An open letter to Australian journalist Ean Higgins

Hi Ean,

I’m 100% certain you’re reading this post because you’re looking for more salacious (or what you think is salacious and I actually think is my own private life and opinions) commentary on how my husband and I are agitating for something we’re not.

Let’s get a few things REALLY clear.  We’re not “the power couple” of Australia’s polyamorous community – we’ve never made any claim to that title and we specifically told you when you interviewed us that we hold no positions and are currently not on the committee of Poly Vic.  You are the one who has identified us as leaders in the poly community despite that not being the case.  Today (28 May) you called my husband “one of the polyamorous community leaders” which he also has made no claim to be.  I last held a role with the Poly Vic Committee (President) in 2010, and my husband left the committee some years before that.

It may really disappoint you to learn, but we are not special, we are not powerful, we are ordinary people living fairly ordinary lives.  We do not speak for the poly community either here in Victoria, or in Australia, and your repeated suggestions that we do are getting a bit old.

The other thing that is getting a bit old is what I perceive to be your willingness to distort facts and even quotes from the two of us.  First you misquote my blog by removing a plural – necessitating additional text from you to explain what I meant.  My original quote:

I’ve built a house with my husbands and my husband’s boyfriend so there are 4 of us living together in nice harmony.

Your take on my quote (added text in parenthesis):

I’ve built a house with my husband and my husband’s boyfriend so there are four of us living together in nice harmony. (The fourth household member is Rebecca’s boyfriend.)

What you clearly didn’t understand when you first found my quote, was that I refer to my other male partner as my de facto husband.  See, now it’s not too hard to parse my original writing.  Last time I checked a direct quote was actually supposed to be the text that you’re quoting, not something that approximates said text.

Secondly, your article today suggests that my husband wrote a blog post about The Greens and their position on polyamory.  You don’t detail the fact that my husband is not a spokesperson for Greens.  You don’t detail the fact that the text you lifted was as a comment on someone else’s blog post.

You’ve misrepresented us and our submissions to the Senate Committee on Marriage Equality.  I no longer have any respect for you and in fact am very disappointed in the way you have conducted yourself and this non-story.  Not that that will bother you of course.

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2 Replies to “An open letter to Australian journalist Ean Higgins”

  1. If only your replies could have the same audience as the original non-story invented by Ean Higgins. I’ve heard people repeat the nonsense from the Australian’s silly campaign on this, not realising how flimsy the case really is.

    1. As far as I am still aware, The Australian still hasn’t published my letter to the editor regarding the non-story. So no audience for me. But feel free to share the post around.

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