Rachel Evans
A gay friend of mine killed himself last week. He was a bright spark — sensitive with large eyes, an interest in everybody and a passion for changing the world. He felt the effects of homophobia.
He is the reason I am extra angry. Queer youth are up to six times more likely to kill themselves than straight youth. They feel the effects of homophobia.
Because of the ban on same-sex marriage — passed a year ago with bipartisan support — Australia has entered into the international zone of the "extra discriminatory". It was joined a few weeks ago by Uganda, which, eerily, passed legislation that echoed PM John Howard's amendment to the marriage act.
On the opposing side, Spain and Canada joined Belgium and the Netherlands in granting same-sex couples relationship equality. More Australian couples are getting married in countries where homophobia is not government-led.
The Australian government has tried to sell its marriage ban by declaring our loving "unnatural". Both major parties attended a bigoted hate-fest on August 4, 2004, where the Christian right called us "moral terrorists of the 21st century". Neither Liberal nor Labor representatives disagreed.
Homophobia destroys. More than one-third of Australians are homophobic, according to an Australian Institute report released a few weeks ago. It said that 20% of stranger violence is homophobic and one in four lesbians and gay men are physically assaulted in their lifetime. Any law that bars us, bans us, deems our acts of love as second-rate or enables us to be sacked, fuels this violence.
Some people have tried to justify the marriage ban with talk of queers never wanting to get married. This is a crock. A Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby survey showed 98% of the community supporting legal recognition of same-sex marriage, with 45% saying they wanted to be able to get married.
Some complain we've only been talking about marriage. Not true. We're calling for same-sex de facto and civil union rights as well as same-sex marriage rights, and we're excited by Labor ACT MLA Jon Stanhope's proposal for three-tiered relationship recognition: de facto, civil unions and state-based same-sex marriage.
Last year we rallied hard against the ban; we tried to pull off a national campaign against it, but failed. But we are growing stronger; this is the first national day of action since 1981, and today five states and 67 supporting groups have joined us.
With 59% of queer workers facing discrimination, or prejudicial treatment at work, we can't allow this government to attack unions — the organisations helping us fight workplace homophobia. So it's great that the NSW NTEU have endorsed this rally and the support from the NSW Teachers Federation and that the Geelong Trades and Labor Council secretary, Tim Gooden, is addressing the Melbourne rally.
We need to help defend our unions against this government's attacks, and fight to have unions support our campaign.
Howard's control of the Senate and his attacks on queers, women, refugees and unions, mean we need unity. To win a repeal of the ban and legalise same-sex marriage we need unity. This is happening, even though in Sydney we ended up with two events on the same day organised by two different groups.
Stonewall 1978 and ACT-Up are great examples of what we need to do. Lobbying ain't cutting it. We need to forge an active, proud, united movement to actively combat homophobia. If we do that, we can win!
[Rachel Evans is an activist in the Sydney-based Community Action Against Homophobia. This is an abridged version of the speech she gave to a 1000-strong same-sex rights rally in Sydney on August 13. CAAH is conducting a survey on relationship recognition. See <http://www.caah.org> or email <smargan@bigpond.net.au>.]
From Green Left Weekly, August 24, 2005.
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