It’s Time To Replace Unaccountable LGBTIQA+ Elites With Rainbow Democracy

‘It’s Time To Replace Unaccountable LGBTIQA+ Elites With Rainbow Democracy’ is an opinion piece by Just.Equal Australia Vice President and LGBTQIA+ activist Rodney Croome.

Who decided to spend tens of millions of dollars on a Pride Centre in one of the nation’s most privileged LGBTIQA+ communities (St Kilda), rather than smaller pride hubs across regional Victoria where they are needed much more?

Who decided to spend millions on an LGBTIQA+ history museum in central Sydney rather than on dozens of worthy queer history projects across the continent?

Who decided to spend millions on an LGBTIQA+ health “action” plan with hardly any actions, as well as more research when we know what the problems are, rather than provide ongoing, core funding for desperately needed, front-line LGBTIQA+ health services?

I have worked on LGBTIQA+ human rights for 35 years and I honestly can’t tell you who made any of these decisions.

I assume from unhappy experience that in each case it was one or two well-placed inner-city advocates and a couple of their government mates: the former gaining political points, the latter, inner city votes.

What I do know for sure is that each decision created resentment in chronically underfunded LGBTIQA+ regional communities, support services and history projects.

Growing inequality in the community

As acceptance of the LGBTIQA+ community grows so do the resources available to address the poisonous legacy of centuries of discrimination and stigma.

But our elitist and unaccountable way of distributing those resources has not changed.

When the resources available to us were minuscule, it didn’t matter that a handful of advocates and politicians decided who those resources went to.

But today that style is not only outdated, it’s dangerous because it concentrates immense power and influence in the hands of a tiny number of people.

At the same time as LGBTIQA+ people have become more equal in the eyes of the law and the broader community, inequality of power and influence within our own community is growing.

The temptations of power

I am the first to admit that no-one has ever voted for me or most of the people I’ve worked with.

We have been involved in small, LGBTIQA+ activist groups that formed around particular issues.

I know the value of such groups, especially when it comes to pioneering reforms no-one else is interested in.

But occasionally small groups I have been involved with, such as the marriage equality campaign, suddenly found themselves with unexpected influence and resources.

I have witnessed the temptations sudden influence brings, as well as the rationales for not sharing that influence.

Small groups of advocates tell themselves they are more agile and have more expertise.

They believe they are the ones who really know or care about what should be done.

If the small groups concerned are intimately connected to the LGBTIQA+ community that connection can keep them on track, even when money and influence come knocking.

But the sad reality is that it’s too easy for them to be co-opted and compromised in the absence of formal community accountability.

It’s too easy for them to settle for second-best, to go quiet on controversial issues, or to throw regional and outer urban communities, as well as bi, trans and ACE folks, under the bus.

Modelling rainbow democracy and democratic process

I left the marriage equality campaign when a tiny number of corporate CEOs took over in 2016 and it became almost entirely divorced from its community roots.

As a result, the campaign resigned itself to a plebiscite, championed discriminatory marriage legislation, and abandoned trans people and some regional areas.

Along with other community-based refugees from the marriage campaign, I helped create Just.Equal Australia.

Our emphasis has been on surveying the LGBTIQA+ community so that we know what its priorities are, including whether it accepts the skewed and compromised decisions the queer powers-that-be too-often either foist on us or resign themselves to.

But more is needed if everyday LGBTIQA+ people are to exert authority over their leaders, advocates and lobbyists.

Rainbow democracy means encouraging LGBTIQA+ people to expect a say over their future and to equip them with the skills to obtain and exercise influence.

It means creating new institutions and norms that allow them to hold those who speak for them to account and to ensure resources go to who needs them most.

It means advocates engaging face-to-face with everyday LGBTIQA+ people, not treating them as customers on a database to be spammed with fundraising emails.

It means creating a new generation of leaders whose mandate is from the LGBTIQA+ community, not from their governmental or philanthropic funders.

It means returning to a style of advocacy that represents the LGBTIQA+ community to politicians instead of managing the LGBTIQA+ community on behalf of politicians.

It means putting into practice the fundamental democratic principle that those affected by a decision should have a role in making it.

At a time when LGBTIQA+ people suffer increased attacks from authoritarian regimes around the world, LGBTIQA+ Australians should model democratic practice.

Let’s start by fostering democratic accountability in our own community.