Equal love, equal rights
The GLBTI community in Australia has been discriminated against for too long. We like to see Australia as the land of the free, where all Australians are given equal rights; however, GLBTI individuals are still counted as second-class citizens.
Who is the government to determine what is a real relationship and what is a fake one? Who is the government to say that two men or two women can’t have a relationship on the same level as one man and one woman?
Unfortunately the government cannot evolve on the issue. The government is stuck in the bigotry of the 1930s when gays were shunned, when parents were deeply ashamed if their children were gay. These views may have been considered socially acceptable in the 1930s but we’re now in the 21st century.
If a country such as Argentina can allow same-sex marriage why can’t a country like Australia allow the same rights as Argentineans enjoy. A couple should not need to travel halfway across the world to have a legally recognised marriage. Why should I, a proud Australian citizen, need to travel to places like Canada to get married to someone I love dearly?
The Australian government needs to lead close-minded citizens in a fight against homophobia. When I walk through the streets of Canberra holding my boyfriend James’ hand I should not be subjected to stares, abuse and remarks made under one’s breath about how being gay is unnatural.
We need to feel sorry for those people who choose to be ignorant in their opposition to homosexuality. How can ordinary citizens respect gay relationships if the people who we elect to govern us can’t take the simple step of acknowledging homosexual relationships and heterosexual relationships as being equal?
Of course not all people involved in a homosexual relationship will want to get married but does that mean we should be denied a choice altogether? Australia is meant to be the lucky country where people have choices about how to live their lives.
However, the government chooses to class some people as second-class citizens. If a government refuses to class its GLBTI citizens as equal then how is the general public meant to accept it?
When Julia Gillard was sworn in as prime minister I felt relieved. I felt that Australia was on track for real change, that gay relationships would finally gain the recognition they deserved as being the same as straight relationships.
Some people say that gay relationships don’t face any pressures, that gay people don’t deserve equal rights because they aren’t willing to stick it out through the hard times. But gay relationships do have pressures placed on them. There is the partner who doesn’t know how to properly come out to their parents, even though you could bet their parents know the truth; there’s the partner who won’t or can’t come out due to their career and of course there’s the relationship when the parties want different things out of the relationship.
The revolutionary change regarding equal rights will only come into play when people realise that not all gay relationships are the same. There are different levels of commitment (just like straight relationships).
Of course there are the relationships based only on superficial things but there are also relationships that work. These relationships are not superficial, these relationships are based on honesty, love and trust. With these foundations, they can overcome any hurdles and pressures that present themselves along the way.
It’s unfortunate that discrimination does not decrease as we get older. It just changes form.
Ever since I started coming out of the closet when I was 15 until the end of high school I wished that the teasing about my sexuality would stop. I had faith that once I completed high school everyone out in the world would see me for who I was not what I was.
Even though adults don’t have to deal with schoolyard bullies any more, we do have to deal with out-of-touch politicians who think gay people are different, that gay people don’t feel the same emotions as straight people.
It is true in a way; at the moment gay people don’t feel the same emotions as straight people. At the moment gay people will never feel the joy and happiness that straight people feel on their wedding day or when they sign the legal document that acknowledges they are now married. Parents of gay children will never have the satisfaction of seeing their children commit to the person they want to spend the rest of their lives with.
The only thing we can do as gay and lesbian people, or supporters of gay and lesbian people, is rally. We can rally in the hope that what we are doing will reach the top of our country. We can hope the people who govern the great nation of Australia will one day recognise that love comes in many forms.
As my grandmother said to me when I came out to her, some boys like girls, some boys like boys and some girls like girls but it’s all the same. It is about time the government came to realise that.
People cannot hide from homosexuality. Statistically one in every 10 people is gay, eight out of 10 are in some way bisexual and only one in every 10 is completely straight. No matter how much people might try to deny it, everyone knows and quite possibly loves someone who is, to some extent, same-sex attracted.
You cannot pick gay people, there are no signs that will tell you a person is same-sex attracted — until they introduce you to their same-sex partner, of course.
Gay people come from all walks of life. Gay people fight for our country in wars, gay people are the emergency room doctors who save lives every day, gay people are our firefighters who are brave enough to rush into burning buildings when rational people would run away, gay people are the teachers who educate the next generation of children, gay people are lawyers and politicians who are trying to make a difference in the world so that our future can be better than our past.
As former Justice Michael Kirby said at the opening of the 2002 Gay Games, “The movement for equality is unstoppable. Its message will eventually reach the four corners of the world”.
info: Peter Leek OAM is studying politics and commerce at the University Of Canberra. He has represented Australia at the 2010 International Paralympic Committee World Championships in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
I agree with you 100% well written.
However, you say who is to determine what is a good or real relationship. That is the core of my annoyance with Sydney based activists.
I won’t support gay marriage for one reason. First, I think one should continue to fight and argue for it. Second, I see nothing wrong with adopting children. Third, it might ‘offend’ many that I hold the view marriage between same sex is natural.
But I won’t lobby for it because these activists want us to marry and be monogamous. There is nothing wrong with monogamy. But nor is there with open relationships. These activists annoy me that they want the gay community to support their cause but go on and on how cheating is wrong, projecting their 19th century Victorian morals and sexual hangups on others.
I was particularly offended by one activist saying we must be monogamous so straight society don’t see us as ‘dirty’. Then there is the foolish decision to abandon safe sex practices and the way activists go on that oh ok lots of tests and we can bareback because we are moral and pure and have only one partner.
A relationship needs to be respected if the partners choose to be exclusive. One should not go and ruin it. But if the partners choose to have sex with anyone else, that is not the business of anyone, even if that couple is legally married.
As long as I am told I have to be monogamous (and I would be equally annoyed if I was told I had to do open) by a bunch of puriest gay marriage activists I won’t sign anything or help the cause. All one has to do is this: stick to your own values, create boundaries with others if they want sex with you and you are exclusive and just say no, what’s the issue? Simple, say no. If you want to attend sex orgies with or without your spouse and both partners are happy to do that, that is fine too. Point is – don’t tell others how to live. Get your legislation, I hope you all do, but leave it out of the bedroom especially if both married partners want to have sex with others or with just themselves. Until monogamy is taken out of this arguement by the lobbyists who seem to think life is so white picket fence, you get no support from me.