasters, climate change will displace people from their regions due to drought, flood, and sea level rises in coastal regions.

This is an issue that needs to be discussed more, and in greater detail, in Australian media and culture in order for a solution to be found and agreed upon before immediate action is required. Khalid Koser is the Executive Director of the Global Community Engagement and resilience Fund. He says that now is the time to plan for the arrival of environmental refugees arriving in Australia.

“This is an opportunity to plan ahead of time to ensure Australia has as much control as possible on the number of migrates that may be admitted, their profile, the conditions of their arrival, the length of their stay, and the rights to which they will be entitled,” he said.

Currently environmental refugees are not protected under any international law and their migration can cause social and economic problems, particularly when people from regional or coastal areas are forced to migrate to urban areas where their skills, i.e. as a farmer, aren’t required or there is a clash with local ethnic groups.

No relief for Philippines as Typhoon Maysak weakens

Despite predictions the category five typhoon will weaken to a tropical storm before making landfall on Sunday morning, Philippine authorities are preparing for the worst.

Interior Undersecretary Austere Panadero said police and local government units are preparing to move thousands of people before the worst of the storm hits, even if it means forced evacuations.
The weather bureau is warning that the former “super typhoon” could cause landslides, flash flooding, high tides, costal erosion and coastal flooding in the worst hit areas.

Maysak is expected to hit approximately 300km north of the Philippine capital Manila, and should have minimal impact but there is still potential for flash flooding and power outages due to fallen trees in the city.

Typhoon Maysak is currently situated about 455km east of Manila and is anticipated to make landfall over the central or northern part of the main Philippine Island, Luzon, around 9am local time on Sunday.

Strong winds and rains are expected to hit the eastern facing coasts on Saturday evening.
The system currently has sustained winds of 150km per hour with gusts of up to 185km per hour down from its peak of almost 260km per hour on Tuesday.

It is predicted that Maysak will continue to weaken before making landfall due to a combination of dry air and wind shear.

The Philippiness will be the second region to take the brunt of Maysak after the system hit the small Micronesian island of Ulithi on Tuesday.

The main Micronesian state of Chuuk declared a state of emergency after the island was devastated by the Typhoon while it was at its peak on Tuesday.

Ulithi has a population of less than 1000 and at least five people were killed by the disaster.
Guampdn.com reports that at least 95% of houses in the region were destroyed, leaving thousand displaced.

Brisbane Events, Brisbane Blogs and Brisbane Journalism: Building your personal brand

I want to step back in time for a moment, in week three of the semester we received a lecture about how we should market ourselves as a brand. Clumsily, I took the wrong notebook to class that day and today I rediscovered those notes in the midst of a note taking frenzy in my Radio and Television class. Reading over the notes I'm reminded of both the importance of the lecture content, and of keeping up with lecture notes.

Branding Yourself 

Be you
One of the things that most resonated with me was the instruction to be yourself and to use blogging as a platform to find your voice. Scrolling back through posts in this blog from the beginning of last year when it was born to now there a many noticeable voices used. Over the past year and a half my blogging voice has varied from straight up news reader to Carrie Bradshaw and I suppose that's okay. We're allowed to change, grow and experiment in every aspect of our lives including the way we write and it's okay not to have everything sorted out at the age of 20.

How to build a blog
The keys to a quality blog, as explained in the lecture, are a combination of the following:

• Solid content,
• Solid community engagement, and
• Knowing your topic.   

 It seems obvious enough but it's important to be aware of these things while we're planning our writing. We need to make sure that what we blog is  worthwhile. Additionally, once we've decided what to write we need to think about how we're writing it and what we hope to achieve. Are we trying to:

• Inform,
• Inspire,
• Add value,
• Solve problems, 
• Entertain, etc. 

To me this might be the hardest part of it all. What do I want my readers to think or feel about the topic? When I sit down to write content for my radio breakfast show I know that my purpose is to entertain so I write accordingly and very differently to how I would in a formal research essay for university. It's harder to make this distinction when preparing a blog post because it's all being published on the same medium and one that is very versatile at that.

Making it work
Your content can be clever as anything or funny as you like but if your blog is sporadic and one sided it's unlikely you'll gain much of a following. To give your blog roots there are a few simple guidelines to follow:

• Start a conversation
• Ask readers what they think of issues, ask for their stories and opinions, show that you value their input.
• Be consistent
• Post regularly - morning is a good time to post.
• Be Persistant
• Okay so you're a student with 50 followers on twitter and a few hundred friends on Facebook. Don't expect your blog to make you the next Michelle Phan straight away.
•  Engage in social media and on other blogs
• For people to be able to find your blog you'll need to be present in a lot more places than just your blog, tweet, google +, tumblr, instagram, Youtube and engage in other people's blogs as much as you can. If you want to make people feel comfortable interacting with you on your space try visiting theirs and talking to them there first.
• Share other people's blogs as you share your own. 
• If you're expecting others to share your blog around be prepared to return the favor. What goes around comes around and if you want that to be your blog make sure you're supporting other people in the blogging community. 

And there you have it. No doubt it takes more than a few quick tips and tricks to build your online presence but it's a start.

Good luck 

Dogs kept calm with synthetic pheromones at the RSPCA's Big Adopt Out

Photo: RSPCA

With all the excitement of Saturday’s Big Adopt Out which successfully rehomed 129 dogs, calming pheromones were needed to ensure the happiness of the 300 dogs present at the event.

Over 30 animal rescue groups gathered at the Brisbane Show Grounds for a day of dog adoption, education and family activities including live music and guest speakers as well as a jumping castle.

...

Photos provided by the RSPCA

Managing director of the Queensland RSPCA, Sheila Collecott, says that a synthetic pheromone was applied to the bandannas or collars of the dogs at the event in a effort to keep the dogs calm in an exciting environment. 

“A lot of the dogs here, you’ll see them wearing bandanas so we’ve actually put a pheromone on the bandanas to help them relax a bit.

“For some dogs it makes a big difference, for some dogs it doesn’t,” she said.

The synthetic pheromone is commercially available from the company Ceva in the forms of sprays, collars and defusers.

Ceva representative Shonaugh Briscoe says the chemical used was a synthetic version of a pheromone that occurs naturally in female dogs.

“It’s a replica of a pheromone that’s produced by dogs in nature.
 
“In a natural situation when a female dog has puppies, a few days after giving birth to the puppies, while she’s lactating she starts to secrete this pheromone from around her belly area.

That pheromone is designed to calm the puppies and help them to feel relaxed and reassured around their mother and Ceva has managed to create a synthetic replica of that pheromone,” she said.

The use of pheromones was one of many strategies employed by the RSPCA to ensure the wellbeing of the dogs, most of which are not used to the large groups of people attending Saturday’s event, says Collecott.

“It can be stressful for the animals but that’s why we’ve got handlers with all the animals so that they can work with the animals and constantly be doing reinforcement and trying to keep them calm.

“Also by having people next to them, they’re not in crates. It’s like having their owner next to them so they’re a lot more comfortable with that but a lot of the dogs are not used to this amount of people so it can be stressful for them,” she said.

Awesome day at the @RSPCAQld #bigadoptout - the @LabRescueAU kissing booth was a success! pic.twitter.com/RHaZMjUhZ7
— Carley McHugh (@Carley_Maree901) September 20, 2014

This was the second year for the RSPCA’s Big Adopt Out which was modelled after an event run by American rescue organisation Best Friends, says Collecott.

The event is one of many run by the RSPCA throughout the year to raise awareness and to prompt companion seekers to adopt rather than buy from breeders.

Dog abandonment is a big problem in Queensland and throughout Australia with upwards of 40,000 dogs being received by the RSPCA each year.

Fortunately figures are showing that dog abandonment and surrender are on a downward trend.

Data provided by the RSPCA

See here for a list of dog rescue centres in Brisbane and surrounding areas.

This Week in Brisbane: 22nd September

This Week

King George Square games night 
5pm-9pm Thursday 25th
100 Adelaide Street, Brisbane
Free event
Event website

Riverfire
7pm Saturday 27th
Over the Brisbane river, near South Bank
Free event
Event website

100 Horse commemorative ride
12pm-6pm Saturday 27th
Gather along Adelaide St (between George and Creek streets)
Free event
Event website

Marcia Hines live in Queen St Mall
1pm Sunday 28th
Queen St Mall
Free Event
Event Website


Brisbane Festival Events

Brisbane Airport Light Garden
Nightly September 6th-26th
Southbank Parklands
Free event
Event website

Exxopolis
10am – 6:30pm, September 6th-26th
South Bank Parklands
Tickets $7-$16
Event website

Do Do Land
6:45-7:30, September 6th-27th
Reddacliff Place Stage, 266 George St
Free event
Event website

What to find more events happening in Brisbane?

This Week in Brisbane: 15th September

This Week

Politics in the Pub
6pm Wednesday 17th
The Brisbane Powerhouse
Free Event
Event website

Free Burgers at Grill'd Launch
6-8pm Friday 19th
Grill'd Victoria Point
Free Event
Event website

Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show
9am-5pm Wednesday, Thursday & Friday
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
General Entry $26 ($23 Concession) 
Event website

Hobbit Picnic in the Park
12pm Saturday 20th
Kidspace, 7th Brigade Park, Chermside
Free Event
Event website

Big Adopt Out 
9am-3pm Saturday 20th
Brisbane Showgrounds
Free Event
Event website

Citra Malaysia 2014 
11am-2pm Saturday 20th
Queen St Mall
Free Event
Event website

Big Band and the Bluff 
12-3:30pm Sunday 21st
Spring Bluff Railway Station
Free Event
Event website

RapCity 
5pm Sunday 21st
The Brisbane Powerhouse
Free Event
Event website


Brisbane Festival Events

Brisbane Airport Light Garden
Nightly September 6th-26th
Southbank Parklands
Free Event
Event website

Exxopolis
10am – 6:30pm, September 6th-26th
South Bank Parklands
Tickets $7-$16
Event website

Do Do Land
6:45-7:30, September 6th-27th
Reddacliff Place Stage, 266 George St
Free Event
Event website

What to find more events happening in Brisbane?