Apartheid?

This letter appears in today's Sydney Morning Herald.

Time for a change

Why do changing rooms at swimming pools and other public facilities continue to be separated along the lines of gender? Isn't it just another form of apartheid, except this time the two parties discriminate equally against each other?

With increasing rights of both gay and intersex people, is the separation of the sexes even relevant in today's world?

Stuart Baanstra Mascot

One hopes the Herald's Letters Editor published it as a banal little witticism, to attract a few letters about anything other than the Carbon Tax.

Except the author was in fact quite serious. And the Herald should have known that, having written about him previously.

But the Coalition's good fortune was overshadowed by Stuart Baanstra, a passionate nudist and independent candidate who arrived in a dressing gown, dress shoes and bow-tie. Midway through, he threw off his robe to reveal a black G-string.

A softly spoken former employee of Australia Post and one-time member of the Greens, Mr Baanstra has one of the simplest campaign platforms of the election: ''The right to be nude anywhere, any time.''

It was a philosophy that clashed with the ideals of the NSW Electoral Commission; a security guard dragged him from the room as he made his best attempt to deliver an introductory speech.

The term apartheid gets thrown around all too freely by people, mainly of the Left, who have no idea what apartheid really represents. What an insult to those who suffered under apartheid.