The postal survey made LGBTI Australians feel f**king awful, research confirms
LGBTI Australians reported double the amount of verbal and physical harassment and assault during the postal survey period, according to new research.
A survey of 9500 LGBTI people, as well as their friends and family, showed that more than 90 per cent said the postal survey had a negative impact on them, just as advocates warned it would.
The research, conducted by the Australia Institute and the National LGBTI Health Alliance, comes as marriage equality legislation is being debated in the House of Representatives.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told Parliament that “the postal survey was one of the most remarkable political events in my lifetime – and I believe in the lifetime of many Australians.”
The preliminary findings also show that nearly 80 per cent of LGBTI people said they found the debate considerably or extremely stressful.
Almost 70 per cent of those surveyed said they “avoided being with people in general”, while 80 per cent said they kept their feelings hidden at least some of the time.
Reported experiences of depression, anxiety and stress rose by a third throughout the survey.
Because the survey also contained free response questions in which respondents could detail their experiences in depth, the full findings of the research are still to come.
Over 75 per cent of those who participated in the survey identified as LGBTI.
“The public debate over the equality of our bodies, relationships and feelings has been exhausting and frequently painful,” said Executive Director of the National LGBTI Health Alliance Rebecca Reynolds.
“These aspects of who we are should never have been the subject of public discussion, rather they should be celebrated in everyday life.”
“A sixty-two, thirty-eight result is an overwhelmingly positive result politically, but this debate has taken a real toll on the LGBTIQ+ community,” said Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director at The Australia Institute.
“We hope this study captures those experiences in a meaningful way.”
You can view the initial findings of the report here.
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Maybe it did BUT it achieved what we have been seeking for decades: EQUALITY with our fellow Australians.
I doubt Turnbull actually wanted either the Plebiscite or the Survey but if he had scrapped both the screams coming from the ALP, Greens about “Broken promises” would still be drowning the airwaves.
The ALP had SIX long years when they were in Government – with the numbers to do so, to change the Australian Marriage Act BUT they did Nothing. Indeed that now apparently Champion of the GLTBIQ Community, Bill Shorten, was loud in his condemnation, his vehement opposition to Same Gender Marriage – he said so loudly and often enough. Now being the political opportunist he is he’s done a flip-flop and is virtually claiming that it was all his idea!.
We are now, thanks to Malcolm Turnbull, now on the verge of getting Our Rights Recognised.
What’s that old gym adage” “There’s no Gain, without some Pain”
We’ve had the pain now for the Gains
First of all it is patent crap to claim that if Turnbull had scrapped the survey the ALP or Greens would have “screamed about broken promises”. They were both calling on Turnbull to drop the survey. So your post is already getting into pure historical revisionist territory from the start. The survey caused a hell of a lot of pain and we’ll presumably hear more stories about that in the months and years to come.
Second, while it’s true that the ALP and Greens had the numbers in the Senate to get through policies which all Labor and Greens senators voted for in the years 2007-13, not all Labor senators would have voted for marriage equality. Firstly, Rudd didn’t allow the ALP to progress its policy on the matter during his first stint as PM because he was basically John Howard lite. Then under Gillard (who also didn’t show much leadership on the issue) it became a conscience vote. That didn’t give the YES supporters in the Senate the numbers BECAUSE THE LIBS WERE BINDING THEIR OWN SENATORS TO VOTE NO irrespective of their conscience position.
Under Shorten of course this has all changed. Shorten is the best leader Labor has ever had on the marriage equality issue. Please give us a single quote from Shorten during his time as leader which indicates his “vehement opposition to Same Gender Marriage – he said so loudly and often enough”. Just one. Go on.
I can accept that Turnbull has long been a supporter of marriage equality. But as PM he has been useless. He left the survey in the hands of no-voter Mattias Corrmann, who engineered it as a postal-only vote despite the ABS spending millions on computers to enable on-line responses to ABS surveys. The result was that 25-34 year olds (who statistically support marriage equality) had a much lower return rate than the over 65’s (who oppose marriage equality) because younger people are much more likely to move house, travel or otherwise struggle to get post than oldies. Your mate Turnbull was happy to let his minister stack the survey. Doesn’t really sound that great to me.
It made me feel awful. I felt the weight lift when the result came in.
But there’s a bright side. Revenge might yet be sweet. The High Court has now ruled that all a goverment needs to do to hold a “statistical survey” without Parliamentary approval is to raid an emergency fund to pay for it. No further questions asked. So taxing churches, for example, might yet be a tempting move for a desperate lefty government. The campaign writes itself “The Anglican church had a spare million bucks to spend on the hateful No campaign, surely it’s time they paid their fair share of tax like everyone else given how much spare cash they have lying around.” Solving negative gearing is another obvious contender.
So the cost of the survey to the marriage equality supporter base was unfortunate, but the Libs might yet rue the day they got this to happen.