Fighting Homophobia: Nothing Less Than Full Marriage Rights
With a chairman like former Victorian Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett, it should come as no surprise that the depression charity, beyondblue, have totally capitulated to homophobia and have neglected gay and lesbian youth in Australia.
The Age reported on Sunday that beyondblue “has knocked back repeated funding requests to support depressed young people struggling with their sexuality.”
This is a complete outrage considering the suicide rate for gay and lesbian youth is far higher than the suicide rate for their straight peers. Homophobia is a daily and lived experience for these youths, often harassed verbally and physically at school, work, out on the street and even from unsupportive parents. Given this environment, it’s no wonder so many gay youths find it so hard to come out and often kill themselves because of it.
With so many countries passing gay marriage laws, Kevin Rudd is a disgrace for refusing to pass gay marriage laws. Former Liberal Prime Minister, John Howard, was hounded as an outright homophobe for passing a law explicitly banning gay marriage and so Rudd shouldn’t be let off for continuing the law and failing to repeal it.
Without gay marriage laws and full equality for gays and lesbians, the government is responsible for creating a homophobic atmosphere. Gay relationships are still not considered equal; they’re less valid in law so the people in these relationships are basically deemed second class citizens in society.
So it was encouraging to hear The Herald Sun report that Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young introduced a private member’s bill into parliament to remove all discrimination based on sexuality and gender from the Marriage Act.
The Greens have tabled a petition with 30,000 signatures in support gay marriage. It’s clear that the majority of Australians support same-sex marriage. Rudd can’t say “Australia isn’t ready for it” because the general public isn’t homophobic, the real homophobes are in our Parliament.
Same-sex marriage laws, whilst not eliminating homophobia altogether, would be a significant step forward for gay and lesbian equality.
Rallies will be held all around Australia on the 1st of August – the 5th Anniversary of Howard passing his ban on same-sex marriage. Anyone, gay or straight, who is in support of gay marriage should attend and encourage others to come as well. For more information visit http://equallove.info/
I’ll be adding a banner to the top of my blog until August 1.
Technorati Tags: gay marriage, equal love, homophobia, beyondblue
There are 8 Comments to "Fighting Homophobia: Nothing Less Than Full Marriage Rights"
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YES – when you think that even our bloody Centrelink recognises same sex couples (the advertisements have two photographs of two towels hanging on hooks) – and therefore the essential stuff like the dole, pension, sick benefits and tax are applicable to same-sex relationships, then surely they should be able to marry as well?
Ah, isn’t it ironic that the first laws the make same-sex couples equal, was so same-sex couples could be as equally screwed over by Centrelink as hetero couples.
It doesn’t seem that big a step does it? Except I think the denial is mostly ideological. Gays are still not the same to them.
Did you get my tag on the previous post btw?
Benjamin, I just wanted to say “thank you” for caring! I agree that it’s a very important issue which has such a deep impact on people’s lives.
Same-sex marriage is legal in Canada, although churches are allowed to refuse to perform the ceremony. Right now the Catholic Church in our town is having a fight over over the discovery that two of its members are gay. But that’s just the Catholic Church, fortunately the other churches are far more Christian.
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[...] Benjamin Solah, Marxist Horror Writer » Fighting Homophobia …Same-sex marriage laws, whilst not eliminating homophobia altogether, would be a significant step forward for gay and lesbian equality. Rallies will be held all around Australia on the 1st of August – the 5th Anniversary of Howard … [...]
Just a clarification for Benjamin: the Centrelink reforms were not the first federal laws to make same-sex couples equal with opposite-sex couples. The government has reformed 84 laws in total, providing same-sex couples with equal rights in areas such as Medicare, leave entitlements, superannuation, etc. This means that same-sex couples now essentially have substantive equality with opposite-sex couples.
The problem, of course, lies in the symbolism. Denying marriage to same-sex couples *symbolically* implies they are second-class, thus fuelling homophobia, as you rightly point out. Indeed, after the 2008-09 “practical equality” reforms, the battle seems to be almost entirely ideological.
Mihai, I forgot to mention those laws, but the Centrelink ones were specifically passed before the others. And they were virtually effective immediately. Whilst loading etax 2009 to lodge my tax return, the section on whether or not you’ve been in a de facto relationship specifies that same-sex couples aren’t counted until the 2009-2010 financial year.
But I certainly agree that it’s virtually an ideological debate. The point is to make people continue to think same-sex relationships are some how less valid than hetero ones, which backs up and encouraged the more ugly side of homophobia such as the harassment and physical abuse.
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