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Australian politics gay lesbian politics equal marriage equal rights same-sex - Rainbow Reporter

Go Straight to Marriage, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect Civil Unions

November 29th 2009 02:05
Jim Wallace
Ex-SAS Brigadier Jim Wallace, leader of the Australian Christian Lobby


So the Senate enquiry has said no, the ACT ceremonies have been castrated, the Equal Love rallies are over for the time being. But that doesn’t mean equal marriage is off the agenda.


In fact, thanks to the wreck of the Liberals, Labor has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to move straight to same-sex marriage, at minimal risk.

The party line used to be that they couldn’t support marriage equality because that would send so many voters rushing to the Coalition, they would lose power and we would get nothing.

That excuse is gone up in smoke with Malcolm Turnbull. Gay marriage won’t spook anyone but diehards into voting for whatever remains of the Liberals for quite a while.

The other reason for opposing equal marriage is that Labor hasn’t the guts for a fight with its own homophobes. The party would rather take the lazy way out and find a comfortable compromise with them.

That means national civil unions (no one in their right minds seriously believes in the ‘nationally consistent system of state-based registers’ any more).

Civil unions, it is argued, are a ‘stepping stone’ to marriage that won’t spook the opposition. But events in the ACT have now destroyed that argument.

Civil partnerships in the ACT satisfy no-one. ACL Brigadier Jim Wallace Lobby says they mimic marriage, and the Rudd Government has betrayed Christians who voted for it. GLBTI campaigners are rejecting them as $2 ‘marriage-lite’ from the Not Quite Right relationship store.


Clearly it’s pointless trying to mollify the anti-marriage brigade with civil unions, they will never be satisfied – and now, thanks to Nick Minchin and friends, no-one need not bother. Their moment is over. Even if they all vote Coalition next time, and the time after that, so many others will be rushing the other way it won’t matter.

The time now is ours. It would be the height of folly at this juncture to settle for civil unions, when we have the best chance in a generation of achieving marriage. Everyone on all sides now sees clearly that civil unions are only an unnecessary temporary fix, so why waste time and energy on them?

They are just a delaying tactic. First we have an almighty fight over what rights a civil union confers. Then every few years, another fight over each additional right. Eventually everyone wakes up and says, “This is just a stupid waste of time and effort – let’s have equal marriage.”

Labor now has a golden opportunity to face down the fundamentalists in its own ranks. Kevin has more than enough political capital in the bank to spend on what is for him a relatively minor issue. And there is no longer any reason not to, if he really wants to.

He needs to find the guts, vision and principle of his Spanish counterparts – who had even more Catholics to contend with than he does – and go straight to marriage. If you’ll pardon the pun.
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Where's MY apology?

November 18th 2009 02:05
sorry
Kevin Rudd, Cardinal Pell, Jim Wallace - please copy

While it’s very proper and appropriate that native Australians and now the forgotten Australians have received an apology, it’s time the gay community had a few, too.

Especially from the Catholic Church, which has been flooding the public arena with disinformation and propaganda on the issue.

For months the Pope and his minions have been insisting that the church doesn’t have an issue with paedophile priests, it’s all the fault of those goddamned homosexuals.

Well now they are hoist with their own petard, as their own research proves it just isn’t true, as reported by AAP and numerous papers yesterday Really Long Link. Apology, please.

At the recent Senate hearing into Marriage Equality, representatives of the church stated that children must have a mum and dad and same-sex parents are worse. Wrong, as a recent senior British government advisor has said Really Long Link lesbians (and gay men) make BETTER parents. As every previous credible peer-reviewed study has found. Apology please.

There is a fair amount of junk science – mostly emanating from one Dr Paul Cameron in the US – that purports to show that we die sooner, make lousy parents, and are more likely to be crooks.

All of that has been comprehensively shown to be twisted propaganda cobbled together without a skerrick of truth Really Long Link and Really Long Link for the US ‘pro-family’ right wing extremist pseudo-Christian movement, yet the church and the Australian Christian Lobby quote this as if it were gospel. Apology please.

Within living memory - my memory - gays and lesbians have been imprisoned, subjected to medical tortures, separated from their loved ones, denied families and children, simply for being gay. Apology please.

Mr Rudd is due to address the Australian Christian Lobby on Saturday – perhaps he would be so kind as to ask for their apologies on our behalf – and add his own. Please.
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We're so grateful - not!

August 4th 2009 04:10
Justice


I finally got my hands on some transcripts of ALP conference speeches, so I can dispense with the sleeping pills for a while.

But one little doozey had me bolting back to the laptop in rage.

“I should specifically place on the record that I have absolutely no doubt, as you would appreciate, that the anti-discrimination reforms that have been passed by the Federal Parliament would not have been achieved without the support of Australia’s faith-based communities. The support of Australia’s faith-based communities . . . . . . was based on those reforms not undermining the institution of marriage.” Attorney General Robert McClelland.

I am sick to death of being told to be grateful to the Labor government for what they have done for us. How dare they suggest we ought to be grateful to the pseduo-Christians, too.

We have been monumentally patient while Labor has lumbered through the complex, cumbersome procedure of painfully identifying and amending each and every piece of legislation that treated our families unfairly. What a mammoth task. What a total waste of time and effort in the midst of a global financial crisis.

Only one piece of legislation – the Marriage Act – really needed amendment, and that is more in the nature of cosmetic surgery to remove Howards carbuncle from it’s otherwise acceptable face.

We gritted our teeth on being told ‘tough’, when we complained that the changes to social security weren’t being grandfathered and would hurt some of the most vulnerable members of our community.

Now we’re being told we ought to be thankful to the self-righteous minority who keep shoving us and the administration through these unnecessary hoops -

Enough is enough. I no longer care if these smug, superior, moralising individuals are offended. Let me lay it on the line on behalf of people like me and those who came before me.

Within living memory – within my memory - gay people were driven mad by psychological and physical tortures inflicted by the medical profession in the name of a cure.

Aversion therapy delivered painful electric shocks whenever the patient showed signs of an attraction to a member of their own sex.

Gay people were driven mad, drugged, given electro-shock therapy, confined in mental hospitals, basically because they were gay.

Some were castrated, chemically or physically.

Many were separated from their spouses, children, and communities. Thrown out of work, expelled from the armed forces, jailed, ruined, cast into poverty – simply for being gay.

When they were assaulted on the streets, people turned a blind eye. Police mysteriously failed to find their attackers. Courts accepted flimsy defences.

“He made a sexual advance by putting his hand on my knee, so I bashed him to death.”
“Oh you poor thing. Fined five pounds.”

Just as this monstrous tide was abating, AIDS arrived, and with it, the bigotry returned full force. Medical help was denied. People were left to die untended. “Serves you right, you brought it on yourself,” was the attitude.

Although many did show great compassion, many others did not. Time and again, comfort and care was not offered, but rather, had to be wrenched from fearful, grudging and judgemental hands.

Slowly, and at great personal cost, we have begun to drag ourselves out from under this great and ancient weight of persecution. We are now being accepted by a slim majority of the population.

And through all this, our greatest persecutors, our most fervent tormentors, have been those Pharisees, those whited sepulchres, that smug totalitarian minority of ‘Christians’ (and other religions) who – and let us be clear about this – have always viscerally loathed us and still do, despite all their hypocritical posturing about ‘loving the sinner.’

And now the Attorney-General, no less, asks us to pass a vote of thanks for their generosity and condescension. Pardon me while I puke.

Life for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, trangenders and intersex people has improved a lot in recent times. Not enough, but a lot.

But this has not been ‘given’ or ‘granted’ by anyone. It has been wrestled out of unwilling hands by honest, brave and forthright people – not all of them gay – who have been strong enough, and fortunate enough, to be able to take a stand. It owes less than nothing to these people we are now being asked to thank.

We have begun to gain a measure of respect and equality, but the context of the horrors of what has been inflicted on us in the past must be acknowledged. You, the majority still have a huge distance to travel to mend your fences with us. If you want to know what tolerance truly is, we are the tolerant ones, not you.

We have found our pride, and that is good. That is why we do not rub your noses in your guilt, or call for compensation for past wrongs. We do not ask for restitution for the persecution we have endured and, especially in rural areas, continue to endure. We do not expect a Sorry Day.

But we would take it very kindly if you would cut the condescending crap and instead politely ask what else still needs to be done.

And there is much. A random sample. There is AIDS still to be fought. Homelessness among gay and lesbian youth . Proper aged care for our seniors. An epidemic of depression and self harm, especially among the young, the elderly, and the transgendered. Not to mention the little matter of equal rights and respect for our relationships, on exactly the same terms as your.

Did you not know that G.A.Y. stands for Good As You?

Yet we must still bust a gut to even get these issues on your agenda. It’s time that changed. It’s time you came asking us what you can do to put things right. You’ll be amazed at the love that’s waiting for you, if you only do the right thing.
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The 3 Most Important things you can do for Marriage - UPDATE

July 29th 2009 02:08
Equal Love


First , tell the Senate you support marriage equality


[ Click here to read more ]
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Four Weddings And A Rally

July 27th 2009 00:12
Equal Marriage

Sometime next year I’ll be in the UK for my niece’s wedding. She’s been with her partner for six years, and they have three children together. They both work casually or on short term contracts for multiple employers. They’ll get married at a local church, not because they’re religious, but because my niece wants a white wedding with all the trimmings, and churches look so nice in the photos.

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Nationwide Equal Marriage Rallies

July 7th 2009 18:56
marriage equality


Demand Same Sex Marriage Equality August 1st


[ Click here to read more ]
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The tipping point

July 5th 2009 21:08
old stuff collapsing


Across Australia it feels as if a tipping point is coming – a moment when immovable barriers, which have seemed so solid for so long, topple like skycrapers in an earthquake


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Rainbow Report on Homophobia

April 30th 2009 00:40
Homophobia
Graphic: BBC

This week Thu Apl 30 7-8pm AEST Joy 94.9 Melbourne, streaming live at www.joy.org.au The Rainbow Report looks at Homophobia.

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The Rudd giveth and the Rudd taketh away

April 24th 2009 01:30
Rudd Gillard
Image by Rowen Atkinsen


Despite the rejection of the 2020 summit recommendation that the government should legislate same-sex marriage, gay and lesbian couples are increasingly being treated as if they were married


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Turnbull the Pink Liberal

September 16th 2008 04:56
Turnbull Nelson
Pink In - Blue Out

Nelsons gone, Turnbulls in, and knives are already out for the new leader. But is this good or bad for the gay community?

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Wong Way – Go Back

August 7th 2008 06:33
Penny Wong
Penny Wong
Penny Wong has come in for some flack over her remarks about gay marriage on the ABC last week. As the second most senior female, and most senior gay person in the government, she looked uncomfortable at being publicly reminded she was, in fact, gay, and ended up parroting the government line about gay marriage being opposed by the vast majority of the Australian public.

In fact, all available stats indicate that the issue is, at worst, finely balanced, with roughly equal numbers for and against, with some polls flagging a majority in favour. As a cabinet minister she is obliged to toe the party line, but with a bit of finessing she could have indicated that, although forced to do just that, her true sentiments were otherwise


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The limits of activism

July 9th 2008 10:27
How is the GLBTI community ever to achieve fair treatment in Australia.

A look at where we are now, how we got here, and how to move forward


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A Gay Marriage

July 7th 2008 03:10
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tended to ignore my own birthday, but this year I decided I would have a little celebration. Nothing fancy, just a buffet lunch on Sunday afternoon with a few of the people who matter to me. I could have invited at least a dozen more, but it’s a while since we’ve entertained and I didn’t want to take too much on.

My partner was initially angry because I sent out the invites without telling him my plans, but he came round. It saved a lot of arguments! As I’ve learned from dealing with editors and program managers, it’s better to do it first and apologise after, if necessary, than to spend hours in fruitless argument


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US Gaybys Boom Down Under

July 1st 2008 22:05
Teddy
Pic: Freeimages
Australian gay men are shelling out $A80,000 (around US$75k) a time to have babies with American surrogate mums.

Between six and eight couples are heading to LA each month to sign up for a baby with The Fertility Institutes, which specialises in making the parenting wishes of gay men come true


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