If you haven’t already been paying attention, there’s something deeply concerning going on north of the border.
Queenslanders awoke today not only to find their hard fought civil unions scheme had been cruelly stripped back to a pet-like ‘relationship register,’ but the recently-elected Newman Government now has its sights set on abolishing recently passed laws to ban same-sex couples from having children through surrogacy.
This follows the complete gutting of the state’s HIV support organisation the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities, which also offered LGBTI Queenslanders the rare platform to seek support.
All this without once consulting the LGBTI community. For those who live in Queensland, the message is loud and clear – gays and lesbians in the Sunshine State are not equal, their relationships not worthy of the same respect.
Scarcely have we seen such gay rights reforms repealed in such quick succession in Australia. This should set off alarm bells throughout the country.
What is most concerning about the decision to downgrade the civil unions scheme particularly — and Premier Campbell Newman has admitted as much — is it was made solely to appease religious conservatives.
Last week the Courier Mail exposed internal struggles within the Liberal National Party, revealing a strong religious right hell bent on marking its territory. And they have done so, all over the LGBTI community.
All political leaders have to manage competing views within their party. But at the end of the day Newman is leader and this windback exposes his great weakness on this issue.
Many Queenslanders are now rightly asking: Why are the prejudices of a few allowed to override the fair and equal treatment of all?
The very plain answer is, conservatives Christians, with outdated views, are pulling the strings.
Last night a group of furious protesters inside parliament chanted, “Shame, bigots, shame” from the gallery.
They were later removed but their outrage was palpable. And so is mine. This is not just a decision that affects Queenslanders.
Taking away people’s access to fair and equal treatment is something that affects us all. We should not remain silent on this issue.
Fascism is alive and well and ruling in Queensland!
We all knew this before the election- why did you vote for him? I guess it was ‘not voting got Anna’. Well, punishment doesn’t work. I can’t understand why QLD voters would vote LNP to punish Labor.. vote Greens, or Socialist Alliance or something else.. Newman didn’t really hide the fact that he’s anti-gay, art and environment.
Why are you all so surprised? You must have known something like this would happen. It’s cutting services, it’s removing civil rights, it’s doing nothing to improve the state. The way the Victorian and NSW governments have been going should have been a bit of a clue. That’s all conservatives are good at doing.
Devastated to be a Queensland right now :(
Totally appalled and disgusted in this bigoted idiot, cant beleive overnight we went from a civil partnership to being registered like an animal or a criminal….
Without being contrived “Taking away people’s access to fair and equal treatment is something that affects us all. We should not remain silent on this issue.” is abit palpable in my world.
More often than not the right to service, is not provided equally. The rights to treatment in specialist clinics are not provided fairly.
In my opinion, No ones rights have been taken away or stripped back for that matter, Its simply a government governing for the best of the majority.
I think to use the word fair and equal treatment with in the gay community is a bit rich even for me to stomach. Gay services are heavily subsidised and often an internal selection process about who is treated and who isnt treated.
Ashamed to call Queensland home.