‘Unequal’ reports imminent
NSW Government departments have been updating reports to reflect gay-friendly projects and federal equality reforms, but outstanding discrimination in state law still has no timetable for removal.
Annual reports on the strategic framework Working Together: Preventing Violence Against Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender People are due shortly, detailing progress on promises made last year such as launching a new site: safetypartnership.nsw.gov.au.
The Attorney General’s Department’s grants program for GLBT violence strategies was also to be updated.
Other promises included finding better ways to collect data on GLBT-related hate crimes and developing a strategy to combat GLBT-related violence within families in conjunction with Twenty10.
Several area health services were to include GLBT issues in counselling and violence prevention strategies, and continue supporting gay and lesbian youth networks.
The Department of Education and Training agreed to meet in early 2009, and most other departments had proposed no activities.
The Attorney General’s Department recently released an online update of the Understanding Your Legal Rights: A Guide for Lesbians and Gay Men in NSW report. Bold UNEQUAL headings in the report highlight ongoing discrimination in federal and state Government policy, including the lack of same-sex adoption, legal co-fatherhood, and relationship recognition.
Same-sex couples are not able to get married under Australian law, and same-sex marriages performed overseas are not recognised in Australia. NSW does not currently have civil unions or any other way to register or formally recognise same-sex relationships, it states.
Under current law in NSW, people in same-sex relationships
are not permitted to adopt as cou-ples from NSW or internationally, but they may apply to adopt as individuals. In reality, however, lengthy waiting lists for adoption make it virtually impossible for individuals to adopt.
Independent Sydney MP Clover Moore also stepped up her advocacy of same-sex adoption this week, writing to Sydney residents about the ongoing discrimination and the current NSW parliamentary inquiry.
Current law endorses and encourages discrimination, jeopar-dises custody and guardianship, and affects children’s inheritance rights and access to financial support, she wrote.
The NSW inquiry into same-sex adoption is due to release its findings next week.
Civil unions update: page 7
“Working Together: Preventing Violence Against Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender People” – once again, intersex people are left out of the picture. We do exist, and we are as much if not more ill-treated than GLBT people. I grew up with daily violence for being intersex and I have experienced it many times in my adulthood.
What gay-friendly policy does the government have? – NONE THATS WHAT!!!!
Why then did the NSW GLRL shout down the idea of state based equal marriage a few years back? They went into a mad panic with Rainbow Labor to shout it down (literally) at a forum on it when it was suggested by the Greens. It was one of the ugliest displays ever, on both “sides”.
So now all of a sudden that state law in relation to recognition of married couples / spouses is all of a sudden so important, can Labor/NSWGLRL now “allow” state marriage? It’s working wonders in America, and would be a great first step on the way to us getting federal marriage. It would take the fear out of it, letting people see it in action, as it expands state by state, then federal (same as how it evolved in Canada too).