Wallabies rugby star Dave Pocock, who is boycotting marriage until there is equal love in Australia
It is not realistic to ask male-female couples to do this, but I find it very touching when such couples do make a stand like this. It’s a big sacrifice, and when it comes from a famous rugby player like Dave Pocock it makes a doubly strong point.
It’s been a big month in Australia – I am just sorry my day has left this blog mostly silent (though I do have a chapter in the new Australian book “Speak Now”!)
The latest news includes, a departing State Premier (South Australia’s Mike Rann backing equality), the Acting Premier of Queensland (basically our Texas) backing federal marriage equality and proposing a state civil union scheme in the meantime, and the national President of the ruling Labor Party saying she also backs equality.
None of this means it’s more likely to happen in the national Parliament this year – but all the momentum is positive. Keep reading for more details Continue reading →
Rodney Croome has penned some very useful observations on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation website.
Croome shows why the recent consultation MPs ran on gay marriage will have a positive effect in the medium and long term. And most importantly he shows why we shouldn’t fall into the default view that the campaign has suffered a setback just because most MPs continued to stick to the party lines against equality.
For example:
* It prompted thousands of those who were indifferent to think about their position.
* This kind of constructive debate inevitably changes hearts and minds for the better.
A good example of the slowly rising tide is the member for Ballarat, Catherine King, who told the ABC, “I am on the public recorded of supporting the current definition of marriage but I have to say that view has been fundamentally challenged by the representations of same-sex couples”.
Exciting news about “Speak Now” a new Australian book on gay marriage that I have written a chapter for … it’s going to hit the bookstands and your e-readers in October 2011.
The blog about the book is now up and running here, thanks to the heroic editor of the book, Dr Victor Marsh:
http://speaknowaustralia.
Australian activists such as Andrew Barr, Evelyn Gray and Rodney Croome, who have written for The Gay Marriage Blog are also contributing chapters amongst a stellar cast of 30 or so writers. This should make a great impact as debate around the Australian Labor Party conference heats up.
In an Australian first, marriage equality advocates have met Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to put their case for reform.
Attending the meeting were former Australian Medical Association President, Kerryn Phelps and her wife, Jackie Stricker-Phelps, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) national spokesperson, Shelley Argent, Australian Marriage Equality (AME) campaign director, Rodney Croome, and same-sex mental health specialist, Paul Martin.
Professor Phelps and Mrs Stricker-Phelps said they told the Prime Minister about the pain of not having their overseas marriage recognised in Australia and gave her letters written by their children about the need for equality. Professor Phelps said, “I am very pleased we have opened a dialogue with the Prime Minister and hope to continue to talk to her about this issue”. Mr Croome emphasised the importance of marriage equality as a way of promoting inclusion and participation in family life and told the Prime Minister she has a historic opportunity to make Australian a more just and equitable nation. “In response to reports that the Labor Party may adopt a conscience vote on marriage equality before the National Conference has a chance to deal with the issue in December, the Prime Minister gave us an assurance there will be a debate on marriage equality at the National Conference”, Mr Croome said. Mr Martin spoke to the Prime Minister about the link between mental health, internalised homophobia and the inability to marry. “I felt Ms Gillard listened respectfully and seemed to take on board what I was saying. She accepted information about marriage equality and mental health from a recent statement by the American Psychological Association.”
Said Argent: “I felt Ms Gillard listened … meeting gave me hope that if the (ALP) National Conference is positive on this issue she won’t stand in the way of marriage equality being presented to Parliament.”
Thankfully this fool is not propping up the Australian Government (as with two other independent MPs) … otherwise we’d have extra reason to be worried at the awful comments of Independent Member of Parliament Bob Katter at an anti-equality rally in Canberra where conservative American commentator, Rebecca Hagelin, said same-sex marriage will lead to marriages between paedophiles and children, and Katter said the idea of same-sex marriages “deserves to be laughed at and ridiculed”.
Loree and Kevin Rudd
WTF? I did not expect to read about Kevin Rudd and the global gay gestapo this morning.
This is one of those situations of “who cares what a relative of a famous person or a famous person says.” They don’t have an extraordinary insight, they just have a name.
Well, seeing as I am happy to take all the good stuff from our liberal friendly celebrities … I have to support the downside of this fame game too. Like the sister of the recent Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, saying Australia is being held hostage by the “gay gestapo” when it comes to marriage equality. Go back in your box!
Insensitive. Wrong. Lacking in insight. Offensive to all Gestapo victims. We could go on. And we could also say that Brother Rudd is playing it smart by shutting up, which is something Sister Rudd would have been well advised to do.
But someone has to condemn this crazy lady, and I am certainly going to be one of those people. And it will be a good day when she leaves the Australian Labor Party which is growing more enlightened and will one day cut these sorts of people loose and officially adopt equality as its national policy.
Julia Gillard in a 2010 pink makeover
The Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, is mind-boggling. The very week she tackles a long-sighted politically difficult subject: pricing carbon in order to reduce climate change, she engages in base pettiness against gays: again.
This time, it is re-stating that the Australian government will not only stop gay marriage on its territory, it will continue to try to stop its citizens getting married elsewhere. The reaction was prompted by Australians, including one of her own party’s Members of Parliament, considering travelling to New York to marry.
This issue has arisen before. But it’s astonishing that they continue to enforce this arbitrary view when every single section of the governing party has the opposite approach: they have all endorsed equality. And on the specific issue of Certificates of No Impediment to marriage, a broad Parliamentary Committee clearly said in 2009 there is no justification for continuing the policy.
The Labor Party’s Victorian leader (the second largest state), Daniel Andrews, has given his backing to equality in Australia.
“Like a growing number of Australians I recognise that denying same sex couples the option of marriage is unfair,” Mr Andrews told The Australian. “My view on this issue was influenced when one of my staff and her partner had to travel to America to get married. That brought home to me the unfairness of the current situation.”
Photo credit: Adam McLean
The Australian Christian Lobby is proving itself to be another one of those ‘astro-turf’ organisations that, like the National Organisation for Marriage in the United States, does nothing but press politicians to blur the separate of church and state and harass minorities.
Their leader, Jim Wallace, chose Australia’s ANZAC day (a veteran’s day) to announce that he thinks that Australian soldiers didn’t fight two World Wars to let “gay marriage and Islamic” (sic) take over his country.
This fool made it worse by then apologising for having a negative impact on “the day” after his Tweet predictably sparked outrage. No apology for the gays or the Muslims he offended then.
Sorry I was so slow to bring you the news – I was actually at the battlefields in France (Villers Bretonneux) commemorating the dead. So I guess that goes to show how incompatible gays and Australian values are!
You can call or text Wallace’s spokesperson here: Katherine Spackman +61 (0)408 875 979. You can call the Australian Christian Lobby on: +61 (02) 6259 0431
