Andrew M. Potts

Andrew M. Potts (born July, 1978) is a Sydney based journalist and opinion columnist writing for newspapers and magazines and online publications in Australia. His work has been published both in Australia and abroad.

Potts was first published in 2004 in the left wing Sydney City Hub newspaper and in SX News, a Sydney gay and lesbian newspaper, and has since primarily published in the gay press [www.sxnews.com.au] .

Following a number of articles in SX, Potts was the main features writer for AX National (then SX National) for the final half of 2005 [axnational.e-p.net.au] .

Potts then went on to become a staff writer for the now defunct The Pink Broad, a short lived attempt at a national broadsheet newspaper servingAustralia's gay and lesbian community. When the print edition of the paper ceased production, Potts took over the editorship of its online incarnation until the paper ceased commercial operations in 2007 [www.thepinkbroad.com.au] .

Potts then took the post of lead columnist at the Sydney Star Observer [www.ssonet.com.au/display.asp?ArticleID=6817] , Australia's largest circulation gay newspaper, where his political column "Stirring The Pot" [www.ssonet.com.au/more_LIFE/section.asp?Section=STIRRING%20THE%20POT] appears next to the letters page.

Since 2005, Potts has been one of the most prolific contributors to DNA Magazine, Australia's leading gay men's lifestyle magazine also sold in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the USA.

During the same period Potts wrote frequent articles for the City News, Bondi View and Sydney City Hub local newspapers and contributed opinion pieces to the Inner West Courier and New Matilda, an Australian online opinion magazine [www.newmatilda.com] .

In addition to material published in Australia, Potts' work has appeared in the pages of Attitude magazine (UK), on PinkNews.co.uk and Advocate.com- two leading British and American gay news websites, and in Uganda where opinion pieces by Potts in the Ugandan Daily Monitor on scientific research into the causes of homosexuality have added to the debate on the legal status of gay men and lesbians in that country [ [http://allafrica.com/stories/200709040116.html allAfrica.com: Uganda: Science Explains Why Homosexuals Exist (Page 1 of 1) ] ] .

Additionally, many of Potts' articles published online are republished elsewhere on the internet through blogs.

Potts' politics are nominally left wing, however he is a critic of moral relativism and has expressed caution on the issue of immigration from countries where homosexuality is illegal, arguing it may lead to conflict between migrant and gay communities, and has argued that migrants should be fully educated on the legal protections covering homosexuals and a range of other rights so that they may understand what they are getting themselves in for when becoming residents of Western democracies. At the same time Potts has called for Western nations to show greater understanding when dealing with gay and lesbian refugees fleeing such countries [ [http://www.ssonet.com.au/display.asp?ArticleID=6828 Tribunal needs reviewing - Sydney Star Observer ] ] .

Potts has also argued for the legalization of all currently illegal drugs through a range of articles, with hard drug users put on supervised prescription programs and recreational users licensed to buy quantities of drugs suitable for personal use, with licenses being penalized or revoked for criminal behavior whilst intoxicated. [ [http://newmatilda.com/2007/09/19/legalise-it Legalise It | newmatilda.com ] ] Controversially he has also suggested such a scheme might also be applied to alcohol.

In May of 2008, Potts wrote articles for both New Matilda and SameSame.com.au exposing flawed interpretation of statistics by John Heard- a non-practicing homosexual and conservative commentator. [ [http://www.newmatilda.com/2008/05/30/homo-con] ] <

Heard has frequently written opposing state recognition of same sex couples, and had claimed in an article published in the Herald Sun newspaper and on News.com.au titled "Gays don't want to get married", that there was little demand for marriage rights within the Australian gay community and that the push for such rights was the work of a handful of unrepresentative radical activists. [ [http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23687597-5000117,00.html] ]

To back this claim, Heard cited the Private Lives Report produced by La Trobe University in 2006, which he said showed "most of the gay partners surveyed indicated that they had no intention of ever formalising their relationships" and that "the majority of same sex-attracted men in Australia [were not] in any kind of relationship at all, let alone one that would conform to basic community ideas about... marriage".

Potts pointed out that Private Lives was a public health survey which did not seek opinions on state recognition of same sex couples or what participants' eventual life goals might be, only asking respondees about their current relationships.

Another study, the "Not Yet Equal" report had been conducted contemporaneously to Private Lives and had found wide support for same sex marriage in the same sample area.

In a retort published on New Matilda, Heard claimed this second report was tainted because it had been collected on behalf of a gay rights organisation, the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby. Potts then pointed out that its respondees had been sourced in the same way and by the same organisation (Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria) as the Private Lives study which Heard had cited and proposed that either both were tainted or neither was. [ [http://www.newmatilda.com/2008/06/02/seen-and-heard] ]

Heard was caught out again by Potts when he cited an unscientific readers poll from DNAmagazine.com.au, claiming it showed 89 percent of respondents had no interest in ever getting married. In fact the poll showed 68 percent of respondents were interested in getting married at some stage in their lives, and of the 32 percent that had no interest in marriage, 89 percent said that ""marriage is not for be but I believe same sex marriage should be allowed". Heard took his figure of 89 percent but cut this quote back to "marriage is not for me" when citing it on his blog, implying this was a willful deception on his part. [ [http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=5735&c=51210] ]

Heard was due to publish a second retort piece on SameSame.com.au but declined to do so after this was revealed.

In July of 2008, Potts wrote a column backing a call by British human rights activist Peter Tatchell that foreign aid be withheld from developing nations that criminalise homosexuality or allow the persecution of sexual minorities until such situations are remedied. [ [http://www.starobserver.com.au/soap-box/2008/07/30/feeding-the-hand-that-bites-you/941] ]

References

* [http://www.sxnews.com.au] SX News
* [http://www.axnational.e-p.net.au] AX National
* [http://www.thepinkbroad.com.au] The Pink Broad
* [http://www.ssonet.com.au/display.asp?ArticleID=6817] "Potts to stir the political pot" Sydney Star Observer, 2007
* [http://www.ssonet.com.au/more_LIFE/section.asp?Section=STIRRING%20THE%20POT] Potts' column in the Sydney Star Observer
* [http://www.newmatilda.com] New Matilda
* [http://allafrica.com/stories/200709040116.html] "Science Explains Why Homosexuals Exist", September 4, 2007, Daily Monitor
* [http://www.ssonet.com.au/display.asp?ArticleID=6828] A column on gay refugees by Potts
* [http://newmatilda.com/2007/09/19/legalise-it] "Legalise It" a Sept 2007 article by Potts in New Matilda on drug legalization