Australia will be next: Argentinians

Australia will be next: Argentinians

A group of Argentinian LGBT activists visited Sydney this month to congratulate Australian Marriage Equality national convenor Alex Greenwich on his marriage in Argentina to partner Victor Hoeld and to share their experiences with Australian activis

ts.

Argentinian LGBT People’s Federation (Federación Argentina de LGBT) president Esteban Paulón told the Star Observer he firmly believed Australia would be the next country to legalise same-sex marriage.

He said the atmosphere in the debate here reminded him of the months before the Argentinian Parliament voted to legalise same-sex marriage in 2010.

“Australian society is even more prepared than the Argentinian society was,” Paulón said.

“Here in Sydney, we see more than just a tolerance of LGBT people, we see an integration of LGBT people into the society that we didn’t have in Argentina in 2009 and it’s the natural next step for Australia to get same-sex marriage.

“We hope that the law will pass in August when the Australian House of Representatives has the debate.”

Paulón said marriage equality in Argentina had transformed the way society and the media viewed LGBT rights.

He said many Argentinians felt pride in their country’s progress on the issue which had translated into wider public support for other reforms such as the recently passed Gender Rights Law, dubbed the most progressive in the world.

“There’s a social feeling of pride around this in Argentina at the moment,” Paulón said.

“Both the gender identity law and equal marriage law passed with the support of politicians from all the political parties, though some more strongly than others. We think this also contributed to the feeling of pride in the society.

“Nowadays LGBT rights are an important topic and a relevant topic in the media and society and there is a lot of respect for LGBT people — mainly because a lot of people respect that we campaigned for the law, with a lot of patience in the face of what was thrown at us from opponents.”

Paulón said keeping your cool and not letting offensive opponents drag you down to their level was what would win the campaign in Australia and that opponents would most likely become more unreasonable in the months ahead.

“We had a really violent campaign against the law from the Catholic Church and evangelical churches but we never lost our calm,” he said.

With three of its provinces performing marriages for tourists, Argentina is expecting an influx of travellers from jurisdictions that recognise same-sex marriages but do not perform them such as Israel and Japan.

The Argentinian LGBT People’s Federation is now working with other activist groups in Latin America to see further reforms in the region.

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8 responses to “Australia will be next: Argentinians”

  1. Mark – that may be true for some LGBTI people – as it is true for some heterosexuals. But THEY still have the right to make a choice about marriage. This isn’t about expecting every gay in Australia to rush off and get hitched, it’s about having equality in the opportunity to do so.

  2. Does Gillard realise how out of step the ALP is with British and New Zealand Labour, both of whose leaders support marriage equality and inclusive adoption reform? Even our no-hoper centre right PM Key supports marriage equality (up to a point- the first reading of any such private members bill…)

  3. If Gay Marriage finally does get in there definitely won’t be a stampede from our community of our gay brothers tying the knot,unless the vows contain the vow “I promise we can have an open relationship so we feel free & single”
    In all seriousness our community is squealing for Marriage but in Sydney your expected to root around,and be on the scene constantly looking for the ultimate one night stand.It’s this chosen loose lifestyle that is focused on by religious bigots and of course Abbott,we only have ourselves to blame for this…sorry to say

  4. We have to get rid of gillard and abbott – that is, unfortunately, going to take a while – We can only hope that Abbott’s numbers plummet, he is ousted by Turnbull , who then defeats Gillard. I can’t see anyone of merit ousting Gillard, that would make a difference, despite her horrible re-election prospects. We will not see marriage for at least a couple of years unless some big changes unexpectedly occur. A sad, sad situation for sure. Honestly, do you think Alex would have run off to Argentina if he thought any differently ?

  5. Er, no, New Zealand will probably get there before you (now, if only we could catch up to Australia when it comes to transgender rights!)

  6. With the Coalition not being given a Conscience vote, and so many MP’s either opposed or undeclared, I’m not holding my breath that Australia will get marriage equality soon.

    To make things worse – the vast majority of LGBT’s have not even contacted their MP to say they support marriage equality.

    Everyone needs to click here http://www.australianmarriageequality.com/wp/subscribe-to-our-supporter-database/ and subscribe to Australian Marriage Equality so they can be advised of easy things they can do so we achieve marriage equality.

    Once subscribed, go to their homepage where you can quickly and easily e-mail your MP

  7. I have to agree with benty – we have to be realistic about this and it just ain’t gonna happen in the forceable future.

    Despite what the polls say when a gay marriage bill is presented to parliament for a vote the margin is likely to be 2 for 1 against equality.

    The best we can hope for is a Civil Union scheme then you can guarantee all Labor MP’s will vote for it and i’d say at least half the coalition will do the same.

  8. I think Senor Paulon is getting a bit over-excited. Where are the votes ‘for’ coming from in the Parliament? We are also talking about having Gillard as PM not Christina de Kirchner of Argentina! Secondly, ‘Sydney’ is not all of Australia. The Australian Parliament has Members elected from all over the country. So Australia will have Marriage Equality next? Wouldn’t like to bet on that at all!